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
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 debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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