An engrossing comic murder mystery set in a California spa town.
A New Ager must solve the death of his flawed guru in Heath’s latest murder mystery, the second in a series.
Alan Wright runs a spiritual center in the California mountain town of Eden Ridge. The House of the Universal Message is the culmination of three decades of Alan’s study of the teachings of the charismatic British guru Branden Frank, who has accepted Alan’s invitation to visit the center. At first, it seems a dream come true—even if Frank turns out to be a bit more of a womanizer and child support–dodger than Alan had anticipated. After all, as Frank himself says, “If we think of someone else as the Buddha, as a saint, we are deluded.” The dream quickly devolves into nightmare when Frank is found dead on the side of the road beneath the House. Police suspect foul play, but who could be responsible? The grandfather of one of the children Frank refuses to acknowledge or the man who offers a noncredible confession to the murder? Alan, who has solved a murder in the past, takes up the mystery with the help of The Little Red Hens, a five-woman fledgling detective agency that meets at the House. But not only is the local police chief out to get him and close the center, Alan must also tangle with an online conspiracy group called NotAGod that claims he’s a Satanist who abuses children. Heath’s polyphonic prose captures the many comic misunderstandings between the New Agers and reactionary squares who populate Eden Ridge. “For almost two hundred years, Eden Ridge has been a decent place to live,” the chief rails against Alan and his friend, spa owner Hank Tate. “Hard-working, God-fearing, tax-paying people live here. Then that goddamn crazy nudist, Tate, turned the hotel and springs into a refuge for drug-addled sex freaks.” It’s clear that Heath loves Eden Ridge, and the care with which he builds out the citizens and their intersecting arcs adds depth to this mystery.
An engrossing comic murder mystery set in a California spa town.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2024
ISBN: 9798986620466
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Nine Pines Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
SEEN & HEARD
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