A historically authentic and dramatically engrossing work.
In Haynes’ 1850s-set historical novel, three men—two abolitionists and a pro-slavery Southerner—become embroiled in a murderous conspiracy.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 makes a massive swath of territory to the west of Iowa and Missouri open to slavery, as determined by popular vote. As a result, Northerners and Southerners alike rush to settle there in a bid to tip the electoral scale, a situation that quickly becomes violent: “Kansas was a tinderbox. All awaited the spark that would ignite a blaze.” Monty Tolliver, a former Whig congressman in Ohio and an ardent abolitionist, decides to move his family to Kansas to do his part and discovers an all-out war being waged there by pro-slavery agitators. He joins the local militia and becomes a key player in the effort to organize a constitutional convention that will establish Kansas as a free state. He’s aided by Robert Geddis, who comes to Kansas from Rhode Island to work for the Herald of Freedom newspaper. Violence is committed by both sides of the conflict, a grim scenario rigorously depicted by the author. A series of grisly murders is undertaken by devoted abolitionists, followed by equally grotesque killings by pro-slavers in retaliation—some of which are pinned on Billy Rutledge, a young man from Mississippi. But Geddis knows Billy, and despite Billy’s support of slavery, he considers him incapable of murder. This complex narrative at times becomes convoluted—there are simply too many plot twists and subplots, and they become a tedious distraction. However, the author’s portrayal of this chapter in the history of the nation is impressively astute, and he brings the clash of ideologies that sparked it to electrifying life. The novel is unflinchingly honest and evenhanded—while slavery was a vile institution, Haynes acknowledges that people who opposed it were fully capable of gross moral failings of their own. Ultimately, this is a worthwhile work of historical drama, simultaneously edifying and entertaining.
A historically authentic and dramatically engrossing work.Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781737766926
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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