A novel that racks up the suspense, especially in its final act, and its searing melodrama really packs a punch.
In Marton’s debut thriller, a Syrian couple is desperate to find their infant son after he vanishes during their journey to a refugee camp.
For surgeon Danel Ottawa and wife Ashara, who live in war-torn Damascus, life is becoming increasingly dire. They opt to take their newborn son, Hamid, and flee to a safe haven at the Za’atari camp in Jordan. Unfortunately, armed thugs are stopping cars and reputedly killing Alawite infants like Hamid. So Sister Helen, who works at a local hospital with Danel, offers to take the boy, convinced that the men won’t bother a United Nations van full of nuns. But Sister Helen and Hamid never arrive at the refugee camp, and the parents wait there for hours that quickly turn into days. Danel ultimately decides to search for his son on his own, believing that the answers he needs are back in Syria. As the story opens, the author establishes tension almost immediately, as Ashara, pregnant with Hamid, must brave shelling and sniper fire as she treks to the hospital to deliver her son. Later, readers find out a fairly grim secret that Danel keeps from his wife. This may lose him some readers’ sympathy, but Marton assures readers that the surgeon is unmistakably tormented by guilt. Once the couple arrives at the camp, the story introduces exemplary supporting characters such as Bethshari, a woman who may be developing feelings for Danel, and 10-year-old Saeed, who, like Danel and Ashara, has lost some family members. The lengthy section in Za’atari causes a bit of a lull; Danel often discusses leaving to look for Hamid but waits for quite a while before finally going. He is, however, effectively shaken by tragedy, and his decision to confess his aforementioned sin heightens the characters’ emotional circumstances. Marton’s descriptions of Hamid are vivacious; his every chortle or whimper helps to make him a full-fledged character and not merely the baby of the story. Readers do eventually learn about what happened to Sister Helen and Hamid, leading to a fervent, indelible climax.
A novel that racks up the suspense, especially in its final act, and its searing melodrama really packs a punch.Pub Date: July 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9963644-0-9
Page Count: 434
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
