Miss of the vampire.
Foul play of a supernatural sort may be responsible for a string of deaths ascribed to suicide at a long-term-care hospital.
In this horror-mystery hybrid, a bestseller in South Korea, a detective named Suyeon arrives on the scene after a 74-year-old man has apparently jumped to his death from the sixth floor of Cheolma Rehabilitation Hospital—the fourth death by suicide at the facility within one month. Suyeon’s superior is inclined to believe that the notes the jumpers left behind are authentic, that the suicides were copycats and reflect the bleak environment of a long-term-care facility. But Suyeon has her doubts. For one reason, there’s been a curious absence of blood at the death scenes. And why has every jump been from the sixth floor? Also having her doubts is a woman Suyeon meets when she returns to the scene: “They were thrown,” the stranger says. “Picked up after they were already dead, or as good as dead, and hurled. Hard.” The woman is cagey but tells Suyeon her name—Violette—and that “I put away bad guys too.” And she’s going to need Suyeon’s help. Chapters from the point of view of the colorless Suyeon, “a believer of cold, hard facts,” switch off with other perspectives, including that of an adolescent Violette as she is introduced to the vampire world; these overheated passages, set in the 1980s, can read like juvenilia. The rigorous logic characterizing the mystery novel is pointedly and playfully at odds with the irrationality of supernatural fiction, and the payoff potential heavily favors horror fans. Although there’s a deftly pulled-through thread about loneliness and some interesting philosophical riffing about a vampire’s justifications for murder, everything is harbored in a story in which events proceed pretty much as expected.
Miss of the vampire.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781639735761
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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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