An engrossing tale of an uncanny and sometimes frightening life.
Tragedy leads a woman back to her hometown and stirs up a lifetime of memories in Webb’s debut novel.
In the late summer of 1983, insurance underwriter Julie Cromwell loses her best friend when an electrical accident at a Milwaukee roadhouse pub kills Candice Wentworth and many others. Distraught, Julie quits her job, loads up a U-Haul, and heads for the “safe haven” of her parents’ New Jersey home. Along the way, scenes from her life replay in her head, including her days with her childhood companion Mandy Jo Boliver. Most of these are happy memories, as are the ones of a company vacation in Barcelona and Rome with Candice. But Julie recalls the miseries as well, from the unsettling incident that severed her friendship with Mandy Jo to a more recent reunion with an old acquaintance that quickly turned sour. Narrating, Julie skips over a few points (such as why and how she has a gun in her purse) before she more clearly reveals her life’s story. Webb wastes no time in establishing a multilayered protagonist; early on, Julie details a shocking thing she did when she was only 11 years old, which will disorient some readers. Born into wealth, Julie basks in negativity and isn’t fond of most people and activities. Through no fault of her own, she witnesses a lot of darkness, including the violence of Mandy Jo’s physically abusive father and Candice’s grim secrets. The first-person narrative seamlessly moves back and forth between the past and the ’83 present, showcasing Julie’s undeniable intelligence and wit—she describes Candice as “the bubbles” and herself as “the dark residue at the bottom of the glass.” While it’s apparent that she’s withholding information from readers, the story reveals all in an unforgettable final act.
An engrossing tale of an uncanny and sometimes frightening life.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798890223432
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Speaking Volumes
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.
Scottoline’s latest links her great love of Italy with her long record of female-centered crime fiction.
Julia Pritzker has a presentiment that something terrible is around the corner, but she never imagines just how terrible: When her husband, Philadelphia attorney Mike Shallette, tries to protect her from a man who grabs her designer bag, he gets stabbed to death before her eyes. Julia’s grief becomes laced with guilt when she realizes that her daily horoscope had predicted a calamity she’s now convinced she could have prevented. The news from Italian attorney Massimiliano Lombardi that his late client has left her millions in cash and an estate worth nearly as much again doesn’t comfort her, but it does provide distraction—especially since she’s never heard of Emilia Rossi and has no idea why she’s been chosen as her heir. Since Julia, adopted at an early age by a couple who’ve been dead for years, wonders if Emilia might have been her biological grandmother, she travels to Chianti in hope of recovering some of Emilia’s DNA. Unfortunately, caretakers Anna Mattia Vesta and Piero Fano have burned all of Emilia’s clothing and personal items on her orders, so there’s nothing left to test. Growing convinced that the stars are directing her and that her history is rooted in Emilia’s decrepit house, Julia turns down repeated offers for the property and resolves to secure evidence confirming the relationship between Emilia and her. Now all she has to do is protect herself from the shadowy figures tracking and following her and recover from a series of vivid, hallucinatory nightmares that seem to be the cost of claiming her heritage.
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781538769997
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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