WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 47Review_FICTION
excellent novel
based on actual
events.
Geertruida
Wijsmuller,
known as Tante
Truus and part
of the Dutch
resistance, is
determined to
risk everything
to save children
of all ages despite—or because of—her
inability to bring a pregnancy to term
herself. In Vienna, the lives of two chil-
dren are highlighted: Stephan Neuman is
Jewish, and because he turned 17 in 1938,
he’s barely allowed to escape to England in
the 1938–1939 Kindertransport, which
will not accept 18-year-olds. Stephan’s
friend and budding beloved, 15-year-old
Sofie-Helene Perger, is not Jewish, but
her mother is a journalist who refuses to
stop writing articles critical of Hitler.
Stephan, an aspiring playwright, must
adapt to the changes in his life, which was
once filled with wealth from his father’s
famous chocolate factory. Math prodigy
Sofie also tries to adapt, uncertain about
how to help Stephan without threatening
her own family. The children and Tante
Truus’s stories don’t intersect until later
in the book, when she secures them safe
passage to England due to a daring, last-
second decision. Clayton effectively cap-
tures the dim hope of survival amid the
mounting terror of the lead-up to WWII.
This is a standout historical fiction that
serves as a chilling reminder of how insid-
ious, pervasive evil can gradually seep into
everyday lives. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly
Rusoff & Assoc. (Sept.)
Robert Johnson’s
Freewheeling Jazz Funeral
Whit Frazier. Whit Frazier, $10.95 trade paper
(280p) ISBN 978-1-5399-6776-7
In this dextrous, brainy novel, Frazier
(Harlem Mosaics) tells a diffuse story of
artists and the arts. Rudy Paschal works
for a publisher of braille books, but he’s
also a New York City playwright who
seeks to create a scriptless, stageless pro-
duction about blues singer/guitarist
Robert Johnson, with a vision of amateur
performers improvising in the streets:
“something a little more freewheeling.
Like a jazz funeral.” Rudy’s first muse is
Janet Plummet, an academic; deeper
inspiration is then provided by Maya
Vicca, a poet whose book Rudy has discov-
ered. The story shifts gears into vignettes
about other characters, including a foray
into the mind of Robert Johnson in the
early 20th century. Maya’s cousin Lucien
Swann is a political science graduate who
has strayed into the business of selling
weed, and Solomon Pinchback—Rudy’s
ex-coworker who grows close to Maya—
is a blind physicist who has “this clever
smile that looks like a wink.” The stories
digress and are drawn back together in a
satisfying way when it becomes clear that
Rudy has continued to work on his play,
which ripens with facets of the additional
vignettes that explore music and musi-
cians, performance, writing, science,
philosophy, theology, and even mystical
elements. The author shows a fiery creative
spark and a stimulating intellect in sus-
taining his far-ranging structure. This
intense philosophical treatise is for enthu-
siastic thinkers who have a visceral feel
for artful ideas. (BookLife)Mystery/Thriller
Anything for You
Saul Black. St. Martin’s, $27.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-1-250-19991-1
Black’s third thriller featuring SFPD
homicide detective Valerie Hart (after
2017’s LoveMurder) offers an intricate
puzzle. What makes Valerie so uneasy
about a case with as much evidence as the
slaying of prominent former prosecutor
Adam Grant and the stabbing of his wife,
Rachel, in their Pacific Heights home?
Maybe it’s the fact that the guy the foren-
sics finger—ex con Dwight Jenner, recently
paroled after six years in San Quentin,
courtesy of Adam—is nowhere to be
found. Or perhaps it’s just Valerie’s some-
what guilty conscience at not recusing
herself from the case because of her “abor-
tive one-night stand” four years earlier with
the victim, during her heavy-drinking days
after separating from her husband, with
whom she has since reconciled. Whatever
the cause, her gut proves golden in this
glossy game of mirrors from Black, who
exploits multiple narrative perspectives
and extended flashbacks to heighten thesuspense. In the end, his sleight of hand
may make some readers feel a bit played—
but only after they’ve stayed up late into
the night to discover the tale’s final twists.
Agent: Jane Gelfman, Gelfman Schneider
Literary Agency. (Nov.)★ Dry County
Jake Hinkson. Pegasus Crime, $25.95 (256p)
ISBN 978-1-64313-223-5
Set in rural Arkansas, this unapologeti-
cally bleak noir from Hinkson (Hell on
Church Street) explores the effects of exis-
tential and spiritual despair in an eco-
nomically depressed town where the
influence of religious fundamentalism is
stifling. For the last 10 years, Richard
Weatherford has been the pastor of a church
in Stock—a
place “with the
lingering stink
of Ozark back-
water to it”—
and has presided
over much of
the community
as its spiritual
leader. He and
his wife are
raising their five
children there. But when a person with
whom Weatherford once had a sexual
encounter attempts to blackmail the
preacher, just days before Easter,
Weatherford is forced to make some hard
decisions that will jeopardize himself, his
family, and his marriage. With the 2016
presidential election looming, politics
plays a significant background role. The
unexpected ending will either enrage
readers or have them applauding. Powered
by raw emotional intensity and a disturb-
ingly realistic portrayal of small-town
America, this story is unforgettable. Agent:
Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber. (Oct.)Fishnet
Kristin Innes. Scout, $27 (352p) ISBN 978-1-
9821-1615-6
In British author Innes’s gritty, uncon-
ventional debut, 20-year-old Rona Leonard
vanishes, leaving her infant daughter in
the care of her older sister, Fiona. Six years
later, Fiona—still a single mother working
a dreary job in a failing business in an
unnamed Scottish city—attends a hen
party in the last place her sister was seen,