A sharp, media-centric satire set in a rebellious America.
A comic historical novel chronicles the adventures of an 18th-century printer.
Boston, 1773. War with Britain is brewing in the Colonies, but that’s the last thing London-born Leeds Merriweather wants. Though his pride and joy is his newspaper, the New England News-Journal, most of the printer’s income actually comes from contracts he has with the British-appointed governor. When his partner gambles away a controlling share in the paper to the powerful Tory Clinton Murdoch, Leeds is pressured to turn his neutral News-Journal into a full-throated supporter of British rule. Just as he’s learning about his imminent editorial shift, he meets—and completely falls for—the beautiful Sally Hughes. The sex worker and patriot uses her position at the Flagg Alley Bordello to learn compromising tidbits about members of the British military and government. Sally and Leeds decide to hatch a scheme together. Using Sally’s contacts and Leeds’ press, they publish the anonymous Watertown Times-Forger, a tabloid airing the dirty secrets of Britain’s agents in Massachusetts. Leeds soon finds himself working both sides of the propaganda war, a member of the governor’s advisory committee by day and a rebel pamphleteer by night. It’s all well and good until the British decide to root out the culprits behind the publication—and hang them for treason. From the Boston Tea Party to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Leeds finds himself at the center of the tensions between the British government and the rebellious colonists. He and Sally must play their cards exactly right to help the American cause without giving themselves away. Luckily, Leeds is a newsman of extraordinary cunning and flexibility, but whether that’s enough to capture the hearts and minds of the reading public—or the affections of the feisty woman he’s working beside—remains to be seen.
Brill’s prose, as narrated by Leeds, is nimble and witty, revealing the opportunistic contradictions at work in the hungry journalist: “I didn’t mind Hancock’s politics for they made for good copy. But to describe…one of the richest and most politically active members of Boston” being “led to jail in irons would be something for which I would sacrifice my left pinky—my right pinky being needed to work the printing press.” This sequel to The Patterer (2013) is filled with the sort of cameos and alternate history tales that one expects from such a novel, and they are done well. But the real accomplishment is the way the author re-creates the media concerns of the audience’s own day—issues of bias, control, fake news, and sensationalism—within the context of events leading up to the American Revolution. Leeds tends to look after his own self-interest most of all, which both contributes to readers’ enjoyment and makes a compelling statement about freedom of the press. There are a few moments that are perhaps a bit too self-aware—Leeds ends up composing a rough draft of America’s founding document—but overall the book is a fun and satisfying read.
A sharp, media-centric satire set in a rebellious America.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9960834-4-7
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Black Tie Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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