A long but energetic tale that’s rife with drama and mystery, both in and out of the courtroom.
A Florida lawyer has the chance to help a former client on trial for murder in Blair’s (College Football Etiquette, 2015, etc.) legal thriller set in the late 1970s.
Racial tension is a serious problem in Lincoln County, Florida, in 1979. So when cops arrest an African-American man, Lindsey Wilkens, for allegedly murdering a white, affluent car dealer, Arthur Burnside, it seems like a conviction is imminent. Lindsey’s wife, Marie, calls J.T. Lockman, the chief assistant in the Lincoln County public defender’s office. J.T. represented Lindsey years ago when he was accused of selling stolen tools that someone else discarded. The attorney was upset over losing that case and is confident now that Lindsey’s not a killer. Unfortunately, the police have Lindsey’s confession, which they forcibly coerced by using an electric cattle prod. J.T. works to get that confession tossed out and also notices discrepancies in the crime scene photos. There’s a strong Ku Klux Klan presence in the area, and its members are all but certain that Lindsey will receive the death penalty. One of the Klansmen is the cryptically named Nighthawk, whom J.T. and his fellow attorneys come to believe is the actual killer. They just have to match a face and name to the sobriquet—and some evidence, to boot. The author rigorously incorporates issues of race into the plot, which enhance the narrative without overwhelming it. Suspense, too, is in abundance: Nighthawk’s identity, as well as the fiendish Klan Wizard’s, remain unknown until the end. A surprising amount of the story takes place outside the courtroom; J.T. and his team meticulously investigate the case, but Lindsey is disappointingly absent for much of the novel’s latter half. J.T., though, is an engaging protagonist. Although he’s committed to a woman named Deena, the daughter of a wealthy local businessman, his eyes (and hands) perpetually wander to other women; however, his back story provides a convincing reason why he has “some kind of history” with “half the girls from the courthouse.”
A long but energetic tale that’s rife with drama and mystery, both in and out of the courtroom.Pub Date: March 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5238-4795-2
Page Count: 660
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
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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