A page-turning tale that takes an unexpected journey through law, history, and retiree living.
Wade offers an offbeat legal mystery set in a retirement community.
At the story’s outset, 96-year-old Matthew “The Professor” Collins is recently deceased. He earned his nickname for having written a New York Timesbestseller about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The “Meck Dec,” as it’s often called, is a fabled document, allegedly signed in North Carolina in 1775, that declared independence from England before the Declaration of Independence of 1776. But although the existence of the Meck Dec is up for dispute, Collins’ death is not—nor is the fact that his beloved granddaughter, Lori, seems to have been mysteriously removed from his will. Collins’ best friend and fellow Independence Retirement Community resident, Chuck Yeager Alexander, suspects something is amiss, but he knows little about what it takes to contest a will. Enter new “Indie” resident Craig Travail, a recently retired trial lawyer. He and Yeager—along with the smart and practical Harriet Keaton, another resident—band together to help Lori. This caper ably combines such unlikely material as retirement community complaints, courtroom technicalities, and a disputed historical document that’s nonetheless referenced on North Carolina’s state flag. The tale drags a bit at the outset; for instance, early on, Yeager explains his various nicknames for Indie residents to Travail (such as “Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell the Third”), but they aren’t particularly funny or inventive. Things pick up, however, after the legal maneuvering kicks into gear. A contested will might be an age-old plot device, but this narrative gives it an uncommon and engaging level of scrutiny. The courtroom scenes are similarly compelling, as tension builds with every witness called to the stand. Later events take some wild, action-heavy turns, but it’s the rule of law that brings out the best in Travail and his gang.
A page-turning tale that takes an unexpected journey through law, history, and retiree living.Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7363055-8-4
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Lystra Books & Literary Services, LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2022
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
