A brisk, entertaining story of feuding youngsters and adults alike.
A string of crimes and accusations turns residents of a small Virginia town against one another in this sequel.
Twelve-year-old Billy Gunn has had more than enough adventure during his 1955 summer vacation. After braving an abduction and a sniper stalking the town of Highland, he and bestie Kent Clark just want to enjoy their freedom before seventh grade starts. But bullies won’t let that happen; they knock the friends around and take off on their bikes. Of course, the bullies deny stealing anything, sparking back-and-forth finger pointing, intimidation, and revenge-fueled attacks. Even Billy’s dad, who runs a garage and towing business, calls in his Army pals to help out. Meanwhile, Matt Cubley, Billy and Kent’s boss at Cubley’s Coze Hotel and Resort (where the boys wash guests’ cars), takes over the unexpectedly vacant office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney. He’s been a lawyer before, but now he’s facing numerous criminal cases, including murder, bootleggers, multiple shootings, and the racist beating of a local Black pastor. Much of the mess revolves around Big John McCulloch, who owns most of Highland and has the town cops in his pocket; his son is the much despised recently appointed chief of police, and his grandson is one of the bullies. Ultimately, the working-class townsfolk find themselves pitted against Big John and his loyal cronies, with a “class war” seemingly on the horizon. As Matt tries to solve the recent crimes, he, Billy, and Kent hope they can somehow ease the tension threatening to tear Highland apart.
Armstrong’s follow-up picks up right after A Serving of Revenge (2020) during the same mid-’50s summer. It has a surfeit of allusions to the preceding installment, such as Billy’s listing the bullies’ vicious assaults across both novels. These references are sometimes overwhelming, though readers new to the series certainly won’t be lost. Despite its length, this sequel keeps things popping; scenes bounce among the tweens and bullies, Matt in the courtroom, and locals engaging in gunfights. Immensely likable Billy and Kent will easily charm readers and win sympathy. Kent, for example, is awful at lying, as in his hilarious claim that he hasn’t seen someone: “I never saw him, not one time, and that’s the truth.” Other characters, however, are a mixed bag. Billy’s kindhearted mother dotes on both her son and Kent, constantly correcting Billy when he says “ain’t” or a double negative. Contrarily, his father is frighteningly violent; his arguments quickly turn physical, and he’s disciplined Billy with a much-feared belt against the back. No one, at least in this novel, really calls out this man on how he treats his young son. Armstrong zeroes in on the town in disarray; it’s more about the culmination of crimes than solving individual ones, such as unmasking a killer. There’s nevertheless some mystery, involving issues from a couple of missing people to the identity of the sniper who shot a child. The book ends with plenty of avenues for another sequel, which could very well see Billy and Kent in a classroom.
A brisk, entertaining story of feuding youngsters and adults alike.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hokey plot, good fun.
A business executive becomes an unjustly wanted man.
Walter Nash attends his estranged father Tiberius’ funeral, where Ty’s Army buddy, Shock, rips into him for not being the kind of man the Vietnam vet Ty was. Instead, Nash is the successful head of acquisitions for Sybaritic Investments, where he earns a handsome paycheck that supports his wife, Judith, and his teenage daughter, Maggie. An FBI agent approaches Nash after the funeral and asks him to be a mole in his company, because the feds consider chief executive Rhett Temple “a criminal consorting with some very dangerous people.” It’s “a chance to be a hero,” the agent says, while admitting that Nash’s personal and financial risks are immense. Indeed, readers soon find Temple and a cohort standing over a fresh corpse and wondering what to do with it. Temple is not an especially talented executive, and he frets that his hated father, the chairman of the board, will eventually replace him with Nash. (Father-son relationships are not glorified in this tale.) Temple is cartoonishly rotten. He answers to a mysterious woman in Asia, whom he rightly fears. He kills. He beds various women including Judith, whom he tries to turn against Nash. The story’s dramatic turn follows Maggie’s kidnapping, where Nash is wrongly accused. Believing Nash’s innocence, Shock helps him change completely with intense exercise, bulking up and tattooing his body, and learning how to fight and kill. Eventually he looks nothing like the dweeb who’d once taken up tennis instead of football, much to Ty’s undying disgust. Finding the victim and the kidnappers becomes his sole mission. As a child watching his father hunt, Nash could never have killed a living thing. But with his old life over—now he will kill, and he will take any risks necessary. His transformation is implausible, though at least he’s not green like the Incredible Hulk. Loose ends abound by the end as he ignores a plea to “not get on that damn plane,” so a sequel is a necessity.
Hokey plot, good fun.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781538757987
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
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