A military thriller with slight characters and high stakes.
The U.S. and China square off at sea in Bultema’s debut military novel.
U.S. and Malaysian naval forces are conducting joint military exercises in the South China Sea when, out of nowhere, a Chinese destroyer appears alongside them. The ship ignores warnings to keep its distance, instead sending back its own ominous message: “Attention, all military vessels, this is Chinese territory. China has sovereignty over these islands. You are in violation of our region. The Chinese government demands that you leave the area immediately.” The U.S. and Malaysian ships retreat, and no guns are fired…for the moment. It’s clear that it’s only a matter of time, however, until China’s increasingly aggressive tactics lead to open war. As sailors across the American Navy prepare for conflict—from a lowly recent Annapolis graduate to the president of the U.S. himself—China’s top officials believe that a decadeslong goal is finally within their reach: the conquest of Taiwan. This will require them to launch what one Chinese general calls “our version of Pearl Harbor”: the complete neutralization of the American Navy through the use of hypersonic glide missiles. Can American forces scramble fast enough to preserve their domination of the seas, or will this hot spot boil over into the next world war? Bultema’s prose is as straightforward as the characters who populate his pages, like the typically stoic Captain John “Hard Ass” Samson: “Like a shark who never stops moving to stay alive, the captain of the Nimitz was highly uncomfortable being tied up to land…No, he preferred the open seas where the big carrier was most at home and could use its horsepower to outrun almost any threat.” The cast is large—and, to some extent, interchangeable—with less focus on individuals than on the hardware and protocols that govern their lives. This is a book for true military buffs, for whom the deadly dance of two superpowers requires little ornamentation in terms of interpersonal relationships or psychological drama.
A military thriller with slight characters and high stakes.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 423
Publisher: P.D. Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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