A Fourth of July weekend on Cape Cod takes a dark turn in a solid debut with a well-conceived plot.
In McMahon’s first novel, shocking events test the loyalties and moral convictions of neighbors at a popular vacation spot.
The Murray and Clarke families own adjacent beachfront properties on Seaview Road on Cape Cod and have summered there for decades. The two Murray children, 19-year-old Katie and 22-year-old Ryan, grew up playing on the beach with the three Clarke children, Amelia, J.J., and Eric. Eric, however, has become estranged from the rest of his successful, Instagram-perfect clan. Katie and Ryan work long hours at the exclusive Monomo Dunes Country Club, where the staff is an amalgam of affluent residents of Monomo, like themselves, and people from neighboring Worona, a blue-collar town that “sniffed the water but didn’t cradle it like its neighbor did.” The club employees socialize after hours, though the Monomo parents frown on too much interaction with townies from Worona, where drugs, particularly opiates, are a problem. After a family-friendly day of Fourth of July parades and games, hordes of young adults descend on nearby Greenstone Lake for some serious partying. The Murray parents are skeptical of the evening activities but trust their kids’ good judgment. After Katie witnesses a crime, she has to make agonizing and dangerous choices. From the onset, a malevolent aura hovers over the action in the form of intermittent musings by an anonymous narrator who has committed heinous acts and attempts to justify them. These interludes are often more effective in driving the plot and generating tension than the frequent anecdotes about incidental characters and attempts at social commentary. Some unnecessary thesaurus-happy diversions detract from the compelling action: A character’s fists are “aware of their thew,” and golfers play on a “tenebrous beach.” But the author often hits the right notes, such as when he describes a local kid’s accent as what “Alec Baldwin was shooting for in The Departed” or suggests the complex social dynamics of a friendly golf game. This suspenseful novel ultimately exposes the blighted underside of a divided locale.
A Fourth of July weekend on Cape Cod takes a dark turn in a solid debut with a well-conceived plot.Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-62576-8
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Some Other Time Books
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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