An imaginative and immersive literary mystery.
A failed poet must solve a puzzle left by a famous poet of the same name in McLaughlin’s bookish mystery novel.
There are two women named Mary Irene Jones: One is a world-renowned yet reclusive Irish poet; the other—who goes by Mimi—is a decidedly nonfamous American poet 25 years Mary Irene’s junior. Ironically, Mimi now works as an adjunct professor at the same Philadelphia-area university where Mary Irene once taught. (Indeed, Mimi only got her job at said university because someone in human resources thought she was Mary Irene.) When a box of Mary Irene’s unpublished manuscripts arrives at Mimi’s house, then, she isn’t exactly surprised…though she is taken aback when a police detective shows up a few days later. It seems Mary Irene has gone missing—bank accounts emptied, car vanished, calls straight to voicemail—but she’s left a letter making it very clear that she wants Mimi, specifically, to “safeguard” her manuscripts “as [she] would [her] own.” The poems seem to hold clues to a mystery that Mary Irene wants solved—and not just the question of her whereabouts. With the help of the handsome detective Michael Quinn, Mimi must delve deeply into the verses of her famous namesake, attempting to figure out the inscrutable woman—and, along the way, to figure out herself as well. McLaughlin’s elegant prose weaves a neat literary mystery in which Mimi must bring her scholastic sleuthing skills to bear on Mary Irene’s enigmatic lines. “I turned the page and saw a date, also in MIJ’s handwriting: May 1, 1974,” Mimi narrates after perusing one piece of juvenilia. “She would have been thirteen years old, but that didn’t ring quite true. The words ached in a much older voice, carrying a weariness that seemed seasoned much longer.” Balancing the bookishness is the budding romantic tension between Mimi and Detective Quinn. This is a cozy mystery for those who love the printed word, one that cleverly plays with the relationship between author and reader and the division between literature and real life.
An imaginative and immersive literary mystery.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781951967130
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Celestial Echo Press
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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