An enthralling blend of mystery and SF with a striking hero.
In this 1950s-set, SF–infused novel, a physicist discovers a personal connection to the otherworldly object he’s investigating.
The CIA doesn’t know what to make of the old wreckage of a domed container, possibly a cargo pod. Someone unearthed it near the Nevada Test Site, making communist-hating America fear the Russians have been up to no good. Answers may lie with a metal disk found inside the container and with four sets of coordinates marking areas surrounding the wreckage. Dr. Frank Sartori of the Atomic Energy Commission scours Western desert landscapes for each location. What he discovers sparks wild theories, such as the pod is extraterrestrial and carried a now-missing passenger. But it’s the strange symbols on the disk that the physicist finds truly spellbinding. They’re identical to the ones on the aluminum attaché case of his uncle, the man who raised him and cryptically asserted that they both were “not of this world.” Working with Bob “Bobcat” Babcock, a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sartori aims to unravel the mysteries of the pod, which is seemingly capable of creating energy from magnetic fields, and deciphering his bizarre link to it. Costanzo’s story deftly drops assorted puzzles at Sartori’s feet. Along with his AEC investigation, he must deal with his dreams, which teem with inexplicable images (for example, an unknown man at a bus stop), and his uncle’s abrupt disappearance. The tale is generally easygoing, as the protagonist doesn’t face sinister forces. But he does struggle to trust people, even immensely likable Bobcat and a local newspaper reporter named Kate Wilson who doubles as a potential romantic interest. The author couples a measured pace with vibrant prose, such as nuclear tests producing “a glowing orange sphere inside of an iridescent, billowing gray cloud.” Costanzo also aptly infuses real life into the narrative, from people constantly worrying about atomic bombs and radiation to characters mentioning famous baseball teams and players and TV series. The superb ending resolves some of the questions that readers will be asking.
An enthralling blend of mystery and SF with a striking hero.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-578-33953-5
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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