An outlandish, well-crafted tale of history and mystery in New Orleans.
A novel in which a family discovers a mysterious inheritance in New Orleans.
As Biggio’s novel opens, stalled author Rory Blas is opening up an old New Orleans mansion his wife Tess inherited from her grandmother Emma Darling. He’s visited by bustling neighbor Lucy Pearl, hears all about local soothsayer Madame Cassandra, and learns a bit about both the house’s designer, Bradish Johnson, and also about Emma Darling herself. As he’s settling himself and soaking up the local atmosphere (“The food sizzled, and so did the gossip,” readers are told. “Rory overheard talk about someone who was looking to have a voodoo curse removed”), he’s in steady phone contact with his wife, Tess, and his daughter, Christine, back in Philadelphia, but his efforts to clean and straighten the old house before they arrive are complicated by odd portents and mysterious dreams in which he’s told, “The key to the treasure is the treasure,” a line the writer recognizes from John Barth’s novel Chimera. In a steadily complicating plot, Rory learns of a connection between Emma Darling and mysterious items from the past, including a pendant only bestowed by royalty to royalty. As Tess and Christine arrive, these arcane plot threads multiply and become more bizarre, expanding to include not only the FBI, but both King Arthur’s Round Table and End Times prophecy. Rory, Lucy, Tess, and an assorted cast of secondary characters are drawn into a deepening mystery connected with the long-buried secrets of that old house. Along the way, Biggio fills her story with generous amounts of New Orleans fact and lore (including the obligatory veiled reference to novelist Anne Rice), so readers can learn about the scene of this mystery right alongside Rory and his family. But does the past hold any dangers for them in the present?
It’s an intentionally crowded, even overstuffed plot structure, and Biggio does a remarkably adroit job of keeping it all evenly balanced and steadily moving. She has a very good ear for dialogue and leans into this talent by letting the cast’s conversations carry the majority of the weight of many scenes. All the players in her tale have distinct voices, which not only helps to keep the intricate plot lines untangled, but also allows her the luxury of making a great many of her people unlikable without sacrificing their three-dimensionality. Rory in particular dominates most of the narrative without ever coming close to being sympathetic, and many of the book’s New Orleans natives exude Deep South sensibilities without coming across as either rubes or stereotypes. She confidently deploys the twists and turns of her outlandish The Da Vinci Code—style plot gimmick, with its trail of international breadcrumbs leading to the significance of the Order of the Thistle. This plot superstructure of long-buried secrets that could shed new light on the past is carefully mingled with romance subplots that bubble and simmer just on the right side of melodrama. At one point, Rory feels the need to tell his Southern-born wife that “not everything was moonlight and magnolias in Dixie,” and although he has a specific wake-up call in mind, the broader sentiment applies to the bulk of the novel, which gives readers a portrait of New Orleans that’s every bit as colorful as the legend.
An outlandish, well-crafted tale of history and mystery in New Orleans.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9798369446928
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Xlibris US
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.
A sequel to The Grey Wolf (2024) that begins with the earlier novel’s last line: “We have a problem.” And what a problem it is.
Now that Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his allies in and out of the Sûreté du Québec have saved Canada’s water supply from poisoning on a grand scale, you might think they were entitled to some rest and relaxation in Three Pines. No such luck. Don Joseph Moretti, the Sixth Family head who ordered the hit-and-run on biologist Charles Langlois that nearly killed Gamache as well, is plotting still more criminal enterprises, and Gamache can’t be sure that Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff, who’s been cozying up to Moretti in order to get the goods on him, hasn’t gone over to the dark side herself. In fact, Gamache’s uncertainty about Evelyn sets the pattern for much of what follows, for another review of one of Langlois’ notebooks reveals a plot so monstrous that it’s impossible to be sure who’s not in on it. Is it really true, as paranoid online rumors have it, that “Canada is about to attack the U.S.”? Or is it really the other way around, as the discovery of War Plan Red would have it? As the threats loom larger and larger, they raise questions as to whether the Black Wolf, the evil power behind them, is Moretti, disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Marcus Lauzon, whom Gamache has arranged to have released from prison, or someone even more highly placed. A brief introductory note dating Penny’s delivery of the uncannily prophetic manuscript to September 2024 will do little to assuage the anxieties of concerned readers.
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328175
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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