An engrossing story that exposes past medical fraud at an astonishing level.
Cullity’s historical novel explores a dubious cancer hospital in the 1930s.
Della King is a nurse in Kansas City in 1939. Americans across the country suffer from financial hardships of the Great Depression, and Della is no exception. She journeys to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for what seems to be an excellent opportunity: She will work at the Baker Hospital, a place that claims “Cancer is Curable.” The hospital, founded by charismatic radio personality Norman Baker, thumbs its nose at cancer treatments approved by the American Medical Association. Instead of being subjected to invasive surgeries and x-rays, patients are put on a strict diet and given mysterious injections. While the hospital turns some who are “hopeless cases” away, the staff claims, prior to Della's arrival, that they have never lost a patient. Della is initially impressed; she is well-paid and seems to garner more respect as a nurse than she is used to. But things quickly go awry, and after a woman under Della's care dies, she begins to question everything around her. Are the people who leave the hospital actually cured? What is in those injections? Why all the apparent internal secrecy? The book builds on intriguing real events: Norman Baker was an actual person who engaged in medical quackery until he faced criminal charges. This novel makes a studied exploration of his methods and the environment that allowed such bunk to thrive. (Part of the appeal was the harshness of other cancer treatments; any alternative might be preferable to, say, having all of one’s teeth removed due to gum cancer.) Other considerations of the period are not as well fleshed out—there are occasional musings on the difficulties of being a single woman like Della, with one character commenting flatly, “Marriage doesn’t really help a woman’s aspirations, does it?” Such moments do not paint as lively a picture as that of the madman at the helm, willing to harm countless people for financial gain.
An engrossing story that exposes past medical fraud at an astonishing level.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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