A thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and secrets.
In Matthews’ novel, a young Australian man discovers his late cousin’s secret life.
Dan Molina had always been a generous father figure to his 31-year-old cousin, Jamie Barrio, who manages Dan’s collectibles shop. In the wake of Dan’s death, Jamie struggles to adjust to the new reality of his life in Sydney, Australia, without him. Days after the funeral, a lawyer contacts Jamie with Dan’s final gift: a mysterious thumb drive containing hours of audio files. Jamie soon finds that each recording is a spoken letter by Dan, addressed to a mysterious “Ethan” and ending with the salutation “With love, Dad.” Jamie is baffled; is Ethan the child of a secret love affair? Why would Dan want Jamie to find out about it like this? Intrigued, Jamie plunges into the files, which tell the story of his late cousin’s trip to Perth, when abdominal pain landed him in the hospital. “I’ve never been so afraid as I am now,” Dan says, as he explains to the mysterious Ethan that doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong with him. He also tells Ethan about his childhood as a boy who was constantly teased for his weight; his struggles to connect with his own emotionally distant father; how he met Beatrice, his future wife and the love of his life; and how he became a respected consultant. Buried in the family mythology, however, is something deeper and more melancholy: “Was the road I chose the one less travelled by?” Dan asks Ethan, before he speaks of learning about bisexuality and queerness. Jamie soon realizes that these tapes reveal not only the up and downs of Dan’s life, but also deep secrets about his sexuality.
In an introduction, Matthews notes that his novel is based on a true story, and one that he found “instantly intriguing” and “painfully beautiful.” One could describe his book in a similar manner, as it grabs one’s attention from the beginning with several unfolding mysteries. Readers will find themselves asking some of the same questions as Jamie: Who is Ethan, and why did Dan share these communications with Jamie? Matthew smartly layers the narrative with multiple perspectives; alongside Jamie’s and Dan’s points of view is that of Dan’s nurse during his hospital stay, who contributes her own recollections. However, it’s Dan’s mournful, pensive voice that makes the strongest impression. His reflections on family life, especially as the child of immigrants from Uruguay, are filled with engaging observations and heartbreaking moments, whether he’s speaking of how his father continually disappointed him or his own hesitation to give in same-sex attractions. Matthews takes his time getting to the queer aspects of the story, and as a result, some of the earlier passages focused on Dan’s professional life, or his experience of the hospital, feel as if they’re merely stalling for time before bigger reveals. It all leads to a satisfying emotional conclusion, though, which connects to issues involving family, sexuality, and what it means to truly understand a loved one.
A thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and secrets.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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