A well-handled mystery with the appropriate twist at the end.
This latest installment in Greenwood’s John Pilate series shows us that a little town in Nebraska can be a hotbed of evil.
John Pilate’s life is a hot mess. He has PTSD, perhaps the result of childhood neglect and the many, many misadventures that followed. He aches to make things right with his estranged wife back in Cross, Nebraska, but he drinks too much, and right now, he is held prisoner in a sweltering shipping container in Key West (yes, he escapes). Off he goes to win back Kate, the wife. Pilate has a history in Cross. In fact, he wrote a bestseller about the violence visited on the town. People are getting shot again, and the acting sheriff, Jeremy Ryder, enlists him to help to sort it all out. Oh, and he has left a romantic entanglement back in Florida with Val, his boxing trainer. After all sorts of surprises and a full complement of weirdos, scary confrontations, and harrowing gunplay, peace of a sort returns to Cross, though nothing is ever certain in John Pilate’s world. Greenwood pulls many tricks from his writer’s satchel. One of the most appealing is Pilate’s inner voice, Simon, a “little boy, dressed up in a big boy costume,” which is akin to his conscience. And there is a real baddie whom we get to know as “Mr. Nice-Nice” for his favorite expression—he’s the creep who locked Pilate in the shipping container. Pilate is an unlikely hero. He’s no better than he should be and spends much of the time hung over. But he loves Kate fiercely and their two kids even more. There are some weak spots in the plot and some questions that have only vague or speculative answers, but the book also has a quirkiness and energy and snappy/snarky dialogue that keep things moving briskly. At book’s end, has Pilate finally found some sort of equilibrium? Is this a man who can learn anything? Or is this not the last of the Pilate series? Finally, another copy edit wouldn’t hurt.
A well-handled mystery with the appropriate twist at the end.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-578-30102-0
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Caroline Street Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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