Nancy Drew meets Antiques Roadshow.
Classic old chestnut from the late Dame Catherine Cookson (The Silent Lady, 2002, etc.).
Brawny antiques dealer Paul Aylmer took in little Alison Read after the demise of her uncle Humphrey, Paul’s wartime chum and business partner (the girl’s parents had died long before and tragically). Moving briskly past all the bodies, the author gets down to brass upholstery tacks soon enough: Can’t Paul see that Alison is a woman now? Young, yes—but wise beyond her tender years, and with an unerring eye for fabulous furniture and noteworthy knickknacks with distinguished pedigrees. Over the years Paul taught Alison everything he knows about things like French eight-day timepieces and octagonal Georgian wine coolers, but now he seems oblivious to her budding charms. Alison indulges in secret sobs into her pillow once in a while, but she knows that loneliness may well be an orphan’s cross to bear and dries her girlish tears soon enough—until Paul’s former flame reappears. Mrs. Freda Gordon-Platt is a heartbreaker still, and Alison jealously wonders what Freda wants from Paul this time. Apparently, Freda’s dotty mother-in-law, the first Mrs. Gordon-Platt, has concealed some valuable necklaces within various odd objects that have subsequently vanished. Is there anything Paul can do? The convoluted history of the Gordon-Platts is gradually revealed but not the whereabouts of the jewelry. The redoubtable old lady, a former beauty and social butterfly who no longer has use for such baubles, has hidden it all safely away from the clutches of scheming Freda—as well as from the much more deserving Margaret, her hopelessly plain daughter who committed the unpardonable sin of marrying beneath her. Enter yet another Gordon-Platt to vie with a young furniture dealer for Alison’s favor. Alison, however, is too preoccupied with her unrequited tenderness for Paul and the mystery of the missing necklaces to pay much attention. Is it possible that the old writing case up for auction holds a secret compartment? A deft twist of a penknife will reveal a surprise . . . .
Nancy Drew meets Antiques Roadshow.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-58547-064-3
Page Count: 184
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
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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