A bewitchingly dark tale, as emotionally engrossing as it is boldly unconventional.
In this novel, a troubled woman finds a cryptic note and photograph among her deceased mother’s effects and travels to Italy to solve a family mystery.
Juliet Barton’s life is “tanking,” as she bluntly puts it—her husband, Matt, leaves her for another woman; she is laid off from her job; and her mother, Ellen, suddenly dies. Juliet seems to be relying heavily on alcohol and prescription drugs to navigate her emotional distress. While perusing her mother’s possessions, she discovers some things that belonged to her uncle Henry—he was estranged from the family for years and died in a car accident in Italy in 1971. Tucked within an old pack of cigarettes, she finds a photo of what appears to be a mausoleum; on a piece of paper, she finds a name—Giovanni—and an address in Rosanera, Italy. On the back of the photo is an inexplicable note: “If I don’t make it back—third tomb, lower left.” Juliet becomes convinced that the note is a plea from Henry to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death, and she impetuously travels to Rosanera to accomplish precisely this, a mad undertaking made artfully plausible by Beauchemin. The author tells two equally engrossing tales—Juliet’s quest in Italy and Henry’s remarkable life. A talented filmmaker, Henry became best friends with rock star Jim Morrison, suddenly quit film school, and spent more than three years in Vietnam documenting the war. The plot is brimming with suspense—Juliet comes to suspect that Henry’s death was not accidental. Further, Beauchemin limns a lively account of America in the mid-20th century, a time of political radicalism and artistic experimentation as well as a reflexively traditional rejection of both. Moreover, she adroitly unravels this mesmerizing story, one in which the incredible is made to seem tantalizingly believable. This is a refreshingly original work of fiction, delightfully peculiar and unpredictable.
A bewitchingly dark tale, as emotionally engrossing as it is boldly unconventional.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2022
ISBN: 9798986549910
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.
It takes a quirky sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door murder.
The author himself or, more accurately, some version of him, walks the reader through a “gruesome murder” that occurred in a rural farming village. At the center of the crime is the wealthy Ichiyanagi family, including the widow Itoko and her five children. The “heinous crime” occurs in the evening after the festive wedding of eldest son Kenzo to schoolteacher Katsuko. Yokomizo, part narrator and part raconteur, liberally shares digressions such as the fact that his favorite British author is A.A. Milne, who wrote The Red House Mystery as well as the books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Written in 1946 but set in 1937 before the devastation of World War II, this is the first novel featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, the legendary detective who appeared in more than 70 stories by Yokomizo. If Yokomizo is the Japanese Agatha Christie, Kindaichi may seem the Japanese Hercule Poirot—although actually, given his unkempt hair and apparently distracted manner, he’s more a cross between Poirot and Columbo. Shrewdly, his entrance is delayed until midway through the novel, after the police have stalled and both the family and the reader are anxious for a solution. The narrator’s garrulous charm, in a mystery long on logistics and forensic clues but short on detailed character portraits or extended interactions, is a key to the novel’s success, leavening the more intricate pieces of the puzzle. Armchair detectives will welcome the helpful character list that precedes the story.
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781805336549
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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