A rich portrait of a man and a town hanging by a thread, beautifully written and deeply felt.
A banker looking for second chances navigates the treacherous social currents of a small town in Montana in Petersen’s soulful novel.
Returning to his boyhood home of Harlowton, Montana, after alcoholism, womanizing, and an occasionally violent temper demolished his career and marriage in Bozeman, Chet Norem takes a job as president of the Harlo International National Bank and starts rebuilding his life. That’s not easy, given the numerous oddballs and schemers among the townsfolk. First among them is his boyhood pal Charlie Shinola, a loose-cannon cowboy whom Chet is always rescuing from scrapes, including a two-day bender that concluded with Charlie driving Chet’s truck into a deer (which left Charlie with a ticket from the game warden and a major repair bill). Further complicating Chet’s life are the bank’s majority stockholder, who constantly questions Chet’s decisions, and Chet’s lawyer, who secretly spreads malicious rumors about the deer crash to besmirch his client’s reputation. Chet’s also fighting a cold war with his cruel ex-wife, Jess (“You look...smaller than I remember,” she jibes), and trying to repair his relationship with his estranged son, Noel, a gay theater major and drug addict who believes that Chet is not his father—and is under the spell of a sinister artist. On the plus side is Lacey Dey-Lux, the multifaceted daughter of a wealthy rancher—she’s a southern belle, assertive businesswoman, and painter—who borrows money from the bank to build a riding arena; she and Chet begin a torrid affair, with Chet only somewhat perturbed by the fact that she’s married. Chet continues trying to shore up his family, friends, and business, but his moral compromises increasingly destabilize his situation and put his reputation as a steady financial pillar at risk, until tensions come to a head in a shocking eruption of bloodshed.
Petersen’s yarn feels like a sagebrush-flavored John Updike novel. It evokes the vast landscape of Montana cattle country, where even a banker must contend with winds and hailstorms, glittering but treacherous trout streams, and corrals knee-deep in manure. The labyrinthine narrative loops back and forth across generations of Harlo’s secret loves, vendettas, and hidden parentages, knotting the characters into intricate skeins of resentment and obligation. Chet is a tarnished but decent hero, a careful numbers guy with a yen for art and poetry stuck in mid-life, still grasping at sex and happiness but rueful and ruminative about his failings. (“He hadn’t hugged his daughter in several weeks, and he hadn’t spoken to his son in months. At some point, it dawns on a man that he just may never love again.”) Petersen’s prose luxuriates in pungent, pitch-perfect dialogue that banters obliquely around his characters’ conflicts—until it comes harshly to the point. (Confronted in flagrante by a jealous, knife-wielding boyfriend, Chet hears “the morning-after hacksaw voice of his lovebird waitress, the perfect tone and texture to convey her considerable wrath: ‘Lousy fucking chickenshit showing up here like this now…You stand back or I’ll blow you in half before you so much as nick a hair offa his ever-lovin’ ass.’”) The result is a superb modern Western, full of evocative detail and hard-bitten wisdom.
A rich portrait of a man and a town hanging by a thread, beautifully written and deeply felt.Pub Date: June 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781941052761
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Pronghorn Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
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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