Appealing characters energize this well-written detective tale.
In this sequel, private eye Jack Fox juggles new fatherhood with chasing organ harvesters.
Jack learned he was a dad only six months ago when Enid Iglowski showed up at his door. Both he and his 17-year-old daughter struggle settling into their new, shared life. This may explain Enid’s anger issues, like clocking a bully at her Arizona school. While dealing with his daughter’s troubles, Jack takes on a missing person case. His new client, Layla Orlov, hasn’t seen her Russian mail-order-bride sister in nearly a month. In a concurrent plot, local police detective Bud Orlean gets a phone call on one of his “restricted work days,” as his heart disease has relegated him to part-time. He works a gang-style shooting, a crime scene trumped by what fills the victim’s car’s trunk—assorted organs, most likely for the black market. Bud soon realizes this organ-harvesting investigation has ties to Jack’s case. It’s hardly surprising that those behind these macabre crimes are dangerous, and they soon set their eyes on Enid. As if this weren’t enough for Jack to handle, his former lover and alleged serial killer Eve Hargrove hits him with a bit of blackmail. Evidently, she’s pregnant with their child while still behind bars and awaiting trial. If he doesn’t marry her, Eve vows to kill the unborn baby. Jack has a mind-boggling decision to make, all while trying to close his case and keep his teen daughter safe.
This follow-up to Gunning for Angels(2014) stars an indelible cast whose assumptions advance the plot. For example, Enid spots insurance forms on Jack’s desk and becomes convinced her dad has plans to kill her. It’s a humorously absurd claim that adults, especially her school counselor, take seriously. But it’s also indicative of the girl’s understandable fear of abandonment; she’s certain Jack will leave her. The father-daughter relationship is authentic, portraying challenging and endearing moments; Jack’s simple compliments (“You’re better than that”) have more impact on Enid than he knows or she’s willing to admit. Each character likewise has their share of strengths and weaknesses. Enid runs away from her problems but not when others need help, and hotheaded, promiscuous Jack proves a tenacious investigator. This melodrama-infused story isn’t a typical mystery; pieces of what Jack, Bud, and even Enid discover mostly fall into place without too much effort. Nevertheless, the trio of atypical detectives unquestionably faces cruel, frightening villains. Lewis builds nerve-wracking set pieces, and uses razor-sharp prose: “Behind the pretty brown eyes was a shade of cold calculation that Jack recognized all too well from the plethora of not-so-young-anymore moms looking for a bankroll.” In the same vein, the author doesn’t shy away from violent, sometimes grotesque imagery.
Appealing characters energize this well-written detective tale.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Cathleen A. McCarthy
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.
A chance meeting in a museum unlocks a long-closed door in a family’s past.
Of a piece with her last three novels—Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023)—Patchett’s latest explores the evolution of families over time, romantic secrets, and step-relationships, again giving these topics the wry and tender treatment that is distinctively hers. As it begins, Daphne Fuller’s attentive husband, Jonathan, notices that a man has been following them through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first they chalk it up to the fact that “old guys love [Daphne],” as she told Jonathan decades ago, a notion he has held onto "like a souvenir postcard from another era." But it turns out that, though Daphne doesn’t recognize him, Eddie Triplett is her former stepfather. Like the author herself, as recalled in her 2020 essay “Three Fathers,” Daphne has had three dads. Her biological father, a deep-sea fisherman named Buddy Zabriskie, left the family early; her current stepfather, Lucas Ekker, lives with her mother in retirement in Massachusetts. Ekker is an unprepossessing sort Abby met working as the publicist for his self-help books, Positivity!, Positively Positive!, The Positivity Workbook!, Positive Every Day!, ad infinitum. The man in the museum, Eddie Triplett, was also someone her mother met through her job in publishing, and once Daphne realizes who he is, she remembers that “[their] hearts were forever stitched together.” This is because Daphne and Eddie were in a serious car accident when she was 9 years old, after which her mother immediately divorced him and evicted him from their lives. The details of that accident—among them lies the reason the novel is named after a horse called Whistler—are gradually wheedled out of Daphne by her younger sister, Leda, a clinical psychologist in New York and a reliable source of insight on the narrative’s key issues. “‘You make it sound like I’ve been keeping all this from you, but I’m not,’ [Daphne] said. ‘Who goes through life thinking about what happened when they were nine?’ ‘It’s all people think about,’ Leda said.”
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780063511637
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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