The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex
11/11/25; 368 pages
Viking/Penguin
The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex is a so-so literary thriller, recommended for the right reader, about revenge family secrets, betrayals, and unsolved mysteries set in 1989.
Birdie Keller has been waiting eighteen years to hear that her sister's killer, Jimmy Maguire, has been freed from prison. She leaves her home with a handgun and a plan to avenge her sister, Providence’s, murder by killing him. Jimmy, who has always claimed the murder was committed by Floyd, is met at the prison by his daughter who drives him to see his family. It becomes clear that Jimmy was mentally ill and being treated for this while in prison.
The narrative is divided into parts following both characters and a dual timeline. It opens following Birdie in the present and tells the story of her childhood and formative years in the past. Next is Jimmy's point-of-view, where he also becomes a sympathetic character through his dual timelines. His vocabulary is filled with swearing only it is written blanked out as: ‘——ing’, ‘——ed’, or ‘——‘, etc. This technique to avoid the actual word quickly becomes annoying and tiresome due to the number of times it is used and the reader is left to guess the swear word they would insert in the blank.
While the actual quality of the writing (ignoring the over usage of blanked-out words) is good, the pace and plotting are both ploddingly, glacially slow. As a consummate reader, for me to have to try to not doze while reading is a very rare occurrence, yet nod I did. While there were some glimmers of the novel it could have been, alas, this one left a lot to be desire for me. Thanks to Viking/Penguin for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
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