Not twisty or unexpected, but tense—and with a surprising sweetness in the relationship between the brothers.
The American debut from French writer Giebel is a solid if straight-ahead suspense novel about two brothers whom gross injustice seeks out again and again.
Léonard (his name a wink to Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men) is a large, powerful, sweet-tempered teen who’s relentlessly bullied and taken advantage of because of certain intellectual disabilities. Léonard was a foundling, discovered battered and bruised in a ditch and taken in at age 5 by kind, heartbroken Mona. The boy’s favorite keepsake is a postcard from Glen Affric, Scotland, where he’s been led to believe his brother, Jorge, Mona’s beloved elder son, lives. But Glen Affric is a cover story. Jorge has been convicted of two murders he didn’t commit, and for 16 years he’s been in prison, a status that has cemented the family’s status as shunned and despised outsiders in their town. On the day when Jorge is paroled, Léonard lands in prison himself, briefly but disastrously, after—not knowing his strength—he defends himself too vigorously and injures his tormentors. Léonard emerges from lockup psychologically and physically wounded, and he’s bewildered and upset to learn where Jorge has been. But the vulnerable brothers soon grow close, and as the horrors and injustices continue to mount, they grow ever closer. Jorge is on parole, under constant threat of being returned to prison if he loses his job or responds to the townspeople’s taunts, abuses, provocations. Framed for theft and fired once, he takes on lucrative illicit work and acquires, just in case, a bug-out bag, which he and Léonard bury in the backyard. The reader knows it cannot stay buried for long. Sure enough, Jorge is framed for another murder—of the woman he loves, a restaurateur he felt forced to break up with in order to spare her business and her reputation. The novel, a bit slow to launch, picks up major momentum around its midpoint, when the brothers kidnap a somewhat sympathetic cop and go on the run. The book, and the brothers, are headed to a destination and a denouement that seem predetermined, but Giebel delivers them and us to the rendezvous with some panache.
Not twisty or unexpected, but tense—and with a surprising sweetness in the relationship between the brothers.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9780063393929
Page Count: 720
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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
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
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