A dramatic coming-of-age story with compelling racing scenes.
Fawley’s novel follows the journey of a young athlete who’s pursuing his dreams, despite all odds.
Fifteen-year-old Russ Clayton lives in the small town of Athens, Kansas, where he pursues his goal of becoming a professional runner. He’s been raised by his single father his whole life, and he doesn’t have the resources that other aspiring runners have. He does have a natural talent, however, which he uses in his part-time job as a courier. He manages to start a track team at his school, and his ability and drive lead him to attend more advanced competitions. When his father becomes ill, however, he defers any chance he might have had to attend the São Paulo Olympics. Later, Russ’ coach, Buck, refers him to a running guru and ex-Olympian, Brad Coy, whom Buck calls an “angry, old desert rat.” Coy’s unconventional training focuses on mental toughness as well as physical strength. Meanwhile, twins Mishka and Sergei Pushkin have been training from a very young age to represent Russia in the Olympics. Their trainer, Yuri Grimlov, was assigned this task by the Russian government to redeem himself for a doping scandal during a past Olympics, in which he competed against Coy. He trains the twins equally, but he gives one twin a pill to help enhance his performance. Russ thrives in his own training and qualifies for the summer games in Helsinki, where he faces off against the twins. Fawley delivers a novel that effectively develops serious themes of passion, privilege, and the importance of family and community. What stands out most, however, is the pacing of the energetic racing scenes, which are interspersed among quiet moments of loss experienced by characters on either side of the finish line. Readers will be invested in the characters’ emotional journeys, regardless of their personal interest in the sport. The novel also avoids common tropes that often bedevil other works of sports fiction.
A dramatic coming-of-age story with compelling racing scenes.Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9798987663165
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Green Writers Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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