UNPAID DEBTS

Name: UNPAID DEBTS
Author: Antonio Jiménez Barca
ISBN: 978-8494349621

by Antonio Jiménez Barca ; translated by Benjamin Rowdon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 10, 2015

As a crime novel, this work doesn’t consistently sustain the level of suspense needed for a page-turner, but its reflective...

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A down-and-out debt collector abruptly finds himself at the center of a murder investigation.

Spanish lawyer Pablo Esteban’s life is falling apart, as the business he works for is near bankruptcy and his longtime girlfriend has recently left him for another man. Unexpectedly, he runs into his former best friend, Trendy, on the metro, and the two make plans to meet later to reminisce about their teenage years and fill each other in on the decade-plus since they've last seen each other. Later that night, Trendy is stabbed to death, and police investigator Antonio Roche believes that as one of the last people to see him alive, Pablo is the key to solving the murder. Set in 1998, the story begins slowly but becomes increasingly captivating as Pablo is reunited with his childhood friends at Trendy's funeral and later returns to the barrio of his youth. In between time spent assisting Roche with interviews, Pablo pursues meetings with other inhabitants of Madrid who owe his employer long-standing debts, some of whom also have startling connections to Pablo's old life. Jiménez Barca’s novel won the Silverio Cañada Prize in 2006 for best debut crime novel in Spanish, and his prose, translated by Rowdon, deftly conveys a world-weary tone, especially as Pablo reflects on his teenage years and on Nora, the girl he and Trendy both loved. Investigator Roche deftly interrogates Pablo's and Trendy’s former acquaintances, always keeping one eye on how the past is shaping the present, and the case takes on new urgency as Pablo's own life is threatened.

As a crime novel, this work doesn’t consistently sustain the level of suspense needed for a page-turner, but its reflective moments offer eloquence, even in the well-trodden territory of teenage love triangles and coming-of-age tales.

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015

ISBN: 978-8494349621

Page Count: 326

Publisher: Hispabooks

Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.