by Tim Westover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2019
An enthralling, cozy tale set in an era when folklore reigned over science.
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A historical novel spins a yarn of a skeptical doctor and a trio of folk healers who team up to try to save a Georgia town from a deadly disease.
North Georgia, 1822. Savannah doctor Aubrey Waycross has been invited to the remote town of Lawrenceville to provide the locals with proper medical care—and, in his mind, to dispel some of their backward superstitions, such as a ghost panther stalking the hills. But the citizens of Lawrenceville already know where to get their healing. A few miles outside of town in Hope Hollow, three sisters—Rebecca, Sarah, and Effie Winter—are renowned for their cures for everything from sneezes to rheumatism. Some regard the sisters as witches—Pastor Boatwright insists the panther is their familiar—but Waycross assumes they are merely frauds. Charlatans, of course, can still be dangerous. “What if this supposed panther…put its teeth into human flesh?” worries Waycross. “What if, in their benightedness, the afflicted went to the Winter sisters for treatment? These so-called witches might spread the contagion with some superstition about pouring out blood at a crossroads.” Yet Waycross must admit that the Winters have a knack for unexplained healings, and there does seem to be some sort of big cat in the woods. The physician can’t help but become increasingly fascinated by the sisters, whose ways are as old as the mountains. As Waycross contends with his own ether addiction, Lawrenceville is in danger of a rabies outbreak, and the doctor alone may not be enough to save it. As the pastor preaches his own brand of unscientific cures, Waycross will have to rely on these mysterious “colleagues” if he wants to save the people of Lawrenceville from a terrible fate. Westover’s (The Old Weird South, 2012, etc.) prose is wonderfully detailed, capturing the lushness and grit of his superstition-ruled setting: “The odor was not pleasant. It smelled of too many herbs all at once, basil and rosemary mixed with an overpowering lavender, as well as the spiciness of rhododendron, the sharp tang of pine, and the musk of something decocted from a toadstool.” Readers will be intrigued right from the book’s atmospheric opening, when Waycross’ reluctant carriage driver warns him of all the dangers that haunt Lawrenceville. The story is ultimately less of a gothic fantasy than a slow-moving, slightly magical realist novel that takes as its subject the denizens of a colorful little town. The time and place—antebellum rural Georgia, equally distant from the Revolutionary and Civil wars—feel refreshingly unexplored. There are moments when the story dawdles, but the author has created such an attractive world to inhabit that its conservative pace is not much cause for concern. Westover manages to stick the landing, bringing his doctor’s unlikely investigation into miracles to a wise and affecting conclusion. Solid writing and strong characters buoy this examination of a captivating moment in American history when old beliefs encountered the new.
An enthralling, cozy tale set in an era when folklore reigned over science.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9849748-9-4
Page Count: 322
Publisher: QW Publishers
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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