Strange characters and situations abound, but never quite live up to their zany potential.
In Guise’s novel, a pair of twins avenge their murdered father, starting a chain reaction of off-kilter events taking readers to hell and back.
In an unnamed town in the late 20th century, the local butcher’s apprentice, Danny Pigou, decides to kill the butcher to earn money and status for his family—most notably for his twin sons, Rory and Charles. Danny’s plot, however, only results in his own untimely death, and about 20 years later, the twins head into the butcher’s shop looking for revenge, and they get it; however, they’re spotted by local busybody Mrs. Bumblewood. The next morning, Charles goes to purchase an expensive abstract painting by rising artist Benjamin Klumpp, who mostly spends his days thinking about the things he hates most about women and relaxing in his bathtub. Soon, the often-drunk police detective Boyle is on the twins’ trail for the butcher’s murder, forcing them to seek refuge at the remote farm home of their dear murderous Aunt Bev; meanwhile, the butcher they murdered arrives in hell, where he’s just in time for tea and poker. The events in Guise’s novel flow chaotically, with characters popping in and out of the twins’ orbit, often with violent results. It all leads to a lively manifesto on life by the Devil himself. In the end, Guise’s story falls somewhere between a violent Coen Brothers movie, such as Fargo (1996), and Eugène Ionesco’s absurdism. It often feels as if new characters wander, lost, onto the page, make some strange announcements, and then awkwardly retreat. However, despite all the madcap fun and humor these surreal situations could offer, the proceedings frequently lack energy and don’t follow through on their bizarre premises. (Even a character’s beheading comes off as a mere detail, rather than a shock.) The butcher himself describes it best, while reflecting on life as nothing more than, “a series of disjointed happenings and accumulated waves.”
Strange characters and situations abound, but never quite live up to their zany potential.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781777959838
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Bear Skin Bob Press
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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