A dramatic and often darkly humorous debut thriller.
In Skinner’s thriller, a candidate for an academic position in a Texas border town is kidnapped in Mexico.
William Quigley is an assistant professor at Bravo University, which is located just a few miles from the Texas-Mexico border. Tasked with escorting job candidate Minerva Mondragón during her on-campus job interview, Quigley’s eagerness to impress leads him to make a series of decisions that spiral out of control. Quigley picks up Mondragón at the airport and attempts to charm her with references to Graham Greene (“Just look at that terminal—tropical ramshackle. Total Greeneland!”). She suggests crossing the border for lunch in Mexico, and he agrees, even though he has misgivings. Minerva vanishes during the meal, having been abducted while searching for the restroom. Quigley returns to campus as Minerva tries to escape her captors. Skinner has crafted memorable leads in Quigley and Mondragón, whose stories unfold in alternating chapters. The supporting characters, including bored customs agents and disguised cartel lookouts, add to the narrative’s quirkiness. The novel satirizes academia but also delves into border issues, and though the work can be funny, it doesn’t shy away from the dark side of this subject, including the grim realities of human trafficking and the corruption of law enforcement. What makes the book especially powerful is its mix of tones as Skinner skillfully blends dark humor with dread; the absurdities of academic life—tenure-track interviews, awkward faculty interactions, petty departmental politics—stand in stark contrast to the danger unfolding in Mexico. The narrative remains tense from start to finish, avoiding any predictability or cliche. Skinner depicts the mechanisms of academia with the same gravity as cartel violence, suggesting that both are driven by power, ego, and a dangerous blindness to consequence. The novel’s pacing is energetic, drawing readers in with sharp wit and gradually revealing a much darker undercurrent. This is a novel that lingers after its final page.
A dramatic and often darkly humorous debut thriller.Pub Date: March 31, 2025
ISBN: 9798893750072
Page Count: 243
Publisher: Arte Público
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
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