A well-researched adventure that skillfully mixes warts-and-all history with cinematic action.
Social and legal impediments hamper the life of a mixed-race teen born out of wedlock to a baronet in this historical novel.
In 1774, Arthur Charteris owns a sugar plantation on the British colony of Grenada as well as 92 enslaved people. A reader of the philosopher John Locke, who wrote “Every man had a property in his own person,” Arthur doesn’t abuse those who toil for his fortune. When he purchases a 15-year-old girl named Weju, she proves herself a valuable healer. He frees her, and within a year, she runs the plantation at his side and is with child. Tragically, Weju dies soon after Alexander, or “Chart,” is born. Several years later, as Arthur inherits his father’s baronetcy, he and Chart return to Leicester, England. Chart has a happy countryside childhood at Knossington Hall, though his grandmother Lady Dorothea warns Arthur that the beloved mixed-race boy won’t legally inherit anything. When Chart is 13 years old, he meets his cousin Pemberton, who is two years older and has a slight hunch. Even before the boys attend Westminster together, Pemberton reveals lust and darkness in his heart. At school, Chart’s classmates torture him with words and deeds. He comes to believe his only escape from a society that loathes him lies with the military—and the warfare in India. From Ashby, author of the Seth Armitage historical thrillers, comes an adventure set in the twilight years of slavery in England. Chart's journey encapsulates an era in which empires fractured and intellectuals such as Thomas Paine exposed leaders like Thomas Jefferson, who, “despite proclaiming that all men are created equal,” believed “blacks are inferior to whites.” Alongside copious research and sharp prose that honors the character of the 18th century, the author displays a modern flair for drama and gore (“Chart saw a bamboo pole...with a human head stuck on the top”). Pemberton eventually succeeds in destroying Chart’s legal claims. The cousin’s villainy later overshadows Chart’s romance with Arabella Sherrard, a girl from a poor family who venerates his Caribbean lineage. Plenty of intense action awaits readers in the final third.
A well-researched adventure that skillfully mixes warts-and-all history with cinematic action.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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