A unique, insightful coming-of-age story blended with a gripping crime/adventure novel.
Leggett’s dark blend of crime fiction and coming-of-age tale, set initially in 1959 Brooklyn, follows a 12-year-old boy as he attempts to escape from a seemingly predetermined violent future.
Anthony Romano’s life isn’t exactly idyllic. He lives in a seedy Brooklyn tenement with his prostitute mother, but things get exponentially worse when he’s expelled from school for stabbing a teacher with a letter opener and allegedly setting fire to the school. When his mother dies of a drug overdose soon thereafter, he begins his journey through the foster-care system—getting lucky when he moves in with a retired cop and his wife in New Rochelle. Hank Lanier immediately takes the troubled youth under his wing, and together with his wife, Shelly, the family spends the summer at their camp on a remote lake in Maine. There, Anthony finds an eclectic group of friends, experiences some jaw-dropping adventures, and even falls in love. But Anthony’s rough background back on the streets of Brooklyn—where he met more than a few dangerous criminals—follows him to the remote Maine lake in a most unexpected way. The focus on setting and the nostalgic undertone are the novel’s obvious strengths. Here Leggett describes a convenience store in Maine: “An antique cash register sat on the counter. The wall behind it offered packages of rubber worms for amateurs and tourists along with pine-scented air fresheners, bottle openers, and refrigerator magnets in the shapes of moose and lobsters. The countertop held glass jars of penny candy and Slim Jims.” The gritty storyline involving Anthony’s brief contact with possible hit men during his time in Brooklyn gives the novel an intensity and gravitas—but it’s the compassionate and emotionally compelling way that Leggett treats Anthony’s journey to enlightenment that makes this such a memorable story.
A unique, insightful coming-of-age story blended with a gripping crime/adventure novel.Pub Date: June 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79233-048-3
Page Count: 387
Publisher: Publisher Services
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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