Kellerman fans will love this one.
Father and son Kellerman collaborate on the fifth Clay Edison PI adventure.
On Northern California’s Lost Coast, the executor of a woman’s estate needs help sorting out some curious monthly payments the deceased had been making. Having no luck with one private investigator, she asks Oakland ex-cop turned PI Clay Edison. Soon the original PI, Regina Klein, bawls him out in bleep-worthy terms for horning in on her case, but they form a temporary alliance to solve a complicated plot that’s rife with peril. It looks like someone is running a real estate scam on an isolated location on the Lost Coast called Swann’s Flat. A narrow and dangerous road twists and turns to the destination, and Clay sideswipes a teenage cyclist on a hairpin turn. The girl, Shasta, doesn’t blame Clay for her minor injuries, and she becomes a key in a story that’s peppered with vivid descriptions: Clay sees “the Pacific Coast baring its teeth. It was a crude, ax-hewn land, bunched like the front end of a head-on collision.” And Regina is one of an abundance of well-drawn, entertaining characters: She has a gift for acting and easily switches from garbage-mouth to sweetness and light as the situation calls for. As a pretend married couple, they go to Swann’s Flat and let a B.S. artist named Beau try to sell them property in this “private residential community”: “Find your heart on the Lost Coast!” Clay checks in frequently with his real wife, Amy, who’s at home with their two kids. He even consults with her on how much risk he should take; they are a loving family apparently devoid of flaws. Meanwhile, a one-hit-wonder novelist can’t be found, and another young man is missing. Years earlier, Shasta’s dad had fallen into oblivion off a cliff so high you couldn’t hear the thump at the bottom. Maybe it was an accident or maybe not. And maybe Pop won’t be the cliff’s last victim. Crisp, witty dialogue zips this well-paced story along so that when violence happens, it comes as a shock.
Kellerman fans will love this one.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780525620143
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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