by Nedler Palaz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2013
A well-paced, if occasionally awkward, Western tale.
Palaz (The Checker Board: Book One, 2013) continues gunman Dave Smith’s adventures in West Texas in a dark, violent Western involving not cowboys and Indians, but railroads and businessmen.
At the end of the previous installment, Dave had found a home at the Checker Board Ranch, complete with a new father figure, Pinto Larson; Dave’s friend Sam; and a love interest, Dolores. But his haven may not last now that unscrupulous businessmen have come to exploit opportunities in West Texas. Dave’s tyrannical father is one of them, and he’s interested in taking revenge on his wayward son. When Dave’s father prevents the railroad from taking Larson’s cattle to market, Larson and the other cattlemen organize an old-fashioned cattle drive. Later, Larson and Dave must contend with outlaw bounty hunters; a legal wrangle over the deed to the Checker Board land; and a land surveying company that takes over the Checker Board hacienda. In the first book, a fight or a conversation would usually quickly resolve a problem; but here, when even the law turns against the Checker Board ranchers, there are no easy solutions. Book One often downplayed tension, but this installment is breathlessly paced, with Dave Smith facing conflict after conflict. Palaz ratchets up the excitement by constantly putting characters in harm’s way—and occasionally allowing them to be harmed. However, this second book still contains some of the first’s quirky prose; for example, the narration occasionally switches between Dave’s first-person point of view and an omniscient third-person perspective. Dave’s observations still sometimes feel overdone, as when he describes tyrannical fathers who “continued a smug life, unmindful of all the dire disintegration of two children’s lives.” Although the violence never feels gratuitous, squeamish readers may have a hard time with the body count, which is more Sam Peckinpah than John Ford.
A well-paced, if occasionally awkward, Western tale.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1460213070
Page Count: 216
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nedler Palaz
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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