Morality clashes with greed and savagery on the American frontier.
A young man comes of age at the dawn of the California Gold Rush.
When 17-year-old Joshua Gaines, orphaned and fleeing a man bent on collecting a debt owed by his physician foster father, leaves St. Louis in 1849, he knows his road in life will not be easy. But even his worst imaginings don’t prepare him for the nightmare he’ll experience when he meets up in Independence, Missouri, with mysterious and sulfurous smelling Renard, formerly enslaved Free Ray, and three other men bound for Sutter’s Mill in California’s Sacramento Valley to seek their fortune in the newly discovered gold deposits there. Sauer efficiently portrays the danger and routine hardships of the small party’s 1,500-mile trek along with other emigrants without ignoring the harsh beauty of the American wilderness. But once the band reaches California, Joshua’s story grows even darker, as he forsakes his fruitless efforts to pan for gold to ally himself with what has been Renard’s plan from the beginning—to amass great wealth quickly by stealing it. Only occasionally lapsing into self-consciously literary prose, Sauer balances vivid scenes of violence and betrayal with glimpses of Joshua’s emotional turmoil as he’s drawn more deeply into Renard’s scheme, one that with each murderous theft transports him further from his dream of following his father into the medical profession. The young man’s conflict climaxes when he and the others encounter a religious community that brings him face to face with the depth of his transgressions. The ruthlessness of Renard’s gang becomes a metaphor for the history of White civilization’s westward expansion in the 19th century, but Joshua’s own journey concludes on a note that offers, if not full redemption, at least a glimmer of hope.
Morality clashes with greed and savagery on the American frontier.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-938235-79-5
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Hub City Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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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