by Nicholas Nicastro ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
The author continues his successful run of historical fiction with this thought-provoking crime tale.
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In this novel set in the early 1900s, one act tragically ruins the lives of two families.
Based on a true story, this work of speculative fiction explores the murder of Ella Maud “Nell” Cropsey, the attractive, 19-year-old standout of a large family of transplanted Northerners in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. After a breakup with Jim Wilcox, her longtime beau, Nell disappears. Some speculate that she ran off to seek her fortune in a large metropolis while others fear that she harmed herself. But after her body pops up in a local river weeks later, suspicion falls on rough-edged Jim. He mistakenly believes his innocence will protect him, oblivious to the lynch-mob mentality festering in his hometown. Jim gets convicted of second-degree murder because of the flaws in the prosecution’s case and is sent to prison for 30 years. But, throughout this process, the victim’s older sister, Olive, nicknamed Ollie, and her stern father, William, share a secret about Nell’s death, which they refuse to divulge even under oath. As a result, Jim is incarcerated for a crime that he never committed, eventually getting a pardon decades into his sentence. His health in decline, Jim stubbornly returns to “Betsy City” to start over. But there is no second act for Jim. Despite people trying to help him, he slips into alcoholism. Just before his death, Ollie tells him the truth, but there is little he can gain from it, save peace of mind. Nicastro’s (The Isle of Stone, 2016, etc.) clever drama centers on three people: spinster Ollie, taciturn patriarch William, and Jim, the man caught in their conspiracy. But another spectral presence throughout is Nell, whose joie de vivre almost succeeds in inspiring the inhibited people around her. There’s a palpable sense of opportunities lost because of her death at such a young age. In this well-researched book, Nicastro cannily reveals just enough about Nell’s death to make readers uneasy until just before the wistful conclusion. Nell is gone, but her death also effectively ends the lives of Jim, Ollie, William, and Mary, the sisters’ long-suffering mother. The author skillfully makes his point that one misdeed produces many victims.
The author continues his successful run of historical fiction with this thought-provoking crime tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Robinne Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2017
A fascinating, thought-provoking, genre-bending romantic read.
When Solène Marchand takes her 12-year-old daughter to a concert by the hottest boy band on the planet, she doesn't expect to fall in love with one of the singers.
Middle-aged art gallery owner Solène hasn’t dated since her divorce, but when her ex-husband buys their daughter and a group of her friends tickets to Vegas and a backstage concert experience, then backs out at the last minute, she steps in as escort. The five guys in the wildly popular English boy band August Moon appeal to women of all ages, but Hayes, the brains behind the group’s success, flirts with Solène at the concert meet and greet, invites them to a party after the show, then pursues her once she gets back to Los Angeles. He’s only 20 and he’s incredibly famous; his attention is flattering and heady. The two fall into an affair that’s supposed to be light and easy, but before long they can’t ignore their intense emotional attachment. Solène is hesitant to tell her daughter, but when she procrastinates, Isabelle learns about it through an online tabloid, which damages their relationship and leaves Solène open to censure from her ex. Then, once the affair goes viral, she experiences the darker side of Hayes’ fan base. What started out as a jaunty adventure turns into an emotionally fraught journey, and Solène must decide what she’s willing to risk for her happiness and what she won’t risk for her daughter’s. Actress Lee, who appeared in Fifty Shades Darker, debuts with a beautifully written novel that explores sex, love, romance, and fantasy in moving, insightful ways while also examining a woman’s struggle with aging and sexism, with a nod at the tension between celebrity and privacy.
A fascinating, thought-provoking, genre-bending romantic read.Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-12590-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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by Kathy Reichs
BOOK REVIEW
by Kathy Reichs
BOOK REVIEW
by Kathy Reichs
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