A dogged thriller with political bite.
A world of hurt envelopes veteran war photographer Joseph “Fearless” Nightingale and a brutalized young Cambodian woman, Song, as both seek to overcome tragedy.
It’s the late 1990s. Fearless, a Black Londoner who passes for white, has flown to Cambodia to deal with ghosts. He’s reeling from the murder of his father, a revolutionary-minded professor, who was shot at the end of a visit with Pol Pot, and from the death of Fearless’ romantic partner and unborn child in a car crash. Song, 18, a product of poverty and negligence, has been enslaved by a sadistic brute in an apartment from which she has not been allowed to step outside for three years. Shocked to learn that her twin sister, Sovanna, from whom she was separated years ago, is alive and being held in a nearby building, Song stages an escape and attempts to rescue her, armed with Molotov cocktails—only to have her sister vanish behind the flames. Having had his self-pity doused and his empathy awakened by his brief encounters with the courageous Song, Fearless finds her and joins her in a search for Sovanna that takes them through a criminal underground that springs bad surprises. A Russian expatriate who Fearless thought was a friend turns out to be a ruthless arms trader who was involved in the horrific abuse and murder of trafficked children. Herat recalls Robert Stone with his themes of morality, redemption, and uncrossable cultural boundaries. The dizzying narrative, which for long stretches circles around basic plot elements, sometimes loses focus. But in capturing a place and state of mind in which corruption is viewed as “the only breach against chaos,” the London-based, Sri Lanka–rooted author has given us a book that won’t be easy to forget.
A dogged thriller with political bite.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781632063670
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Restless Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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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