Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

Next book

Dead Yet Dying

Exciting mystical elements bolster an exhilarating tale led by two appealing characters.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

In Brain’s (Doris and the Ankh, 2015) thriller, the fate of the world may be in the hands of a janitor and a high schooler, both inextricably tied to a serial killer’s spree.

High school custodian Dan Speegs spends his 37th birthday—also the 15th anniversary of fiancee Gwen’s accidental death—parked in the woods in a drunken haze. When he sees a man take a female out of a car trunk, he believes he’s witnessed a murder; plus, the next day, 15-year-old Allison Murphy is missing. Things only get more bizarre: Dan meets a woman dressed as a cheerleader, who says that only he can see her; then he encounters a boy who seems capable of freezing time. Meanwhile, having narrowly escaped an attempted rape by her English teacher, teenager Liesel Thompson decides to put her trust in Dan, a loner like herself. Together they go after a killer targeting young girls, a killer whose otherworldly plan may be detrimental for all of humanity. There are unmistakable shades of the supernatural in Brain’s novel, but he waits until the final act to reveal what’s truly happening and, for example, who (or what) the cheerleader is. Nevertheless, the first two-thirds of the story are enthralling, despite being grounded largely in reality. Characters are well-rounded: Dan, who blames himself for not saving Gwen, is an alcoholic whose estranged sister won’t let him see his niece or nephew while Liesel’s home life consists of a neglectful mother and abusive father. The unlikely duo’s relationship, too, is familial and there’s clearly nothing sexual between the two; to drive that point home, Brain contrasts Dan with lecherous co-worker Larry, who’s got an eye for the much younger ladies. There’s a hefty amount of action as well as intense sequences as the killer goes after Dan and Liesel, with a bit of time traveling thrown in and a predominantly supernatural battle at the end. Dan also faces the choice of stopping the collapse of the entire world or very possibly preventing Gwen’s death.

Exciting mystical elements bolster an exhilarating tale led by two appealing characters.

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-5174-3709-1

Page Count: 304

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2015

Categories:
Next book

MAGIC HOUR

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

Categories:
Next book

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

Categories:
Close Quickview