A diverting, intelligent fusion of black comedy and political thriller.
In this novel, people in a near-future world clash with a hateful right-wing group operating in Europe.
Jim, a nearly 50-year-old Londoner, first hears of the Nous Sommes La France while enjoying his retirement on a cruise ship. NSLF is a xenophobic organization that’s singled out the Mashubians, immigrants that hail from Ukraine and Belarus. Jim sees the extent of NSLF’s hostility in the French town of Le Rayol when an anti-immigrant demonstration turns violent. Meanwhile, travel journalist Jean-Pierre, whom Jim meets on the cruise, covers the Mashubian story for a right-leaning newspaper. It’s just a job, as his political beliefs are the antithesis of the publication’s. He makes the dangerous choice to infiltrate the NSLF, certain it’s up to something even more sinister than opposing immigration. The journalist winds up in Jim’s hometown, where hate-fueled We Are England rallies are soon on the rise. Demands of repatriation in France, Britain, and elsewhere spur riots as well as targeted assaults. Jean-Pierre struggles to unravel the two groups’ mysteries, including WAE’s enigmatic, never-seen founder. Tree deftly pairs humor with this novel’s hard-hitting commentary. A public speech on climate change, for example, blames some of the carbon dioxide emissions on “farting cows.” But characters against immigration are undeniably loathsome racists whose despondent message is akin to real-life groups around the world. Much of Jim’s first-person narration as well as Jean-Pierre’s corresponding letters to his love, Helen, teems with clear-eyed political discourse and rhetoric. The author also delivers an abundance of vivid passages, like this one about Jim’s early morning walk in France: “The small-hours light was mucky as dishwater, and the remnants of the night were on the narrow streets of the old town.” As the engaging story unfolds, a few surprises pop up, from something a scientist devises for the WAE and NSLF to a startling revelation involving the Mashubians.
A diverting, intelligent fusion of black comedy and political thriller.Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2022
ISBN: 9798366659079
Page Count: 369
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.
When one woman takes on another’s identity to uncover a crime, they both become suspects in a murder.
Aubrey Price and Camille Bayliss come from different worlds, only crossing paths because of the discovery that Camille’s husband, powerful lawyer Ben Bayliss, is hiding something terrible that affects them both. As the novel opens, Aubrey is driving Camille’s Range Rover, then teetering into a bar on Camille’s high heels, with Camille’s dress and credit cards and a wig that mimics Camille’s hair, pretending to be her because Ben tracks his wife’s every move and expenditure, and Camille wants to create a smokescreen while she sneaks into his office in search of evidence of that unnamed secret. But the scheme goes awry, and the women become each other’s alibis after Camille finds Ben murdered in their home. The first part of the book builds suspense and misdirection well, with Aubrey and Ben’s straight-arrow partner, Hank Landry, serving as first-person observers in some chapters while others track Camille. She’s a wealthy and privileged woman but not a happy one, stuck under the thumbs of her husband and her tyrannical father, Randall Everett, who pretty much runs their small Louisiana town. Aubrey was orphaned as a teen when her parents died in a car crash and has proudly fended for herself ever since, coming to depend on her four roommates, who have become friends. But as the cast of characters grows, it seems as if almost everyone in town has a motive for killing Ben, and the piling up of suspects and movements among different timelines can sometimes be confusing. And it all comes to a frustrating end when, after a whole school of red herrings, the solution to Ben’s murder arrives out of far left field.
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593834459
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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