Mosley applies his unique blend of family, Black history, and sex to this colorful tale of missing women.
In his fourth outing, the tough but sensitive New York detective Joe King Oliver is cajoled by his 96-year-old grandmother into investigating the disappearance of an ex-gangster’s granddaughter.
Joe’s superwealthy-by-marriage “Grandma B,” whom he adores, has befriended one-time protection racketeer Arman Babylon at the exclusive LA cancer treatment center where both are living. The repentant Babylon hires Joe to find his long-missing granddaughter, Twyla Mann, now 38, and tell her the woman she thinks is her mother actually isn’t—a domestic coverup instigated by Babylon decades ago in connection with the disappearance and possible murder of a jazz singer, Dalia Shorts. It doesn’t take Joe long to be threatened and beat up by the goons of Malto Lamming, a serial rapist and murderer who desperately wants to keep his past and present crimes under wraps. The case takes the detective back to New York, where the trail leads to Minnie Fulton, Dalia’s one-time pianist, who’s now the organist at the Ministry of the Divine Orgasm. At this rather...unique church, Joe is required to get naked like Minnie, the male preacher, and the congregants—but, thankfully, not to copulate like they do in full view of each other. His sexy encounters are reserved for his free-spirited, long-absent lover, Leaf. There’s enough plot here for two novels and, indeed, after going a bit flat midway through and then going off in new directions with added characters, the book has the feeling of two novels stitched together. But with his command of the scenery, his shoutouts to literary and jazz heroes, and his sly commentary on Black and white culture, Mosley keeps things interesting. The book’s title comes from a Yiddish curse the mother of Arman Babylon né Babel was fond of, which translates as “You should be like a chandelier, hanging and burning.”
Mosley applies his unique blend of family, Black history, and sex to this colorful tale of missing women.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780316573207
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Brilliant, affecting work from one of contemporary literature’s masters.
A phone call from her past disrupts the tenuously reconstructed life of a concert pianist turned farmer’s wife.
We know from the beginning that Livia Cable is the battered survivor of her brother Cyrus’ death by suicide, a devastating romance, and a career-ending injury. Only 11 when Cyrus stepped in front of a train, she was already marked out as different in her rural Tennessee hometown by her extraordinary musical ability. The siblings had huddled together against their angry mother’s frequent beatings, and Livia still feels abandoned by Cyrus years later, when she picks up the phone to hear the voice of Sigurd, the fiery labor organizer she loved and lost to “the revolution” while on scholarship at the Indiana University School of Music. Now married to kind, steady childhood friend Charlie, Livia looks back on her affair with Sigurd as she struggles to deal with the recent death of her mother, a compulsive hoarder who left a house stuffed with junk to be disposed of and bitter memories that haven’t faded over time. Kingsolver skillfully juggles the two time frames to unravel Livia’s complicated feelings about the life she lost when her right hand was crushed and the life she has now as a country piano teacher. A partita, she explains to Sigurd early on, “is a composition made of a lot of parts with a lot of different moods…the artist’s work is to make them all add up to something that feels whole.” That’s precisely what Kingsolver does in this beautifully paced and judged narrative, which builds to revelations uncovered amid the piles of trash in Livia’s childhood home about the reasons for Cyrus’ suicide (clearly foreshadowed) and their mother’s rage (startling and heartbreaking). A fierce belief that great art is for everyone joins Kingsolver’s familiar preoccupations with class distinctions, social injustice, and the complex bonds of family and community in a tender denouement.
Brilliant, affecting work from one of contemporary literature’s masters.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9780063577541
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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