A head-spinning carom of a book, and a lot of fun amid all the blood and mayhem.
In which Richard Nixon meets a soon-to-be-dead woman in a “commie safe house,” and a strange game is afoot.
Ellroy always packs a tremendous amount of detail and a large dramatis personae into his potboilers, and this one is no exception. In his third novel to star Freddy Otash—criminal turned police officer, unredeemed dope addict and boozer, and all-around bull in a china shop—Ellroy turns in a loopy narrative full of real-life criminals, cops, and other figures from LA history, including Daryl Gates, Dalton Trumbo, H.R. Haldeman, and Nixon himself. The setup: the Cuban Missile Crisis has just passed, and an ambitious Robert Kennedy—“Ratfuck Bob Kennedy,” Otash calls him—has ordered up a Red Scare to divert attention from the news that Marilyn Monroe has died in a scenario with unpleasant hints of connection to both himself and his brother, the president. Enter “SHIT—the Sheriff’s Handpicked Intelligence Team” and Ellroy’s players are soon pulling dossiers on half the city, including Nixon, who, it soon develops, “is embroiled in a horrific sex snuff.” Said snuff involves two Communist Party stalwarts who ratted out Alger Hiss to Nixon and were dispatched following a failed shakedown, killed, perhaps, by four very bad brothers who “were big priest-killers and nun-rapers during the Spanish Civil War.” That war isn’t the only conflict to be evoked; one attorney on the make hopes to revive Mexico’s little-known Cristero Rebellion to wreak vengeance on the anti-clerical Reds. As if all that weren’t enough, Ellroy populates his yarn with the likes of a strung out Hugh Hefner, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping (and an appearance by Charles Lindbergh himself), commies turned into John Birchers, and musical cameos by Quincy Jones and folk singer Judy Henske. The upshot? Kvetches Otash, “Richard Nixon still owes me thirty grand.”
A head-spinning carom of a book, and a lot of fun amid all the blood and mayhem.Pub Date: June 9, 2026
ISBN: 9780525656814
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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