This intriguing novel suggests that it’s impossible to go wrong when Mark Twain is entertaining an audience.
A legendary author weaves an improbable tale of revenge in Laurence’s debut historical novel.
That author is Mark Twain, who, in this narrative, regales his fellow passengers aboard the Mississippi steamer Gold Dustwith the tragedy of Karl Ritter, whose wife, Sarah, and daughter, Emily, are killed by a trio of burglars in their Arkansas home during the Civil War. Karl and his brother-in-law, Josef, develop an outrageous plan to exact revenge upon the three men after determining they’re likely hiding among the Confederate soldiers bivouacking in the nearby town of Napoleon. The only clues they have are a bloody fingerprint on a receipt and the knowledge that one of the intruders is missing a thumb. Karl takes on the persona of “Sigmund the Seer,” a fake fortune teller who uses tarot cards and fingerprinting as investigative tools. Josef transforms into Texas horse trader “Joe,” who drinks with soldiers to gain intel for Sigmund. They infiltrate Napoleon and, aided by Wilma, a young sex worker with a heart of gold, they eventually identify the killers. Their mission of vengeance doesn’t go exactly as planned; how truly wrong it goes doesn’t become clear until the twist ending. The author deserves much credit for spinning a riveting yarn that has the feel of a lost work by Samuel Clemens. He brings to life such diverse elements as the Confederacy in wartime and a bizarre German funeral ritual, which somehow seem to fit together. Laurence effectively spreads the narrative over several time periods, ranging from Twain’s steamer ride in the 1880s back to the Civil War as Twain relays Karl’s tale of woe through the years. Karl and Josef are a sturdy, engaging foundation upon which to build (“ ‘I thought all Germans are strong swimmers!’ Karl exclaims. ‘Not in Lower Saxony!’ Josef offers, as an explanation”), as these two good men are conflicted throughout their crusade to execute Sarah and Emily’s murderers, and the surprising conclusion of their tale leaves a lasting impression.
This intriguing novel suggests that it’s impossible to go wrong when Mark Twain is entertaining an audience.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
