An engaging thriller that highlights the universality of love.
An Internet-age murder mystery with a modern edge.
LeRoy’s debut novel takes readers back to 1998, when the onslaught of online communication presented new forms of social interaction. But the light whimsy of chat rooms and cyber encounters turns dark when a man hoping to meet his new love interest in person instead ends up dead. Johnny D’Agostino’s computer reveals a series of effusive emails between himself (“JohnnyD”) and Frankie Fitzgerald (“Frankie007”); the last one indicates an agreed-upon romantic rendezvous at the Triton Babies fountain at the Boston Public Garden. Detective Peter Angelo, a friend of Johnny, is assigned to the case, and must separate his grief from the task of tracking down Frankie and getting to the bottom of the mystery. But Peter has other suspects to weed through: He soon discovers that Frankie’s jealous lover, Matt, was aware of the virtual courtship and might have played a role in ending Johnny’s life. Matt has mysteriously vanished, and Peter’s determined to track him down in order to see justice served. As both men end up pursuing the same woman, however, their desire for her escalates, blinding both men to precautions and safety. At the core of the mystery lies the bigger conundrum of Johnny himself; as is often true in the faceless world of the Internet, each character’s outward persona differs from his or her inner core. The complex entanglements between Frankie, Johnny, Matt and Peter reflect the novel’s theme: that love is difficult in all its forms. Despite the central relationship’s virtual quality, it contains the same seeds of envy and revenge as a real-life love affair. Overall, this gripping tale of suspense and romance, told via the alternating viewpoints of Peter and Matt, deeply explores timeless themes of obsession and jealousy.
An engaging thriller that highlights the universality of love.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615901084
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Mossik Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2014
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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