An entertaining novel whose bewildering plot is redeemed by punchy writing and appealing characters.
A quickie Las Vegas wedding draws a gay British man into a web of skulduggery in Fanning’s mystery.
It’s 2022, and Kyle Macdonald, a 20-something schoolteacher and small-time actor in Manchester, England, is languishing after a breakup. He barely remembers drunkenly marrying a stranger during a Vegas vacation six years before, which his new husband promised to get annulled. Then Hollywood studio executive Carlton Dupree calls to inform him that he’s still married to famous director Aaron Biedermeier, who’s in a coma. As a result, he must fly to Los Angeles to address murky legal issues. Kyle soon learns that the director has been accused by reality-show has-been Judah Eisenhart of hosting sex parties involving underage actors. Aaron may also have a connection to Tim Larson, a 15-year-old actor who died of a drug overdose—and whom Kyle thinks he saw in Vegas. Afraid that he might be falsely accused of various crimes, Kyle gives his passport to the pale, reptilian Dupree to expedite divorce proceedings. He then meets Noah Winter, the director’s attractive fiancé, who attended the sex parties and was once Larson’s teenage lover. After someone turns up dead, Noah talks Kyle into taking a road trip to Georgia to see someone who may have evidence that will exonerate the schoolteacher. Their transcontinental drive in a camper van, in which they are serenaded by Billy Joel songs, allows their smoldering attraction to segue into dreamy kisses. Fanning makes his yarn overly complicated, with too many titular husbands who have no convincing reason to be married. Fortunately, the characters are well drawn—Kyle’s naïve self-deprecation plays off nicely against Hollywood glitz and sleaze—and the prose is vivid and fun: “Noah is…shirtless, as if posing for a magazine spread. He drank as much as me, so how come he looks fabulous, while only the blood of a newborn stands any chance of reanimating my broken body?” Readers will enjoy Kyle’s meandering quest for a love that outlasts a craps game.
An entertaining novel whose bewildering plot is redeemed by punchy writing and appealing characters.Pub Date: June 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781739290313
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Spring Street Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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