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A smartly restrained and persistently witty crime tale even at its grimmest.

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SCOOP OF THE YEAR

Name: SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Author: Tom Claver

by Tom Claver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2017

For a British journalist, maintaining a career and financial stability can be murder—and may even call for it—in this thriller.

Though Martin’s two years older than Financial Review co-worker Tom de Lacy, it’s the latter who gets the coveted industrial correspondent’s job. The magazine’s editor effectively demotes Martin, who’s married with twin daughters, to subeditor, where he resents Tom and discreetly sabotages his copy. As Tom’s career soars, including a gig as a TV reporter, Martin takes a personal and professional nose dive, eventually becoming unemployed with his wife and children gone. The news gets worse: Martin’s terminally ill father, Simon, has changed his will, giving his house and half his estate to his younger brother, Walter, who’s just returned after inexplicably disappearing years ago. Desperate for money, Martin convinces Caroline, one of his two sisters, that enlisting a heavy to scare Uncle Walter out of the house is a good idea. Shortly thereafter, Martin hits a wave of good fortune, starting behind the scenes on a TV show and winding up in front of the camera. But hired heavy Jebb complicates matters by becoming smitten with Caroline. Martin’s potentially hot new story involving a pharmaceutical company, meanwhile, has ties to a recent murder—and he certainly doesn’t want authorities digging anywhere near him. Claver’s (Hider/Seeker, 2015) story is quietly chaotic, a series of events unfolding organically. Martin, for example, handles one problem at a time, such as his inability to get a hold of Jebb to verify that he’s only strong-arming Walter. Likewise, Martin’s solid under pressure and often funny. When Jebb hears Caroline’s voice over the phone, after Martin says she’s out of the country, the journalist tells him: “No, it’s my other sister, the ugly one.” Martin’s brisk, generally wry first-person narrative makes him an easy protagonist to root for, regardless of his questionable acts, while Tom, quite frankly, deserves the protagonist’s rancor. The somewhat ambiguous ending is striking, a lasting impression revealing what’s most important to Martin.

A smartly restrained and persistently witty crime tale even at its grimmest.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2017

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 378

Publisher: Matador

Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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SUMMER SISTERS

by Judy Blume ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 8, 1998

The years pass by at a fast and steamy clip in Blume’s latest adult novel (Wifey, not reviewed; Smart Women, 1984) as two friends find loyalties and affections tested as they grow into young women. In sixth grade, when Victoria Weaver is asked by new girl Caitlin Somers to spend the summer with her on Martha’s Vineyard, her life changes forever. Victoria, or more commonly Vix, lives in a small house; her brother has muscular dystrophy; her mother is unhappy, and money is scarce. Caitlin, on the other hand, lives part of the year with her wealthy mother Phoebe, who’s just moved to Albuquerque, and summers with her father Lamb, equally affluent, on the Vineyard. The story of how this casual invitation turns the two girls into what they call "Summer sisters" is prefaced with a prologue in which Vix is asked by Caitlin to be her matron of honor. The years in between are related in brief segments by numerous characters, but mostly by Vix. Caitlin, determined never to be ordinary, is always testing the limits, and in adolescence falls hard for Von, an older construction worker, while Vix falls for his friend Bru. Blume knows the way kids and teens speak, but her two female leads are less credible as they reach adulthood. After high school, Caitlin travels the world and can’t understand why Vix, by now at Harvard on a scholarship and determined to have a better life than her mother has had, won’t drop out and join her. Though the wedding briefly revives Vix’s old feelings for Bru, whom Caitlin is marrying, Vix is soon in love with Gus, another old summer friend, and a more compatible match. But Caitlin, whose own demons have been hinted at, will not be so lucky. The dark and light sides of friendship breathlessly explored in a novel best saved for summer beachside reading.

Pub Date: May 8, 1998

ISBN: 0-385-32405-7

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1998

Categories: GENERAL FICTION

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Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

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IT ENDS WITH US

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016

Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.

At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.