A remarkable tale of war and its ghastly ramifications.
A young Southerner watches his father die at the hands of Union soldiers and vengefully enters the Civil War in this historical drama.
As the story opens, Missourian Zechariah Ashby Marchbank feels “conflicted about everything: the war, slaves, Jehovah, and what part I was to play in it all.” Then the Civil War shows up at his door in the form of a gang of Union fighters known as Jayhawks, who hang his dadright in front of him. As a result, Ashby soon decides to join a band of guerilla fighters—nominally, he does so to defend Missouri against Union soldiers, but primarily he joins the group as an exercise in revenge.Debut author Dean captures Ashby’s thirst for violence in powerful prose that’s typical of this often sharp-edged work: “I’d never felt so bloodthirsty as when I thought about [Jayhawks leader] Jennison and how I wanted to kill him. I’d already killed him a thousand times in my dreams in as many creative ways.” Under the command of the brutal Col.William Clarke Quantrill, Ashby and his cohorts, which include future notorious outlaws Frank and Jesse James, ride through Missouri and Kansas in search of Union men. However, as they do so, Ashby fears for his own life—not only because of the recklessness of the crew that he’s joined, but also because of their horrific savagery, which is sometimes directed toward members of their own ranks. In a framing device, Ashby relates his story to John N. Edwards, an ambitious “son-of-a-bitch journalist,” as the protagonist puts it, who’s looking to rewrite history and help himself professionally.
Over the course of this book, Dean deftly limns a picture of the war in which Confederate and Union partisans commit unspeakable atrocities, driven by a lust for destruction. Once Ashby is pulled into the war, he finds it nearly impossible to withdraw from it—but it’s a combination of necessity and venomous anger that keeps him in, not an attachment to a particular ideology or principle. However, Ashby does note that while the infamous Quantrill and his men would be “mostly reviled and nearly forgotten by history,” Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who committed similarly rapacious acts, would be hailed as “a great man, a heroic figure, who had only done what needed to be done to avoid more bloodshed.” Ashby is a complex protagonist—for all his wounded anger, he seems incapable of fully surrendering to it, too self-aware of the damage that his losses have imposed on his soul as he feels his reserves of empathy fully deplete. Dean’s writing also offers a striking brew of poetry and punch, combining unflinching realism with delicately woven imagery. Although the portrayal of the war is as historically rigorous as it is dramatically affecting, the real core of the novel is Ashby’s inner conflict as he tries to salvage some vestige of his humanity during this “time of violence.”
A remarkable tale of war and its ghastly ramifications.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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