A satisfying read with a complicated, engaging plotline.
The stock market crash of 1929 upends the life of Chicago’s biggest trader in wheat futures.
At 32, Frank Cork, a poor Irish/Polish kid from Chicago’s South Side, has made it to the top of the wheat futures heap, reaping a lavish home, beautiful wife, two lovable children, and a brand new, eye-catching “Hudson Super Six Cabriolet in jade and moss green.” But wheat prices have been falling for the past two days, and Frank senses trouble is brewing. On Monday, October 28, 1929, he’s driving to the Chicago Board of Trade building after a breakfast meeting during which he secures a significantly large trade investment. Suddenly, he finds himself caught in the middle of a mob hit. He escapes from the scene, but not before his flashy Hudson is noticed and Frank and the shooter make brief eye contact. And his day is about to get even worse. He learns from his best friend, Robert “Bobby” MacNamara, president of the Board of Trade, that he and his company are being accused of market manipulation by Canada’s Yuri Dyachenko, head of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The next morning, the stock market crashes, and Frank’s fortune crashes with it. Distraught, he catches the first train out of town, not yet realizing he’s heading to Canada, where he will secretly remain for many months. Kirk’s intriguing tale of a man rediscovering himself in the wheat basket of the Canadian Prairie is part tender personal drama and part a vivid depiction of the bad days during Chicago’s history of political corruption and mob rule, when Al Capone and Bugs Moran fought for control of the illegal liquor business during Prohibition. The novel abounds with historical tidbits about cross-border bootlegging. And although the narrative is not quite a thriller, once Frank temporarily joins up with the Canadian liquor exporters, which involves contact with the mob, the pace and excitement build considerably. Kirk’s prose is crisp, plus she offers an accessible primer on the ins, outs, and perils of day trading and playing the market on agricultural futures.
A satisfying read with a complicated, engaging plotline.Pub Date: June 20, 2025
ISBN: 9781998779703
Page Count: 350
Publisher: At Bay Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
