Not quite Gone; a thriller that works best as a legal exercise.
After a woman is attacked in her own home, she struggles to return to her “before” life in this cathartic and empowering suspense thriller.
On a night her husband is away on a business trip, Laura Holland, an Atlanta-based freelance journalist, fends off a home intruder, who threatens to return. Traumatized and haunted by recurring nightmares, she reluctantly undergoes therapy and is later compelled to buy a gun and write a story about women, self-defense, and the legal system. “I’m wondering if I could have legally shot him as he fled,” she tells Thomas Bennett, a defense attorney. “I would have considered it self-defense, but if the law says it wasn’t, I want to understand why.” As the two collaborate on a proposed magazine story, Laura’s paranoia escalates. She begins to suspect that Thomas may actually be her attacker. Loosely based on the author’s personal experience, Lazarus’ debut novel is reminiscent of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but it’s much less twisted. The book primarily spans July through December, with each chapter covering a specific day. Laura is the primary narrator, but on a mere three occasions, chapters are devoted to the third-person perspectives of, respectively, Barbara Cole, her therapist; Chris, her husband; and Thomas. Facsimiles of Laura’s therapist’s session notes, a relevant business card, a Miranda rights card, and a reprint of the poem “Desiderata” add a docudrama gravitas to the story. False scares and misdirection keep readers off guard, but suspense isn’t the primary draw here. The book, instead, is more interesting and educational as a hypothetical courtroom drama as Thomas meticulously lays out myriad case scenarios had Laura shot her attacker. There is plenty of fodder for discussion about gun ownership, the right to protect oneself, and the judicial system. The book also delves into the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapeutic techniques. Lazarus writes with authority in these sections that deal with the emotional and psychological wounds wrought by attempted violence against women.
Not quite Gone; a thriller that works best as a legal exercise.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9909374-0-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Mitchell Cove Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 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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