Gotham might be a perilous place for most, but it’s the perfect spot for a writer in need of material.
A famous writer’s hunt for a blackmailer plays out against the corruption and colorful characters of turn-of-the-century New York City.
“My past is a locked book and I vow it will remain so,” declares William Sydney Porter, better known as short story master O. Henry, in Yagoda’s novel of the writer’s later years. Porter might want to keep his past hidden, but an anonymous blackmailer threatens to reveal it (Porter served prison time for embezzlement) unless he pays him the ungodly amount of $50 a week. (Yagoda notes that $1 back then would equal $36 today.) Though a fellow former inmate suggests he shouldn’t hide his past but instead write about the bad living conditions behind bars, Porter is worried that his secret will ruin his rising literary reputation. “The prison label is worse than the brand of Cain,” he says. “If the world once sees it, you are doomed.” The editor of an acclaimed edition of O. Henry’s stories for the Library of America, Yagoda brings his research skills, knowledge of the author, and love of the era to this tale of turn-of-the-century Manhattan, evoking its crowded streets, many vices, and colorful (and often dangerous) citizenry, not to mention the lucrative world of freelance writing at a moment when short stories reigned supreme. He weaves in a second story of a young artist named Anna, who struggles to support herself and gets enmeshed in the blackmail plot against Porter, who happens to live in the same building. With a dubious detective acting as a middleman between Porter and the blackmailer, the writer soon seeks help from a wide-ranging crew—including a street urchin named Bernie and legendary lawman Bat Masterson—to identify the malicious figure. What they discover provides a surprise twist reminiscent of any O. Henry story. And yet, the blackmail plot isn’t nearly as interesting or suspenseful as other aspects of the story, including, for instance, the convoluted (and heartbreaking) circumstances that landed Porter in jail, and the reason he hardly said a word in his own defense. Yagoda paints an interesting portrait of a rapidly changing metropolis of 4 million rife with opportunity, especially for a writer. “Each of the four million is a person,” Porter tells an antiprostitution crusader, “with his own sadness, aspirations, occasional joy or triumph. I want to do right by them.”
Gotham might be a perilous place for most, but it’s the perfect spot for a writer in need of material.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781589882065
Page Count: 279
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.
A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.
In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772775
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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