An engaging drama that will keep readers guessing.
In Lockehart’s novel, when an FBI agent’s widow tries to purchase an old Victorian mansion, she runs up against thieves, con men, and murderers.
Miriam Wheatley is looking to start anew in a small, quiet town in Virginia. After rejecting several properties, she meets again with her real estate agent, Charlie Holmes. They arrive at the final house on his list, an old mansion that needs work but has lots of potential. It has not been lived in for eight or nine years since the previous owner, George Sherwood, died. Dozens of stray cats seem to have made their home on the 9-acre property and in the surrounding woods. Miriam is entranced with it all—this is exactly what she wants. She makes an offer on the spot, and after a price is agreed upon, Miriam writes a check for the deposit. But trouble is brewing; someone begins following Miriam in a pickup truck, and someone else takes a shot at her. When she returns to her hotel, she discovers a man in her room. It is the same person she noticed at the cafe who appeared to be watching her. Enter Scott Morgenstein, an FBI agent who partnered with her deceased husband, Phil, who was killed in action. Coincidentally, the house Miriam wants to buy is located in an area that has been under FBI scrutiny for a variety of financial misdeeds. When dead bodies start to appear, things really heat up. Lockehart’s complicated murder mystery places Miriam at the center of an increasingly expanding web of evildoers. Attempted murders, dead bodies, and a frightening kidnapping episode build the excitement (the tension is occasionally relieved by a budding romance between Miriam and Scott). The easy-flowing prose is detail oriented: “Carved woodwork adorned the fireplace with a custom-tiled interface and a massive marble mantelpiece that proudly introduced it to anyone who entered.” Lockehart has a tendency to repeat facts and details, but the twisty plot, featuring plenty of surprises and some remarkable treasures, ensures the narrative moves at a good pace.
An engaging drama that will keep readers guessing.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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