An engrossing, quietly original take on what women must do to survive in 21st-century small-town America.
Lee debuts with a sometimes eerie, sometimes pragmatic story about three women whose lives intersect in a small upstate New York town during the Great Recession.
Hoping for a new start with her troubled husband, childless Manhattan attorney Claire Pedersen, 43, buys an old house in Caliban in 2009. The reluctant seller, April Ives, whose great-grandfather built the place, is currently a cash-strapped single mother who cleans other people’s houses for a living. When Claire’s husband develops a “fetish” for Anna, a pregnant young Korean American woman belonging to the local branch of an otherwise white Christian cult, tragedy results. Over the next two years, the three women, all outsiders in their communities, crisscross paths as their fortunes alter and each considers the role of luck (especially bad luck), choice, and God’s role in life’s vicissitudes. Claire initially discounts April as a loser, but then Claire’s own life unravels. Having lost her husband, her financial stability, and her health, she feels a growing empathy for April’s hand-to-mouth struggles. But unlike Claire, April finds reserves of inner strength while facing crises concerning her young son and his ex-con father. She also forms an unexpected bond with Anna, who is suddenly forced to question the strict, narrow religious world in which she’s grown up and finds herself re-evaluating her beliefs while discovering the strength of genuine love and trust. Lee’s first novel is refreshingly out of sync with current trends; she manages to engage readers without relying on a big plot hook or trendy issue, and her point-of-view remains disquietingly ambiguous. Are the hints of the supernatural at work merely in the characters’ minds? Should Anna’s earnest theology be taken seriously? Readers may wonder at times where the open-ended plot is going, and the ending, while logical and satisfying, is not predictable. Life these days seldom is—which may be the novel’s ultimate message.
An engrossing, quietly original take on what women must do to survive in 21st-century small-town America.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781951213770
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Unnamed Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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