Sufficiently creepy stuff from the master of true crime: This book is better-plotted than the murder itself. Rule (Small Sacrifices, 1987, etc.) begins her latest on an Oregon highway at rush hour, a van with blood-spattered windows and an empty infant seat stalled crosswise in the left-hand lane. The dead woman inside leads to ex-husband Brad Cunningham, whose personal history leans decidedly toward the shady. Cunningham married five times before the age of 40, his aggressive charm and permanent dissatisfaction leading him to dozens of women. Thick-necked, well-dressed, and possessed of enough stamina to spend every penny earned by whomever he found himself married to, Cunningham cut a formidable figure. But it was controlling his children, especially his sons, that really mattered to him. Always a collector, Cunningham amassed trucks, lavish homes, and babies at a frenetic pace, but former wives maintained their distance and kept the children hidden whenever Brad came calling. It is only after her three boys are born that fourth wife Cheryl Keeton recognizes the danger of being Brad's wife. Their vitriolic separation is a textbook case in ugly splits, and it is rendered in gossipy, depressing, and mesmeric detail. When police find Cheryl's body battered beyond recognition in the van, Brad is the obvious suspect. Rule keeps the reader's expectations roiling during the years it takes Oregon police to solve the crime, and the life she examines is indeed a strange one. Cunningham's eccentricities gradually alchemize into evil, and the murder trialin which he defends himselfis pure lunacy. Not enough forensic detail for the blood-and-fiber crowd, but this is a terrific read and a moving tale that ends with a strange redemption. (32 pages b&w photos, 1 map, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-684-80205-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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