An offbeat and memorable tale of one man’s will to doggedly pursue a just quest.
Cowan’s literary novel tells the story of a very unlucky lottery winner.
John Peoples is a 41-year-old divorced man who works in sales for Western Telecom in Los Angeles. He lives in a one-room apartment in a converted garage—the nicest place he can afford, given his alimony and child support payments. When John splits the cost of a lottery ticket with his loathsome boss Ed White, it seems like nothing much will come of it. But the lottery ticket only costs a dollar, and the top prize is some $40 million. Why not take the risk for 50 cents? Ed keeps the physical ticket, and John writes down the winning numbers in his sales book. As luck would have it, the ticket is a winner, and naturally, John would like half of the winnings, as agreed. Of course, Ed is not an honorable person, so trying to extract the prize will be no easy task. Ed does everything he can to stay away from John, who tracks him down regardless. During the ensuing car chase, John crashes his vehicle, which sends him to the hospital with a spinal cord injury. While he’s recovering, he speaks with an attorney. It turns out that John may have a case—not only against Ed, but also against the California Department of Transportation (or “Caltrans”). After all, Caltrans gets sued “all the time for negligence and the injuries they may be responsible for.” But the case against Ed could come down to circumstantial evidence, and it’s unlikely to be a simple matter.
John digs deep to find the strength to right the wrong that’s been committed against him. His life may have been significantly altered by his accident, but his adventure doesn’t end in a hospital room; indeed, it’s not even limited to Los Angeles. The novel’s excitement stems not from its restlessness but from seeing what unpredictable moves John will make next. It may seem impossible that he could ever get justice from “a real douche” like Ed—but John proves to be a man of unrivaled determination. When John tells Ed directly, “I will follow you to the ends of the earth if I need to,” readers will wonder if this will really be the case. Such direct comments are surprisingly bracing and effectively help to move the story along, but readers will mainly come to appreciate John’s relatable openness as he shares his observations, his worries, and even his offhand complaints: “I truly did love Los Angeles, and I truly do. I just wish it were quieter and cleaner.” As bizarre as John’s story may be, he himself is a relatable figure whom many readers will be happy to follow, whatever might befall him. Meanwhile, Ed is a suitable villain, and someone who clearly has failed to learn “compassion and the golden rule.” Who will come out on top? Readers do find out the answer, but only after the affable protagonist leads them through a twisty tale. An offbeat and memorable tale of one man’s will to doggedly pursue a just quest.Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798897470884
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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