A mystery with an unusual detective shows hints of promise, but ultimately fails to captivate.
A paraplegic private investigator tracks a cunning criminal in Wassermann's debut noir mystery.
When New Yorker P.I. A.J. Carlin is hired by handsome Eddie Dahlgren, she instinctively knows that all is not as it seems. Still, she agrees to locate the love interest of Eddie's wealthy, 32-year-old niece, Tanya, who moonlights as a singer in a musical group run by Floriana friars. A suspicious death of someone close to A.J., plus the long-ago disappearance of a friend's mother and a multimillion dollar inheritance of her own, soon have A.J. methodically unraveling the twisted truth about past and present crimes. Fiercely independent, A.J. continually reminds everyone about her physical condition throughout the case, often with self-deprecating jokes ("pint-size pleej gimp broad"). She isn't above using her wheelchair to her advantage when necessary, whether it's to gain access to an off-limits location or become conveniently invisible to an able-bodied crowd. Her fondness for strained metaphors ("sleeping like sliced salami"), her crude, tough-guy language and prickly nature suggest an isolated loner. Luckily, she isn't. A.J.'s saving grace is her odd assortment of friends and colleagues, including a beautiful childhood chum, a lawyer on the brink of retirement and electronics guru Tony the Ferret. All help illuminate the narrator's well-hidden sensitive side. Short chapters packed with dialogue and none of the long-winded, internal whodunnit debates that sometimes plague mysteries help the book move at a quick pace. While there are a few surprising twists, including a clever rouse to gather information from a closed office, the bulk of the novel marches steadily through the ho-hum, routine detective work of faxes, phone messages and interviews. The denouement, while containing an intriguing premise, feels hurried and out-of-sync with the rest of the novel. Similarly, the benevolent epilogue also feels far-fetched, especially given the thorny narrator.
A mystery with an unusual detective shows hints of promise, but ultimately fails to captivate.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-1466228054
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2011
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
