A strong female lead stars in this riveting cross-genre tale.
In this debut novel, a Southern woman who spent her adolescence on her own tracks a killer.
Tina Brooks, raised by her great-aunt, is 6 when she finally meets her birth mother, Antoinette. “Twanie” had her daughter in high school—after a rich jock classmate raped her. Twanie becomes Tina’s sole caretaker and is a strict but protective mom. Shockingly, she vanishes with her current boyfriend when her daughter is barely a teen. Tina, who’s Black, is scared and alone until a few kindhearted adults come to her aid. Though still young, she perseveres both as a student and a hard worker. Tina is usually withdrawn but eventually befriends Denise, a co-worker. When her new friend unexpectedly dies, Tina suspects she was murdered. Surely her co-worker’s abusive boyfriend is the killer. But Tina has never met him, and though she knows his first name and that he’s a cop, the Richmond Police Department has no record of him. So she hunts a killer, with Denise’s noticeably handsome brother, Kennard, lending a hand and, perhaps, a romantic interest. Seay and her older sister, Coles, who died before publication, have written a superb coming-of-age tale fused with a solid murder mystery. Character development is top-notch; the narrative initially centers on Twanie, making her sudden absence truly poignant. Both she and winsome Tina endure tough childhoods and strive to be independent. The men aren’t quite as engaging, so neither Kennard nor another potential suitor seem worthy of Tina. Despite instances of violence and relentless hardships, this story is relatively buoyant. Similarly, the authors tend to describe people in diverting fashion, like Tina’s “intimidating” boss-to-be, a “Xena Warrior Princess with all white hair.”
A strong female lead stars in this riveting cross-genre tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9985576-5-6
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fine Grisham storytelling that his fans will enjoy.
A descendant of enslaved people fights a Florida developer over the future of a small island.
In 1760, the slave ship Venus breaks apart in a storm on its way to Savannah, and only a few survivors, all Africans, find their way safely to a tiny barrier island between Florida and Georgia. For two centuries, only formerly enslaved people and their descendants live there. A curse on white people hangs over the island, and none who ever set foot on it survive. Its last resident was Lovely Jackson, who departed as a teen in 1955. Today—well, in 2020—a developer called Tidal Breeze wants Florida’s permission to “develop” Dark Isle, which sits within bridge-building distance from the well-established Camino Island. The plot is an easy setup for Grisham, big people vs. little people. Lovely’s revered ancestors are buried on Dark Isle, which Hurricane Leo devastated from end to end. Lovely claims the islet’s ownership despite not having formal title, and she wants white folks to leave the place alone. But apparently Florida doesn’t have enough casinos and golf courses to suit some people. Surely developers can buy off that little old Black lady with a half million bucks. No? How about a million? “I wish they’d stop offering money,” Lovely complains. “I ain’t for sale.” Thus a non-jury court trial begins to establish ownership. The story has no legal fireworks, just ordinary maneuvering. The real fun is in the backstory, in the portrayal of the aptly named Lovely, and the skittishness of white people to step on the island as long as the ancient curse remains. Lovely has self-published a history of the island, and a sympathetic white woman named Mercer Mann decides to write a nonfiction account as well. When that book ultimately comes out, reviewers for Kirkus (and others) “raved on and on.” Don’t expect stunning twists, though early on Dark Isle gives four white guys a stark message. The tension ends with the judge’s verdict, but the remaining 30 pages bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.
Fine Grisham storytelling that his fans will enjoy.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9780385545990
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
This complicated gothic thriller of dueling spouses and homicidal writers is cleverly plotted and neatly tied up.
An unhappy British couple attempt to rekindle the magic with a weekend trip to a remote spot in Scotland.
How is she tricking me? Feeney, the author of Sometimes I Lie (2017) and His and Hers (2020), has trained her readers to start asking this question immediately with her puzzle-box narratives. Well, you won't find out here. Only the basics: Amelia's won a weekend getaway in an office raffle, and as the novel opens, she and her screenwriter husband, Adam, who suffers from face blindness, along with their dog, Bob, are miserably making their way through a snowstorm to a destination in the Scottish Highlands which is no Airbnb Superhost, that's for sure. A freezing cold, barely converted church with many locked rooms and malfunctioning electricity, the property also features a mysterious caretaker who has left firewood and a nice note but seems to be spying through the window. Both Adam and Amelia seem to be considering this weekend the occasion for ending the marriage by any means necessary—then Bob disappears. The narrative goes back and forth with first-person chapters by Amelia and Adam interleaved with a series of letters written to Adam on their anniversary through the years and keyed to the traditional gifts: paper, cotton, wood, leather, etc. There's also a rock and a scissors, referring to the children's game of the book title, which the couple use to make everyday decisions like "Should we stay together?" Offstage is the famous writer Henry Winter, whose novels Adam has made his fortune adapting; through several author-characters, Feeney weaves in sometimes-grim observations about the literary life. On meeting a sourpuss cashier at the rural grocery store: "The woman wore her bitterness like a badge; the kind of person who writes one-star book reviews."
This complicated gothic thriller of dueling spouses and homicidal writers is cleverly plotted and neatly tied up.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26610-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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