A measured and engaging tale of how calamitous a grudge can be.
In Andrae’s novel, a filmmaker’s quiet life is upended when someone from his past makes an unwelcome return.
Forty-something Wolfgang “Wolf” Barnes is a writer/director whose output has been sporadic over the years. After losing both of his parents to illnesses, Wolf moves into their Florida home in an enclave called Wanderley Creek. He doesn’t necessarily need a job right away, as he has an inheritance, so he has the time and the funds to put together his own Blu-ray—a collection of his “best stuff to date” from various films he’s made. Wolf befriends his new neighbors, a slightly older woman and her punk-fashionable daughter, Maisy. He and Maisy get particularly close, despite a 15-year age gap. Lenny Medway, on the other hand, is someone whom Wolf would much rather avoid. He starred in one of Wolf’s films years ago and later went to prison for involuntary manslaughter and drug possession, among other charges. Now Lenny’s out on parole and working at an Italian restaurant in Chicago. One would think that he’d want to steer clear of trouble, but it doesn’t take much coaxing for Lenny to join a co-worker in a scheme to score some cash—and in a way that’s definitely not legal. Around the same time, Lenny, by sheer chance, hears that Wolf—one of many people he blames for his prison sentence—is in Florida. After the ex-con sends an unnerving message to the filmmaker, Wolf feels the need to warn Maisy and her mom—but is Lenny really brazen enough to drive south and violently confront Wolf?
Andrae presents a leisurely narrative that lingers on such things as Wolf grooming himself in the morning; it also provides the fully detailed plot of one of his films. Wolf is primarily an easygoing guy who’s happy to work on his Blu-ray project, and Lenny isn’t even a factor for a good portion of the novel. Lenny, on the other hand, initially leads a surprisingly mundane, post-incarceration life, but as he gradually returns to his old ways and his loathsome behavior, chaos seeps in; it’s clear that if Lenny seeks out Wolf, that same chaos will seep into other people’s lives as well. As a result, the unsavory antagonist is the most intriguing character; among other things, he plots a crime with his co-worker and has business cards printed with a false name (a “low-cost accessory” to earn him “credibility with strangers”). As the narrative rolls along, more of Lenny’s past comes to light, and he becomes an increasingly unsettling presence. He also regularly finds himself in tense situations; one memorable scene features Lenny, his parole officer, and the manager of the halfway house where Lenny is staying: “The three of them didn’t speak as the testing kit absorbed the saliva. With rapt attention they watched the fluid climb upward. It was so quiet that a mouse in the corner of the room munching on the remnants of a Triscuit would have been heard.” The final act, which promises an inevitable clash, yields a worthy payoff.
A measured and engaging tale of how calamitous a grudge can be.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798905041532
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Kaji-Pup Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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