A remarkable protagonist leads a robust cast in this absorbing tale of self-discovery.
In this dramatic mystery, a teenager stuck in her small New England town takes a closer look at her brother’s fatal car accident.
Jordan Hawkins gives up a full scholarship to stay on her family farm in Asheville, Connecticut. The recent high school graduate puts college on hold, as she’s not sure her parents can handle the farm work without her. It’s only been a month since they lost Clay, Jordan’s older brother, who drove a truck with friends Tim Hatch and Tony Barbo into a tree—likely the result of drinking. Jordan becomes withdrawn and does little more than work at a factory and tend to the cows at home. But she does take some solace in Tim’s cousin Win Hatch, a former Asheville local who graduated from high school over a decade ago and now lives and works in Maine. There’s a chance their physical relationship could turn into something more, but then Jordan learns of Win’s somber past. He’s a recovering alcoholic who’s reputedly served time behind bars. As if that weren’t enough, Tony’s mom files suit against the Hawkins family and demands a much greater settlement than the farm insurance will cover. Townsfolk blame Clay for the others’ deaths, but Jordan has questions: How fast was he driving to cause the truck to burst into flames? When she finally investigates the accident, she somehow links it to an old toxic waste dump site. This shines a light on Asheville’s sordid history and stirs up secrets that some people don’t want unearthed.
Although mystery surrounds the truck accident, Davis’ character-driven story centers on its young protagonist. She’s resilient and sympathetic. Jordan denies herself time to grieve while Tony’s mother and even her own parents seem to forget she’s lost her brother. Jordan’s life gets more complicated later when she faces an important decision that, regardless of anyone else’s input, she must make on her own. The author effectively steeps the narrative in metaphors and analogies, from Jordan’s search for imperfections in bottles at the factory to the book’s title—a real-life place and anomaly in which cars in neutral ostensibly roll uphill. The simple, arresting prose is similarly inspired. Here, Jordan listens at her feuding parents’ bedroom door: “She waited there, crouched until her legs cramped and the cold settled into her bones. She heard her father snoring and her mother weeping, and she went back to bed, but she saw the sky change to a melon color before she fell into an uneasy sleep.” Supporting characters enrich Jordan’s tale and display distinctive personalities, including not-always-likable Win and environmentalist Eugene Martin, who’s keen on a fern species on the Hawkins property. While this cast propels the story, the understated mystery still engages. Readers, for example, know no more than Jordan regarding the fatal accident, and Asheville locals harbor quite a few skeletons. The final act wraps up this enigma without losing sight of the main journey as Jordan hopefully comes to terms with herself and where she wants to be.
A remarkable protagonist leads a robust cast in this absorbing tale of self-discovery.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-956440-06-5
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Madville Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.
When two women who share a birthday meet, a journalist becomes the subject of her own true-crime mystery.
On their 45th birthdays, Josie Fair and Alix Summer meet at a pub and discover they were born not only on the same day, but in the same hospital. Alix is a successful journalist, and Josie convinces Alix that her story is worth telling: Josie met her husband when she was 13 and he was 40. “I can see that maybe I was being used, that maybe I was even being groomed?” she confesses to Alix. “But that feeling of being powerful, right at the start, when I was still in control. I miss that sometimes. I really do. And what I’d like, more than anything, is to get it back.” From this premise Alix creates a Netflix series, Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! which investigates Josie’s life as she reconciles what happened to her as a teen and seeks a new path. With the story unfinished, the narrative unfolds in the present tense, with prose that jingles like song lyrics: “He turns to see if the girl is behind him, and sees her wishy-washy, wavy-wavy, in double vision through the glass windows of the hotel.” Alix is both intrigued and repulsed by Josie, but she initially gives her the benefit of the doubt. After all, Alix’s husband, Nathan, has a drinking problem, and Alix knows what it’s like to be reluctant to leave a bad situation. But Josie seems more interested in being part of Alix’s seemingly glamorous life than she is in fixing her own, and when three people end up dead and Alix’s life is turned upside down, the evidence points to Josie—and turns the TV series into a murder mystery. Transcripts from Alix’s interviews alternate with the narrative, offering increasingly varied perspectives on Josie’s story as told by her neighbors, friends, and family members. With so many versions of events, the ending shatters, leaving readers to decide whose is the truth.
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781982179007
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
