A heartfelt, harrowing, and engrossing tale set during the Reconstruction era.
A historical novel focuses on a doctor’s apprentice in Illinois after the Civil War.
As in many of the penny dreadfuls Tom Slocum loves, his adventure starts with the arrival of a mysterious stranger in town. This man turns the teenager’s community of Sandy Ford upside down. Amid the turmoil, 15-year-old Tom discovers that the enemies of freedom may be in his own backyard—and that it often takes sharper skills to save a life than to end one. From the moment Dr. Robert Steele arrives on the Daisy Belleferry in 1871, Tom’s life is forever changed. Though admired for his healing skills, Steele fans the flames of controversy with his advocacy for peace and modern sensibilities in the Ku Klux Klan–controlled town. Recognizing Tom’s potential as a doctor, Steele makes him his apprentice, sharing his medical wisdom and introducing him to a broader world. But with this new knowledge comes danger, and Tom finds himself targeted by the Klan. When Tom’s father dies, a corrupt bureaucrat confines the teen to an orphanage that’s fueled by forced labor. Compelled to escape, Tom finds shelter with a Black family, reuniting with Steele and further stoking conflict with the local Klansmen. When the Klan’s leader is shot, Tom learns to set aside the ideals of a gunslinger and assume the mantle of a healer. Rife with examples of racism and religious hypocrisy, Raffensperger’s depiction of life in the post–Civil War Midwest may upend cherished notions of the freedom proffered by the American government of the time. Contextualizing these struggles against the backdrop of the brutality of war and its aftermath, the story calls into question the justification of systematized violence—extolling instead the power of education and true charity. But the author offers more than a thoughtful political story. Filled with excitement, intriguing medical interventions, and the triumph of forbidden love, the gripping historical adventure will delight readers.
A heartfelt, harrowing, and engrossing tale set during the Reconstruction era.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68235-519-0
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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