Another breathlessly paced, emotionally charged tale for fans of the late Cookson (1906–98).
Overwrought but appealing melodrama set sometime after WWI in Tyneside.
Annie Hannigan, a sensitive girl who dreams of becoming a nun, is aghast to discover that a convent schoolmate, Cathleen Davidson, has been telling tales about her: specifically, that her mother, Kate Hannigan, isn't really married to her stepfather, Dr. Rodney Prince; and that Annie herself is illegitimate. Kate advises her daughter to ignore the malicious gossip (even though Annie had indeed been born on the wrong side of the blanket) and assures her that a civil marriage ceremony is perfectly legal, no matter what Father Bailey says. Happy at last (and pregnant again), Kate has no way of knowing that beautiful Cathleen is bent on wrecking the lives of so many innocent people: Terence MacBane, the poor but intelligent young man educated at Oxford, with whom Annie falls in love; Steve, the brawny chauffeur who's ensnared by Cathleen's seductive wiles; Michael Davidson, Cathleen's brother, who's sent to Canada to keep him away from his evil sister's machinations; husband Rodney, who's beginning to believe the rumors Cathleen spread about Kate's putative love affair with Steve (see above: brawny chauffeur); and even Father Bailey, the beleaguered priest who tries to keep lovelorn Annie from entering the convent after she discovers Cathleen's nude sketches of Terence and Terence's rambling journal notations about love in general and his feelings for Cathleen in particular. Distraught, Annie clambers down a seaside cliff to drown herself, but Terence snaps out of his post-grad fog and rescues her in a dramatic finale, while Cathleen awaits her comeuppance.
Another breathlessly paced, emotionally charged tale for fans of the late Cookson (1906–98).Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-1252-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
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