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HOUSE OF ECHOES

Erskine (Midnight is a Lonely Place, 1994, etc.) provides the requisite thrills and chills in a lively ghost story enriched by all the careful research of good historical fiction. When Jocelyn Grant's husband Luke loses his company—his partner takes off with all the money in their joint business account—the future looks dim for the struggling couple. Until, that is, Jocelyn, who'd been adopted as a child, suddenly learns that she's received an inheritance—the centuries-old family manor that she never knew existed, from a mother she never knew. Belheddon Hall, in Essex, is an imposing, even forbidding house; although the down-at-heels couple are ecstatic at their timely good fortune, their new neighbors' gossip—implying that Belheddon is haunted and that the ghosts show a special interest in young boys- -spooks at least Jocelyn, now pregnant with her first child. Joss bears first one son and then, in rapid succession, another, and she becomes increasingly convinced that something evil does linger close by. Luke is highly skeptical and accuses his wife of fanciful imaginings (he even seeks psychiatric help for her), but Joss's best friend David is all too convinced that something does lurk in the Hall, especially when two mysterious, inexplicable deaths occur within days of each other. When Joss and David begin really to explore the history of Belheddon, and to research her mother's life, they uncover more than they bargained for—including a powerful connection to King Edward IV, whose soul, apparently, is not at rest. Jocelyn's family provides a shot of realism as antidote to the eerie goings-on; their concern for Jocelyn as she searches for her past (sister Lyn in particular urges Joss to remember that her real family is the one that raised her) provides an effective counterpoint to the attic wailings and icy white roses of the supernatural scenes. A successful mÇlange of family melodrama and fantasy.

Pub Date: Aug. 19, 1996

ISBN: 0-525-93867-2

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996

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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

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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

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