A smooth balance between mystery and history.
A cryptic posthumous letter sends a New Yorker on a cross-country and trans-Atlantic treasure hunt.
Stephens’ latest mystery centers on a 27-year-old son’s discovering a secret his poetry-loving dad, who earned his living by occasionally breaking strangers’ arms for not paying their gambling debts, took to his grave. In the early 1960s, John “Blackie” Rinaldi’s son discovers at a young age that his dad works for the mob. Now, more than six years after Blackie met an early death, his widow calls their son to retrieve a box containing photographs and medals from when Blackie served in France in World War II. Also included is a letter he wrote to his son that hints about “something really big in the works” that only he, his buddy Benny, and an unnamed friend know about. Blackie’s son flies to Las Vegas to meet Benny, who doesn’t divulge the “big” deal but does reveal that the other friend mentioned in the letter is Frenchman Gilles de la Houssay. Benny suggests: “See if you can find Gilles, see if he’ll talk to you.” The scene shifts to France, but not before Blackie’s son meets beautiful, blue-eyed Donna on the plane home from Vegas. The plus of meeting her is followed by the negative of discovering his apartment was broken into while he was away. Someone, possibly a relative who is a “certified scumbag of the first order,” was hellbent on finding Blackie’s letter. The culprit wanted a piece—or more—of what its contents would lead to. Told in the first person, this engaging mystery is both plot- and character-driven. Moving from past to present is deftly handled, and the mystery presented seems both plausible and intriguing. Love of family, albeit a flawed one, is key. Blackie has a loving wife and a sweet, if sometimes contentious, bond with his son, whom he plays poker with. The historical fiction element concerning World War II adds depth to the story, as do thought-provoking takeaways, such as this observation by Blackie’s son: “An old friend once warned me that ‘catching up’ is the death knell of a relationship. When all you’ve got to talk about is how other people are doing, it means you have nothing in common anymore.”
A smooth balance between mystery and history.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64293-738-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.
Two struggling authors spend the summer writing and falling in love in a quaint beach town.
January Andrews has just arrived in the small town of North Bear Shores with some serious baggage. Her father has been dead for a year, but she still hasn’t come to terms with what she found out at his funeral—he had been cheating on her mother for years. January plans to spend the summer cleaning out and selling the house her father and “That Woman” lived in together. But she’s also a down-on-her-luck author facing writer’s block, and she no longer believes in the happily-ever-after she’s made the benchmark of her work. Her steadily dwindling bank account, though, is a daily reminder that she must sell her next book, and fast. Serendipitously, she discovers that her new next-door neighbor is Augustus Everett, the darling of the literary fiction set and her former college rival/crush. Gus also happens to be struggling with his next book (and some serious trauma that unfolds throughout the novel). Though the two get off to a rocky start, they soon make a bet: Gus will try to write a romance novel, and January will attempt “bleak literary fiction.” They spend the summer teaching each other the art of their own genres—January takes Gus on a romantic outing to the local carnival; Gus takes January to the burned-down remains of a former cult—and they both process their own grief, loss, and trauma through this experiment. There are more than enough steamy scenes to sustain the slow-burn romance, and smart commentary on the placement and purpose of “women’s fiction” joins with crucial conversations about mental health to add multiple intriguing layers to the plot.
A heartfelt look at taking second chances, in life and in love.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0673-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Jove/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
PERSPECTIVES
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