And that’s the rub. Ashford (A Truthful Injustice, 2002, etc.) does such an expert job of boxing in his harried hero that...
Is the victim also a perp? So think the coppers in this latest of Ashford’s acrid blind-justice fables.
Because the guard is away from his station, nobody sees Gavin Penfold, a computer-network architect with Counties Bank, when he leaves work late one evening. And nobody is around when he’s abducted by a gang of criminals, bound and blindfolded, and hustled back into his Jaguar. The only witness happens by just in time to identify the car that’s swerved out of control and run down a woman, seriously injuring her. Whatever their plan was, it’s clearly been foiled, and the kidnappers pour Scotch into Penfold, prop him up in the driver’s seat, and leave him to take the blame for the hit-and-run. The ruse works perfectly, and despite the unwavering support of his wife and the best efforts of his barrister, Penfold finds precious little credence among the county CID, most of whom would rather shove the most likely suspect into jail than spend the time and resources checking out his wild story. Tried and convicted, he’s sentenced to five years in prison. Justice, if it’s to be had at all, will have to arrive from an unexpected quarter.
And that’s the rub. Ashford (A Truthful Injustice, 2002, etc.) does such an expert job of boxing in his harried hero that there’s only one possible ray of light, and the tale winds up with all-too-little surprise, though with considerable moral gratification.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7278-5972-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
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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