A pleasingly confident historical adventure story that engagingly shows one man’s emotional journey.
A historical mystery novel set in belle epoque New York.
Hayes’ richly imagined debut novel begins with a depiction of devotion: Alan Varden, a young boy who lives in terror of his violent, abusive father, takes refuge with his grandmother, who faultlessly loves him and encourages his intellectual bent (“Such a mind! Such a mind!” she repeatedly tells him). She doesn’t fully understand Alan; she fails to fathom, for instance, why he doesn’t venerate the celebrated War of 1812 veteran Robert George Esmond. However, she loves Alan unconditionally and is distraught when he goes off to serve in the medical corps during the Civil War (out of “intellectual curiosity,” he insists, not “simple-minded patriotism”). His experiences in the war further sharpen his prickly misanthropy; behind his back, his military colleagues make fun of “his air of superiority, his frequently stilted manner of speech…the signs of nervousness he showed during shelling.” He has an insatiable scientific curiosity, however, and after the war, he goes to Columbia and becomes a specialist in the fledgling field of neuropathology. He studies the psychology of the hospital’s patients while they’re alive and their physiology after they’re dead, coming to the conclusion that “the vast majority of mental illnesses had no physical explanation.” He also studies the bodies of homicide victims and becomes skilled in determining causes of death; at the same time, he becomes fascinated by Judith Esmond, the revered war hero’s young wife. Alan’s outspoken impatience with the medical establishment throughout gives him a reputation as a troublemaker. Hayes does a wonderful job of crafting this complex character, making him real without making him sympathetic. Her depictions of his expanding role in the murder investigations of the local police are also very well-paced and controlled. This is a lengthy book, but it seldom feels long; Hayes keeps its dramatic tension going by gradually and effectively showing Alan’s emotions maturing behind his vast intellect.
A pleasingly confident historical adventure story that engagingly shows one man’s emotional journey.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4921-0556-5
Page Count: 614
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 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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