An entertaining, unusual mix of the caper novel with dashes of comedy, romance, and spirituality.
In this comic novel, a young con woman plans to steal from a spiritual community but instead finds herself wanting to join their search for truth.
Having run out of money three years ago, Jessabelle Knox wants to return to art school to finish her degree in special makeup effects. Her parents are out of the picture; she now runs confidence games with her uncle Trix, using carefully crafted disguises to better scam the greedy. Though the money’s good, it all seems to get eaten up in expenses, so art school is looking further away than ever. Then they stumble upon a big score: a spiritual community that’s home to a $3 million gold statue. Trix proposes that she join up in disguise so they can steal the Shiva statue. But stealing from a guru? “It sounds so grubby,” Jessabelle says. Despite Trix’s reassurances—“Everybody knows gurus are the biggest con artists around,” he says—Jessabelle’s love of illusion, and an overwhelming desire for art school, Jessabelle soon questions her mission. She likes the residents of Lalliville, is deeply impressed by the guru Lalli, and, through meditation, discovers within herself a longing for truth: “She wanted the luxury of being the same person with everyone.” As Jessabelle develops deeper links with the community, she’ll have to decide where her truest loyalty lies. In her debut novel, Ortner nicely balances comedy with romance—Jessabelle falls for a Lalliville member—and serious spiritual practice. Jessabelle’s awakening may not resonate with skeptical readers, but Ortner describes it vividly; for example: “She felt this intensified love for the trees, the grass, the sky, the clouds, and every other thing she saw, including the Dumpster behind the dining hall.” Convincing details of Jessabelle’s artistry with makeup effects help establish her character, and Ortner interestingly complicates this issue when the wise Lalli questions a simple truth-vs.-illusion formula: “…being a liar and a fraud is one of your best qualities,” she tells Jessabelle. The ending wraps things up a bit too neatly, but it’s still a satisfying read.
An entertaining, unusual mix of the caper novel with dashes of comedy, romance, and spirituality.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-986-35261-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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
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