A special treat for all the readers who’ve longed to see Burke place one of his strong women at the center of a story.
The latest chapter in the saga of the Holland family focuses on a most unlikely member: Hackberry Holland’s daughter, Bessie Mae, a child born with the 20th century.
Bessie has a haint. She sees spirits and sees herself as indissolubly connected to a little girl who was murdered years ago and whose stolen life she’s determined to lead. Her tale begins in 1914 with her first encounter with Slick, a spirit who offers her a dramatically different perspective on the world from her alcoholic father, a Texas Ranger-turned-rancher, and her older brother, Cody. Although Bessie bonds with her teacher Ida Banks, this is no mere coming-of-age story. Repeatedly abused and dismissed by the threatening men who surround her—from Winthrop Fowler, the father of her schoolmate Jubal, to Indian Charlie, a killer who works security for Atlas Oil, to Tater Dog, a particularly vile member of Charlie’s gang—she’s just as proactive, outspoken, and capable from the opening as any of Burke’s gallery of male heroes. As speculators scramble to extract every drop of oil they can from beneath the Texas soil, Bessie shoots an unarmed but eminently deserving man to death and runs away to New York, where Cody’s taken up with the Bowery kids Meyer Lansky, Benny Siegel, and Owney Madden. But even the men there who won’t turn into gangsters are no better than the men Bessie left behind, and she returns to Texas determined to protect the father who can no longer protect her.
A special treat for all the readers who’ve longed to see Burke place one of his strong women at the center of a story.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780802164520
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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
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