A harrowing, evocative drama about the ravages of war and the power of compassion.
An idealistic surgeon must face the horrors of the Vietnam War and his own limitations in this first novel by Collins.
In 2017, intern Megan Parker treats a man with a steel bar in his chest who, remarkably, is not only conscious, but also a doctor himself; he even assists with his own triage care. In a parallel story, an inmate and former lawyer named Wesley Underwood Tillinghast reflects on his time with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. Both stories shed light on the life of Lt. Matthew Barrett, a gifted surgeon drafted into the Vietnam War in 1967 who’s easily set off by the deaths of his patients and the cruelty of his captain. Soon, the gruesome realities of war begin to break Barrett, and only a blossoming romance with a nurse allows him to endure the senselessness. But as the war drags on, he finds himself questioning not only the value of practicing medicine, but of living at all. After tensions with his captain erupt, Barrett is court-martialed, ending his service. The traumatized man returns to an inhospitable United States for a time, until fate brings him to a Biafra relief camp. There, he hopes to rediscover what initially drove him toward medicine. Collins’ novel is a gut-wrenching and expertly wrought drama, plunging readers into the atrocities of war as well as offering uplifting moments of human connection. The prose, though occasionally long-winded, features lush and sometimes-upsetting imagery, as in this passage set in a Vietnam operating room: “They know now, these shattered young men, and the knowledge hemorrhages from them, drips down the side of the table….They, too, have learned there is no preparation for war, no defense against it, no vocabulary for it, and ultimately, no survival from it.” The accounts of Barrett’s treatment by enemy combatants, his corrupt superiors, and his own demons are visceral and poignant, but amid all the sorrow, the author never strays from his commitment to reveal empathy as a core tenet of a doctor’s work.
A harrowing, evocative drama about the ravages of war and the power of compassion.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5255-9839-5
Page Count: 286
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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