A beguilingly tangled web of family secrets and lies.
Long-buried truths claw their way to the surface in Coyne’s tale of love, heartbreak, and forgiveness.
Aiden, a retired university professor, quietly grieves the loss of his wife, Carol, and his estrangement from his adult son, Max. On the surface, Aiden lives—or, more accurately, lived—a picture-perfect life teeming with love, family, and success. But underneath that fragile surface are secrets that Aiden has never admitted to himself, much less to his wife and son. With the fateful bell of a computer notification, these secrets ricochet back into Aiden’s life in the form of an email from Meggie, a college student with whom Aiden had a fiery affair decades earlier. When Meggie reveals that she and Aiden share a child together, a daughter that resulted from an impassioned vacation in Italy, Aiden confronts the question, “What is the cost of unburying truths?” The identity of this mysterious daughter threatens to destroy what little is left of Aiden’s relationship with his son, who’s newly in love and reaching across burned bridges to seek his father’s support. Aiden, Max, and an enigmatic young woman—her identity as much a secret as her intentions—wrestle with the fallout of a choice made long ago. Gray days of grief and regret are stirred into a whirlwind of hidden identities, sinister crimes, and new truths as a broken family finds its way back together again. Coyne spins a twisting tale sure to entice lovers of family drama, mystery, and crime narratives. Every page seems to expose a shocking new detail, derailing readers who think they have it all figured out after parsing prose that’s heavy with exposition. The characters are titillating in their unreliability, perfectly exemplifying the theme of delicious distrust that bleeds through each chapter. While the work could benefit from certain tweaks, such as more buildup before a major revelation and a better balance between dialogue and inner monologues, Aiden’s story is thrilling in a theatrical sort of way, and it will keep readers glued to the page.
A beguilingly tangled web of family secrets and lies.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781509266562
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2026
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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