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 When a box of Mary Irene’s unpublished manuscripts arrives at Mimi’s house, then, she isn’t exactly surprised…though she is taken aback when a police detective shows up a few days later.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
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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