An engrossing crime tale that would make a lean and mean movie.
In this debut novel, the events leading up to the brutal murders of a ranch foreman and his wife unfold through a variety of viewpoints.
“Something bad” has happened on the ranch of Sam Duff, “the big name T.V. broadcaster and part time rancher.” The bodies of foreman Luke Pruitt and his third wife, Deona, have been found in a manure pit while their two children, Leeland, 14, and his preteen sister, Karmen, are missing. Chapters of Burns’ compelling book alternate between Deputy Rob Greenwood’s investigation and the perspectives of the principals and participants involved in the case. These include the ill-fated Luke, who, like his father, Payton, was “meaner-than-shit” and made Benedict Cumberbatch in the film The Power of the Dog look like Roy Rogers. Linda Pruitt, his mother, was “a genuine ranch woman,” whose Ranching Weekly column contained such homespun (and posthumously ironic) wisdom as “Cowboys expect a lot of their families because they expect a lot of themselves,” and who met an unfortunate end. Most heartbreakingly, there is Luke’s abused son, Leeland, who admits to his school counselor that he does not want to be a cowboy. But haunting the narrative is the communal “We,” one voice that guiltily confesses, “We’d seen it coming, and stood by watching it the way we’d watch a dry storm approach across flat land—always thinking we had more time.” This bruising story is less a murder mystery than an unflinching look at a culture and community. Burns writes with a vivid sense of place and ranch life. Dialogue is effectively terse. “I wouldn’t treat my livestock” the way “Luke and Deona Pruitt treated that boy,” one character remarks. Evocative descriptions add rich grace notes (“Only a clarinet could have mimicked the sadness of that boy’s voice”). There are a few positive adult characters who offer compassion and a helping hand, but there is little respite for readers, which may make it hard going for some. As Luke growls at one point, “This is no tea party.”
An engrossing crime tale that would make a lean and mean movie.Pub Date: May 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63988-366-0
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 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
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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