A novel set in “Hollywood East” that never figures out which direction to go.
A down-on-his-luck New York newspaperman hoping to make it big via a lavish TV adaptation of his novel stumbles into controversy.
Jack Denton’s fact-based book, The Life Line—about railroad tycoon Austin Corbin’s theft of tribal land from the Montaukett Indians on eastern Long Island in the 1880s—hasn’t sold many copies. But the story of Corbin’s unscrupulous efforts to build a port in Montauk for “Mile a Minute” trains to Manhattan has captured the interest of Max Kirkland, a “genius” director with uncontrollable Harvey Weinstein–like traits. Hired as a consultant on the project, Denton attends location shoots, stargazes, frets over changes in his narrative, and sleeps with a disgruntled actress who promptly disappears. For Kirkland, her vanishing is the least of his worries. The Montaukett community is up in arms over the casting of a white actor to play the tribal hero and other cultural offenses. And Denton, who is covering the rise of Donald Trump and dealing with a busted marriage, has other fish to fry. While the individual pieces of Maier’s novel unfold agreeably enough—even if Denton’s accounts of the filming go on too long—they never come together in a meaningful way. And the Denton character has a serious credibility problem. He boasts about the awards he’s won for his exposés but never reveals any of the essential qualities he would need to be a standout reporter, including basic smarts. “Covering Trump for the paper these days has really made me think—where is this country going…?” Ya think?
A novel set in “Hollywood East” that never figures out which direction to go.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9798888453643
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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