A well-researched and convincing period whodunit.
A changing British social structure provides the backdrop for Stevenson’s mystery, set in 1919.
Set in the Cotswolds region of England during the months following the end of World War I, this tale focuses on Harriet “Harry” Green, a girl who’s been passing as a “stable lad” on the estate of baronet Sir Thomas Chandace Willingford for her entire life. After she discovers the bludgeoned corpse of Willingford’s steward, John Vanter, in the woods of the estate, her investigation reveals a number of secrets. She also discovers that the changes she has noticed on the estate since the war (“five horses in the stable instead of twenty…seven servants…at dinner instead of fourteen; one gardener and a boy…instead of five”) all signal the end of the “whole wretched system” of primogeniture. Harry’s motive for helping to bring the murderer to justice is partly self-interest. The exposure of the truth about her gender puts her at risk: “Bright stable boys are generally accepted by other men, whereas women…well, the wretched class system isn’t the only one that represses without meaning to be unjust.” But if she helps to solve the crime, perhaps she’d be “Somebody. A girl…whose brain and bravery had given her some say in her future.” Overall, Stevenson delivers a tight historical mystery that feels realistic and believable throughout. The author makes great use of the setting of the aftermath of the Great War, and the changing social structure effectively serves as an engine that motivates major characters’ actions over the course of the narrative. Her use of period patois (“You don’t plow a field in an aaternoon,” says Barth Goodwin, a local plowman) also helps to create a convincing portrait of England during a time of great transformation.
A well-researched and convincing period whodunit.Pub Date: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-57869-079-4
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Rootstock Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 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
SEEN & HEARD
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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