by JT Dwyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2022
A somber and disquieting portrayal of human frailties and familial disconnection.
In Dwyer’s debut novel, a series of teenagers’ deaths brings about crises in the lives of a high school senior gridiron star and his deeply religious mother.
Forty-six-year-old Anne Norrisis a devoutly Catholic homemaker. Her husband, Dane, is a retired NFL star, and their sons, Dylan and Janus, are entering their senior and freshman years (respectively) at St. Ambrose High School in Asheville, North Carolina. Dylan, in particular, is highly sought by Division I college football recruiters. The boys’ rebellious, partying older sister, Maryanne, is estranged from their parents, so Anne has become overprotective of her sons to the point of driving Dylan away. After several St. Ambrose students are killed over the summer—four by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, two due to reckless driving, one by suicide, and one from fentanyl-laced cocaine—a sense of dread descends on the community. Anne feels increasingly helpless, especially because Dane has embraced a hands-off parenting style. Dylan, with a sunny future laid out for him, experiments with drugs and meaningless sexual liaisons, which eventually draws unwelcome attention. Anne, meanwhile, commits a desperate act that cuts to the heart of her faith and marriage. Dwyer writes in the omniscient past tense, employing a flowing prose style that ably establishes people and places. The characters are distinct and memorable, and their personalities emerge organically from the story. The point of the novel is difficult to pin down: Is it about college football recruiting? Parent/teen relationships? Religion? Identity? Is there a supernatural element to the deaths? The result is an intricately themed, rather grim depiction of how human flaws can bring about tragedy. The work has an elegiacal sense of happier times fading, and the intrusion of a changing world upon Asheville is cleverly personified through Dane and Dylan, who represent similar figures in different generations. Although the narrative develops slowly, with lengthy backstories and too-long discourses on football and religion, readers willing to immerse themselves will be rewarded.
A somber and disquieting portrayal of human frailties and familial disconnection.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986400709
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Patricia Cornwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2024
Expert, but unsurprising.
The death of an old friend who was more than a friend sends Dr. Kay Scarpetta down her latest rabbit hole.
If every body tells a story, the corpse of 7-year-old Luna Briley sings the blues. On top of the many signs of ongoing physical abuse, there’s the fatal gunshot wound to her head. Ryder and Piper Briley, the wealthy and powerful parents who didn’t call the police until after their daughter died, insist that Luna’s death was an accident, or maybe a suicide. Scarpetta doesn’t think so, and her refusal to release the body to the Brileys’ hand-picked mortician moves them to legal action against her as Virginia’s chief medical examiner. You’d think it would be a relief to put this case aside for another when Scarpetta’s niece, Secret Service agent Lucy Farinelli, calls her and ferries her by helicopter to an abandoned Oz theme park owned by Ryder Briley, but this one’s even more heartbreaking. Scarpetta is there to examine the body of astrophysicist Sal Giordano, her close friend and former lover, who was evidently kidnapped, held in captivity for several hours, and tossed out of an unidentified aircraft. The leading suspects are the Brileys; Carrie Grethen, Lucy’s sociopathic ex-lover, with whom Scarpetta has repeatedly tangled in the past; and the UFO that dumped Giordano’s body without leaving the usual traces for air-traffic technologies to pick up. The multiple rounds of physical examinations Scarpetta conducts on both victims are every bit as meticulous and gripping as fans would expect; the killer’s identity is neither surprising nor interesting, but Cornwell juggles her trademark forensics, and the paranormal hints she’s become increasingly invested in, more dexterously than usual.
Expert, but unsurprising.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781538770382
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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