Featuring 244 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 20 | 15 OCTOBER 2020 REVIEWS Tana French The bestselling crime writer had an unexpected inspiration for her new stand-alone novel p. 14 Also in the issue: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Kwame Mbalia, and Tamara Payne from the editor’s desk: Don’t Know Much About History Chairman BY TOM BEER HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN John Paraskevas # Last month, at a White House history conference, President Donald Trump Chief Executive Officer attacked the 1619 Project, a series of essays published in the New York Times MEG LABORDE KUEHN Magazine. The project—conceived by staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, with [email protected] Editor-in-Chief contributions by Matthew Desmond, Wesley Morris, and others—explores TOM BEER the centrality of slavery to the story of America. Trump claimed that the 1619 [email protected] Vice President of Marketing Project has been “discredited”—in fact, Hannah-Jones’ own essay won a Pulitzer SARAH KALINA Prize for Commentary—and groused that the “left has warped, distorted, and [email protected] defiled the American story with deceptions, falsehoods, and lies.” He called for Managing/Nonfiction Editor ERIC LIEBETRAU the establishment of a “1776 commission” to promote “patriotic education.” [email protected] Leaving aside the matter of nationally mandated “patriotic education”— Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK which sounds like something out of Stalin’s Soviet Union—the president clearly [email protected] Tom Beer misunderstands the nature of historiography, which involves not simply a fixed Young Readers’ Editor VICKY SMITH set of facts, but an ongoing dialogue with historians past and present. Just as new [email protected] discoveries alter what we know about the past, so too our interpretations and conclusions transform Young Readers’ Editor over time. That’s the nature of historical inquiry. LAURA SIMEON [email protected] The best works of American history make us rethink what we know and see the country’s story Editor at Large from a different angle. Here are a few outstanding titles that Kirkus has reviewed in recent years; any MEGAN LABRISE of them would be a worthy addition to your own personal historical commission: [email protected] Vice President of Kirkus Indie These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (Norton, 2018): At a KAREN SCHECHNER time when so many works of nonfiction drill down to explore a specific subject [email protected] Senior Indie Editor in great depth, it’s refreshing to see a smart, readable one-volume history of the DAVID RAPP U.S.—especially when it’s written by Lepore, the Harvard professor and New Yorker [email protected] Indie Editor writer who brings such verve and intelligence to all her work. Lepore tackles the MYRA FORSBERG major events and themes of our national history—wars, slavery, the Depression, [email protected] etc.—while shining a light in more unfamiliar corners. Our reviewer called it “a Associate Manager of Indie KATERINA PAPPAS splendid rendering—filled with triumph, tragedy, and hope.” [email protected] The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER the Present by David Treuer (Riverhead, 2018): Kirkus’ reviewer [email protected] called this book a “welcome modern rejoinder to classics such as God Is Red and Mysteries Editor Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” Treuer, an Ojibwe novelist and historian, begins THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor where Dee Brown left off—with the massacre at Wounded Knee—and tells the GREGORY McNAMEE little-told story of Indigenous peoples in the United States in the 20th and early Copy Editor 21st centuries, with significant accounts of Native resistance, from the American BETSY JUDKINS Indian Movement of the 1970s to Standing Rock. “We seem to be everywhere,” Designer Treuer writes, “and doing everything.” ALEX HEAD Kirkus Editorial Production Editor The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee (Simon & Schuster, 2015): ROBIN O’DELL A recent Pew Research Center analysis of census data found that Asian Americans [email protected] Kirkus Editorial Associate are the fastest growing group of eligible voters out of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States. But Production Editor they are woefully underrepresented in most tellings of American history—an omission corrected in this STEPHANIE SUMMERHAYS [email protected] thorough book by a historian of immigration, the great-great-great-granddaughter Website and Software Developer of a Chinese immigrant. Kirkus called the book a “powerful, timely story told with PERCY PEREZ method and dignity.” [email protected] Advertising Director White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg MONIQUE STENSRUD (Viking, 2016): One of the myths Americans like to tell ourselves is that class [email protected] Advertising Associate doesn’t matter in this country—anyone can live the American dream. Isenberg TATIANA ARNOLD shows otherwise, examining the role poor, landless Whites have played in our [email protected] Graphic Designer country’s history, beginning with the indentured servants brought to Jamestown LIANA WALKER and Plymouth in the 17th century. “From the eugenics movement to the rise of the [email protected] proud redneck,” our reviewer wrote, “Isenberg portrays a very real and significant Controller MICHELLE GONZALES history of class privilege in the United States.” [email protected] for customer service or subscription questions, please call 1-800-316-9361 Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/submission-guidlines Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising- Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/subscription/newsletter/add Cover photo by opportunities Jessica Ryan 2 | 15 october 2020 | from the editor’s desk | kirkus.com | you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com contents fiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ...........................................................4 The Kirkus Star is awarded REVIEWS ...............................................................................................4 to books of remarkable EDITOR’S NOTE.....................................................................................6 merit, as determined by the COVER STORY: TANA FRENCH ........................................................ 14 impartial editors of Kirkus. MYSTERY .............................................................................................24 ROMANCE ........................................................................................... 36 nonfiction INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ......................................................... 38 REVIEWS ............................................................................................. 38 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................40 INTERVIEW: TAMARA PAYNE .........................................................46 children’s INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ..........................................................73 REVIEWS ..............................................................................................73 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 74 INTERVIEW: KWAME MBALIA .........................................................80 EDITOR’S NOTE...................................................................................86 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS ............................................................107 CONTINUING SERIES ......................................................................110 young adult INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ........................................................112 REVIEWS ............................................................................................112 INTERVIEW: PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS .....................................118 Acclaimed novelist Hilary Mantel is back indie with a captivating collection of nonfiction. INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS ....................................................... 122 Read the review on p. 62. REVIEWS ........................................................................................... 122 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 124 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH ....................................................... 141 Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. .................................................................................142 SEEN & HEARD You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our APPRECIATIONS: THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, AT 70 .................................................................................................. 143 please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing [email protected]. | kirkus.com | contents | 15 october 2020 | 3 fiction These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE FABERGÉ SECRET Belfoure, Charles Severn House (256 pp.) ZORRIE by Laird Hunt .......................................................................10