An engaging and entertaining alternate take on a mammoth literary figure’s fate.
Squire imagines the murder of Charles Dickens in this historical novel.
The novel opens with Charles Dickens suffering a stroke while in the middle of writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood and dying in Kent, England. That’s all largely accepted as truth, but in this inventive and intriguing piece of historical fiction, the great British author is murdered, the victim of strychnine poisoning. When Dickens’ notes for Drood are stolen, retired bookkeeper and distant Dickens relative Dunston Burnett becomes convinced the two events are related. He begins an investigation that encompasses Dickens’ literary rivals, family, and others. During this investigation, running parallel to Scotland Yard Chief of Detectives Archibald Line’s inquiries, family secrets are uncovered, more murders are committed, and Burnett uses his relative’s unfinished Drood to lead him to pertinent information. All the while, Dickens’ beloved sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth, tries to protect his reputation from potential tawdriness as the world mourns his loss. A sweet secondary story, which eventually intertwines with the primary plot, depicts Georgina’s stableboy, Isaac, and parlor maid, Dulcet, falling in love. At the end of the novel, Burnett and Line are allies, so the reader may expect more exploits from the duo (“He didn’t know what the future held in store for him. Perhaps the tranquillity and solitude of a contented bachelorhood; perhaps another adventure in tandem with the iconic Archibald Line”). The novel is a delightful piece of reimagined history set against a backdrop of locations and characters that would make Dickens proud. It’s hard to tell where the history ends and the fiction begins in this twisty narrative (though the author includes a handy fact vs. fiction guide at the end of the book). References to many of Dickens’ works—including Oliver Twist, Bleak House, David Copperfield, and A Christmas Carol—and real figures from his life, such as Hogarth, his ex-wife, Catherine, and his girlfriend Ellen Ternan, are interspersed with fictional characters and storylines. All of it combines in an intriguing mystery, one worthy of one of the greatest writers in literary history.
An engaging and entertaining alternate take on a mammoth literary figure’s fate.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781685123581
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Level Best Books
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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