A tale from a promising writer that grabs readers from the very first line!
In Weiner’s Southern gothic debut novel, a Polish immigrant family struggles under a family curse.
Marcin Anderwald and his wife, Agnieszka “Aga,” are Polish immigrants trying to make a go of it in Texas Hill Country. When the Civil War breaks out and Texas throws in with the Confederacy, the Rebels hire Marcin for his carpentry skills. Enter Pvt. Augustus Brewer, a vicious excuse for a human being. Marcin is instrumental in sending Brewer on a fatal mission, and his body is grotesquely mutilated. Marcin, a decent man, is filled with remorse, having known that the lame Brewer would probably be killed. But here the Gothic starts: Pvt. Brewer lays a curse on the Anderwalds and their descendants. Their youngest child is killed by water moccasins. Soon after, Aga dies, but she becomes a ghost, a figure in white, fighting, as well as she can, Brewer’s evil, sensed as a black shadow accompanied by a horrible stench. And soit goes down through the decades. Marcin’s son Zacharias and his wife aren’t immune, nor is their son, John Marcin Anderwald, and his wife and children. Which brings us to the near-present and the danger of yet another generation. We can only hope that Brewer is now satisfied or exorcised. In Weiner’s debut novel, her characters are well drawn, often complicated, people; even the most flawed have backstories to help us understand them. The battle of good versus evil—Aga versus Brewer—is so well done that readers may find themselves half believing this unnerving tale, the mark of a really good ghost story. Here is Marcin being spooked by the dark shadow (and in a graveyard!): “A soft breeze began to stir again, shepherding a raw and menacing wail through the air.” There is so much to this book: good versus evil, really scary, spooky stuff (and let’s not forget the camels and the peafowl).
A tale from a promising writer that grabs readers from the very first line!Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781963452105
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Htf Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
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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