A well-balanced drama about memorable lovers and their uncomfortable secrets.
Cacoyannis offers a literary novel about love and infidelity in London.
Harry Wood is an English painter with a secret. Every Wednesday, he meets a woman he knows only as Lina at a hotel in Paddington in central London; the two have sex and have no interest in a relationship of any sort. What complicates matters is the fact that Harry is married to Max Steffe, the man who helped launch his successful career as an artist. Max comes from a wealthy family and is known for “wielding influence and enormous power over practically anyone and everyone who wanted to be someone in the Arts.” Harry loves Max, but it hasn’t stopped him from secretly carrying on his weekly affair for almost two years. One of Harry’s most popular paintings is of an unhoused man he knows who calls himself Gregor Horak and has an affinity for the work of Franz Kafka; Harry and Max help to get Gregor back on his feet and to achieve his dream of becoming a famous writer. They also help a friend of Gregor’s, a budding artist who goes by the name Slimboy. Things take a turn, though, when Harry gets jury duty for a murder trial. By chance, Lina is assigned to the same jury, and Harry learns from another juror, musician Jefferson Stone, that Lina is a famous documentary filmmaker. A guilty Harry stops seeing Lina, but he wonders how to break the news of the past affair to Max; to make matters even more complex, he also finds himself starting to have feelings for Jefferson. However, it soon becomes clear that his relationship with Lina may not end as easily as he thought.
Cacoyannis’ narrative focuses on Harry, who narrates the tale as he navigates the strange circumstances in which he finds himself. The story is most compelling when he discovers new facts that throw his assumptions into disarray—such as when he finds out new information from a clerk at the hotel where he has his trysts with Lina, or when it becomes clear that the first time Harry met Lina may not have been an accident. Although the novel has a fairly large cast of characters, the author effectively distinguishes each of them with small details, such as Jefferson’s hand tattoos or Lina’s penchant for the novel Lolita. However, for a narrative that involves so much deception, the novel has a tendency to repeat things that readers already know. For example, when Harry and Lina set up their first rendezvous, she explains that “There’s this hotel I know. Out of the way. Very discreet. I could meet you there next Wednesday afternoon if you like”—although, by this point in the story, readers already have intimate knowledge of every detail of the Wednesday schedule. Nonetheless, readers will find themselves slowly becoming invested in what will happen to these disparate people—who, after all, will wind up with who? Such questions keep the story alive and moving, all the way to its conclusion.
A well-balanced drama about memorable lovers and their uncomfortable secrets.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2025
ISBN: 9798306638409
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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