Sturdy characters and an endless batch of surprises make the glaring translation problems relatively easy to overlook.
Getting the largest piece of a wealthy man’s inheritance may drive his children to undertake a few bad deeds, including murder, in the English-language version of Douglas’ debut thriller.
When billionaire Robert Stanley is run down in an automobile accident in Corsica, his three grown children feel they deserve a sizable chunk of his estate. After all, their relationships with their father have been strained for years after his affair with their governess, Rosa, led to their mother’s suicide. And they need the money: Judge Thomas Stanley, the oldest brother, is enamored with Connie, who has expensive tastes; fashion designer Carmen is paying off a blackmailer; and polo player Billy has a heroin addiction. But everything changes with the appearance of Jennifer Stanley, Robert’s illegitimate daughter with Rosa. Someone wants controlling interest in Stanley Enterprises—not to mention even more money—and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it, even murder. Douglas does an outstanding job establishing the story’s characters. Robert, for example, is undoubtedly the villain, callously sending his kids to separate schools when it was clear that they blamed him for their mother’s death. But the children are well-developed, particularly Thomas and Carmen, whose self-made careers are the result of showing Robert that they could make something of themselves. The novel is shrouded in mystery and brimming with plot twists: there’s the strange family man who watches his son’s baseball game before breaking into the office of Robert’s attorney and the children exhuming Robert’s body (for a DNA test to prove that Jennifer is related) and finding an empty coffin. Likewise, the story is bolstered by a bit of dark humor, like the French police captain who stalls releasing Robert’s body to lawyer George so he can soak up the press’ attention for as long as possible. The translation to English from Spanish unfortunately hits some stumbles, with an abundance of typos and odd phrasings, including an explanation of the title: “[Robert] looks at one of the crew member almost angry and this change his mood. He obviously has a very bad mood.”
Sturdy characters and an endless batch of surprises make the glaring translation problems relatively easy to overlook.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1614000037
Page Count: 478
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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