This philosophical mystery will captivate readers thanks to a winning cast and setting.
Life and death keep getting in the way of a man attempting to heal in this debut novel.
At the heart of Heath’s mystery is Alan Wright. Residents of Eden Ridge, California, still look askance at fledgling minister Alan, who built his House of the Universal Message there at the urging of his friend and loyal parishioner Ruth MacKenzie. Alan is also the person who discovers the murdered Ruth in her antiques shop when he stops by to pick up a mystery gift that she promised him (“A pool of blood, black after hours in the open air, formed an ugly halo around her paper-white hair”). Ruth’s death hits Alan particularly hard, as he is still recovering from the loss of his wife, Patricia, in an auto accident two years prior. He decides he owes it to Ruth to investigate her murder, much to the annoyance of the local police chief. The Little Red Hens, a group of civically minded women that Ruth led, decide to help Alan. Alan determines that his gift from Ruth was to have been a rare 1612 Bible, which disappeared from her safe on the night she was killed. Alan doesn’t believe that the suspect who was caught fencing items from Ruth’s shop murdered her. He maintains the theft of the Bible increases the suspect pool, and he puts himself and those around him in danger as a result. In this series opener, Heath makes very few missteps. The author offers likable characters, starting with Alan, a man of mystery seeking to overcome his personal tragedy while standing up for people in his adopted hometown even though many have not embraced him. His Greek chorus is the Little Red Hens, some of whom fancy themselves as the town’s version of Jessica Fletcher. Heath’s villains are too obvious, but the reveal is enjoyable nevertheless. Even the former Gold Rush town of Eden Ridge becomes a character. Despite the book’s 376 pages, the narrative flies along, and the author will successfully keep readers guessing about upcoming surprises. This well-handled introduction of Heath’s reluctant hero Alan and his sidekicks bodes well for future volumes.
This philosophical mystery will captivate readers thanks to a winning cast and setting.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9866204-0-4
Page Count: 495
Publisher: Nine Pines Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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