One of this mystery’s investigators may be fluffy, but this thoroughly entertaining novel certainly isn’t.
A recent murder stirs up a cop’s memories of being shot in the line of duty in Ball’s (A Wedding on Ladybug Farm, 2014, etc.) latest thriller.
Aggie Malone, the police chief of Dogleg Island, Florida, barely survived when Darrell Reichart shot her in the head two years ago. She now lives with a bullet lodged in her brain and worries about Darrell’s upcoming trial for his parents’ murders. However, Aggie has the support of her boyfriend, Capt. Ryan Grady, and her faithful companion, Flash, a border collie that was found at the murder scene. Aggie and Flash find a body in the trunk of a car they find in a lagoon, and it turns out that it has a connection to the Reichart killings. Soon Aggie finds herself recalling new details of her own shooting—including the fact that another person was there that night. Meanwhile, her investigation draws her closer and closer to a murderer who hasn’t finished killing quite yet. This is an ample murder mystery with an enthralling protagonist. The story slowly reveals Aggie’s recuperation in flashbacks, and these scenes pay dividends: her injury ultimately ignited her relationship with Grady, and her recurring visions eventually lead to the unraveling of the mystery. The four-legged titular character is endearing and indispensable, and Ball gives him a straightforward perspective: he thinks in basic terms, with Aggie’s safety always in the forefront of his mind. He’s a fine sidekick, and he may be a bit smarter than his human counterparts: he suggests (by barking) that Aggie question a potential witness and exposes (with more barking) a supposed accident as an attempted murder. Ball does such an outstanding job developing Aggie, Flash, and other characters, such as retired sheriff Jerome Bishop, that the murder case gets less attention and decidedly fewer pages. Indeed, readers will likely solve the mystery with relative ease—and wonder why Aggie doesn’t solve it with equal promptness.
One of this mystery’s investigators may be fluffy, but this thoroughly entertaining novel certainly isn’t.Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0985774899
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Blue Merle Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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