A fizzy and fast-paced conclusion to a complicated family saga.
Gibbens concludes her multigenerational family drama series with this eventful thriller.
As this concluding volume in the author’s Awen Chronicles series opens, Nathan Bellamy, the art thief who served as the villain in the previous installment (Cow on Ice, 2022), sits in prison brooding over his revenge. Providentially, it seems to come in the form of his cellmate, a low-level crime syndicate enforcer named Tommaso, who agrees to use his contacts on the outside to effect the murders of the five people who brought Bellamy to justice, including Toronto architect Kent Gillespie; Bellamy’s former partner, Chloé Corbin; and Bellamy’s erstwhile girlfriend, art gallery owner Yoichi Song (“I’m tougher than I look,” Yoichi assures a friend. “Don’t let the manicures, facials, and wardrobe mislead you”). The text catches series readers up on all the jet setting and romantic goings-on of Gibbens’ large cast of characters, ranging from Bellamy’s list of murder targets to their current and former paramours, children, co-workers, and friends. The tangles of the plot involving powerful, plotting lawyer Langston Garner and surprisingly adventurous architect Kent Gillespie branch elegantly throughout the narrative. The author throws herself into narrating this sprawling, complicated story with tremendous gusto and a sharp skill at drawing characters: “Spencer liked desperation,” readers learn of Garner’s private investigator; “it fed his business enterprise. His clients were pushed beyond their limits by situations that had suddenly gotten out of hand—leading to desperation for them and opportunity for him.” This kind of quippy phrasing runs throughout the novel, although neither this nor the fleet pacing can save the proceedings from third-book syndrome: Too much of the plot will be all but incomprehensible to readers who aren’t familiar with at least the previous volume in the series. Newcomers shouldn’t start here.
A fizzy and fast-paced conclusion to a complicated family saga.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781039172432
Page Count: 366
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2023
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 feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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