A plucky, engaging lead anchors this sweeping historical saga.
Weathers’ historical novel follows a young woman’s adventures as a Confederate spy.
The story begins in South Carolina in 1859, when 16-year-old Lorena McKenzie, already a stunning beauty, meets handsome West Point cadet Baron Callahan at the ball that opens her family’s annual horse sale. The story then jumps forward two years: Lorena’s overbearing, histrionic mother has moved to Baltimore; Baron is with his army unit in Texas; and her beloved father dies, leaving her in charge of the horse farm along with a second farm in Virginia, where she’s started a girls’ boarding school. She soon discovers that her father has left the property in debt, and unscrupulous bankers force the heartbreaking sale of his legacy. With the war between the states imminent, Baron resigns his commission to join the Confederate forces and Lorena is recruited as a spy. Her code name is Rain Crow, a southern nickname for the yellow-billed cuckoo whose cries often presage summer storms. Packing a pistol under her gowns, she flirts with Union officers while conveying secret messages, worries about Baron’s safety, evades capture, is stalked by a possible serial killer, and volunteers at a hospital for wounded soldiers. At first a wayward child, she blossoms into a savvy, compassionate, and daring young woman. Weathers’ 600-page tome is packed with enough characters and plot elements for two or three standard novels. Her writing is often vivid but sometimes uneven; items such as clothing and food are described with colorful, accurate historical detail, but the dialogue often features expressions that feel anachronistic (such as “snagged” for “obtained” and “comprende?”) and occasional plantation dialect. The treatment of slavery is ambivalent; it’s not always clear which servants are free (and of course, the protagonists are on the rebel side). Lorena’s voice is distinctive—she’s aware of her own beauty without being vain, capable of both sarcasm and tenderness, determined, and cool under pressure. The ending is satisfying but open-ended enough to permit a sequel.
A plucky, engaging lead anchors this sweeping historical saga.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Heart Ally Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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