Though the tropes invoked by Masterton (Festival of Fear, 2012, etc.) may be more tired than tried and true, his imaginative...
A historic hotel appears to be possessed by the ghost of its former owner and her creepy son.
Described as an “unredeemed hippy,” Sissy Sawyer believes that she can see into the future with the help of her DeVane deck, beautifully illustrated cards that help her interpret what will come to pass. When her stepnephew, Billy, stops by with his new girlfriend on a rainy Connecticut day, Sissy immediately senses that the beautiful girl has questions for both her and her cards and sends Billy out so that the two may talk alone. T-Yon, Cajun-speak for Petite Lilian, was raised in Louisiana with her brother, Everett. Now she’s had a disturbing and embarrassing nightmare about herself, her brother and her brother’s latest project, The Red Hotel in Baton Rouge. Sissy wishes she had better news to share, but T-Yon’s cards suggest that Everett is in grave danger. So Sissy and T-Yon catch a southbound flight to see if they can help in person. Everett, meanwhile, is determined to make the opening of his latest project a success and is more annoyed than afraid when deputy hotel manager Luther finds a blood-soaked rug in one of the hotel rooms. Although he doesn’t believe the rumors giving the other guests freesons (goose bumps), Everett knows he needs to put a stop to local chatter about the hotel being possessed by the ghost of former owner Mrs. Slider with the assistance of her son, Shem. T-Yon hopes that she can make a believer out of Everett before her dream becomes a reality.
Though the tropes invoked by Masterton (Festival of Fear, 2012, etc.) may be more tired than tried and true, his imaginative details and storyline more than compensate for any lack of originality.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8189-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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
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