A moody gothic tale that deftly explores gender fluidity in a genre setting.
In this historical mystery, an intersex detective attempts to save her unrequited love from execution.
Canada, 1868. Alex O’Shea really wants to be a detective but instead works as a journalist and novelist, authoring mysteries to satisfy his crime-solving urges. While on assignment in Ottawa, he encounters a woman dressed in black who seems not to know where she is despite having lived all her life in the town. Mary Baker is kept as a veritable prisoner in her house by her own relatives, and the smitten Alex feels compelled to discover more about her. Eliza Malkins works as a printer for a Kingston newspaper, where her male co-workers ridicule her large size and resent her for doing “a job that rightfully belonged to a man.” She has feelings for Alex but fears to act on them due to her secret: She has both male and female sexual organs. When the death of her mother finally allows her the opportunity to try something new, Eliza decides to live as a man named Timothy Fairlight. As Tim, she aids Alex in his ever-more-obsessive investigation into the lives of the Bakers until, in an ironic twist of events, Alex becomes the suspect in a murder. Now Eliza—or rather, Tim—must assume the role of sleuth to prove Alex’s innocence. Smith’s (Deep Bright, 2013) prose is delightfully ominous, creating a gothic atmosphere that adeptly recalls the novel’s Victorian setting: “The street was deserted. The tall houses seemed to be leaning over to conspire with each other. He stepped in horse manure and used a pocket handkerchief to wipe it off. He risked walking under a streetlight to read his pocket watch, 11:58.” The identity-shifting Eliza makes for an intriguing hero with desires that are simultaneously familiar and complex. While the other characters mostly hew closely to their archetypes, the story is satisfying in the heightened way of a good whodunit. In the author’s capable hands, Ottawa and Kingston have never seemed so mysterious.
A moody gothic tale that deftly explores gender fluidity in a genre setting.Pub Date: April 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4754-6
Page Count: 300
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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