A delicious concoction: two shakes Agatha Christie and a cup of Great British Bake Off.
Six contestants. A big white tent on the grounds of an aging estate. It’s a bake-off...in Vermont? And the winner might just be the one who survives.
Hannah. Gerald. Pradyumna. Lottie. Peter. Stella. These six bakers are selected to compete in the 10th season of Bake Week, a TV show filmed in the mountains of Vermont at Grafton Manor, the family estate of cookbook legend Betsy Martin. Betsy has been successfully hosting the show and judging the baked goods of amateur American bakers for 10 years; this year, however, a few things are different. First of all, the producers have insisted on appointing a co-host designed to appeal to a younger audience, a male chef known for his hard-as-nails critiques on another cooking show as well as his million-dollar smile. Second of all, at least one of the contestants is not who they say they are. Once a body is found, dripping blood into a cake—don’t worry, no one eats it—it’s clear that someone has taken the competition a little too far. There's a delightful balance of baking details and intrigue as the bakers compete through different challenges and we become privy to their secret motives and how far each is willing to go to win. The contestants hit all the character types: the beautiful ingénue, the neurotic scientist, the fluffy old woman, the bored millionaire, the anxious newbie, and the rustic craftsman. We are treated to their backstories and to some of their internal dialogue, but this is a novel that also rests comfortably, nostalgically, in its sense of formula. Despite the American setting, it’s not hard to imagine these characters creeping around the halls and grounds of a moldering British manor in the tradition of the best locked-room mysteries.
A delicious concoction: two shakes Agatha Christie and a cup of Great British Bake Off.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-6680-0800-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 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
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