A shrewd, elegantly paced novel about the dangerous bargains that people strike in pursuit of oil, money, and absolution.
A Texas oil team’s business trip to Oman unravels in James’ slow-burning corporate thriller.
The novel begins with an eerie midnight death in Oman’s Rub’ al Khali desert, a scene that hums beneath the surface of everything that follows. One year later, Olivia Stevens, the only woman on a Houston-based energy-company team, flies to Muscat with her boss, Daniel Hernandez; his business partner, Nick West; and Nick’s son, Neil, to finalize drilling rights for Block 19. What should be a celebratory victory lap instead becomes a complicated clash of egos and ethics. Their Omani liaison, the charming Qasim Al Shanfari, is all warmth and ritual hospitality, but Olivia’s journal entries reveal her doubts about his motives. The team’s interactions with their potential partners, which include the imposing Fatin Zadjali and his brothers, Salim and Bahir, showcase the potential dangers of underestimating local power. As meetings drag through the OmaniMinistry of Oil and Gas and yacht parties blur business with temptation, the tension coils tighter until Olivia discovers a hidden partnership agreement that links Qasim and the Zadjalis, exposing a network of deceit that could sink them all. James tells this tale with cinematic clarity. The desert’s heat shimmers off every page, boardroom talk crackles with menace, and even a cup of cardamom coffee feels loaded with ritual: “Olivia has learned that her cup will continue to be refilled until she gives it a little wave.” Alternating between brisk third-person scenes and Olivia’s more intimate first-person reflections, the work balances suspense with introspection, taking a close look at how professional ambition can corrode personal integrity. Although the middle chapters occasionally linger on procedural negotiations, the payoff is rich: a meditation on power and the price of survival.
A shrewd, elegantly paced novel about the dangerous bargains that people strike in pursuit of oil, money, and absolution.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9798991952002
Page Count: 352
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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