An engaging and expertly paced mystery that blends aviation, intrigue, and a hint of romance.
In this novel, a savvy female pilot becomes an unlikely detective after a murder disrupts a routine mission.
Cassie Deakin, a clever and capable pilot, has no patience for charm or distraction—especially not from attractive men like Frank White. As Cassie tells readers from the start, “I do not like handsome men. Not that I have much experience with them, but in my opinion, they’re self-absorbed and untrustworthy.” But when she’s forced to fly Frank, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent–turned–deputy sheriff, to her Uncle Charlie’s farm, Cassie finds herself swept into a tangled web of violence, secrets, and long-buried truths. What begins as a grudging job quickly turns into a perilous investigation when a body is found on the property and her beloved uncle is gravely injured. The stakes rise with eerie swiftness: The dead man “was lying on his back with his arms splayed out and a big, ugly hole in his chest. There was a lot of blood.” With law enforcement baffled and tensions rising, Cassie—supported by an endearingly rough-edged biker friend and a protective gelding named Old Dan—reluctantly steps into the role of sleuth. In this series opener, DiBianca crafts a winning protagonist in Cassie: fiercely independent, dryly humorous, and disarmingly human. Cassie’s narration is brisk and laced with sharp wit: “I scowled back. ‘I can take care of myself.’ I brushed a lock of hair out of my face. ‘All I want is a hot shower.’” Emotionally charged yet never melodramatic, the tale moves quickly through short, punchy chapters that maintain tension and momentum. Action sequences are vivid and immersive, balanced by Cassie’s reflective moments: “I was empty inside, like some big alien had sucked the organs out, and all that was left was a hollow shell.” While the plot relies on some familiar genre beats—hidden valuables, rural conspiracies, and red herrings—DiBianca keeps the story engaging through colorful characters, snappy dialogue, and unexpected moments of warmth. The relationship between Cassie and Frank simmers just below the surface, filled with barbed flirtation and unresolved tension. Cassie’s journey from a lone pilot to an invested investigator gives the story its heart, even as the mystery unravels with satisfying twists.
An engaging and expertly paced mystery that blends aviation, intrigue, and a hint of romance.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781735788876
Page Count: 235
Publisher: Wordstar Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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