28th December, 2025 in Recommended Reads

The Small Hours by Edward Averett

“In God’s world, no one suffers without deserving it. Now confess.” This unsettling line reveals the tension throughout the novel, The Small Hours, by Edward Averett. The story places us into the turmoil of the main character, Michael Virtue’s, quest for discovery following the death of a best friend and flailing marriage. As he searches for answers to his uncle’s mysterious disappearance decades before during the Spanish Civil War, he and a cast of characters must question whether final solutions are something they need or even deserve. The Small Hours provides a measured and reflective style that tends to favor atmosphere over blazing momentum, though that manages to play into the novel’s strengths. Averett provides characters with emotional depth through thoughtful language that ultimately rewards in its themes of guilt and reckoning.