A high-profile rape case lands the prosecuting attorney in more trouble than the victim or the defendants ever dreamed of. Rookie model Ali Duncan, 17, sure didn't pick the right people to get assaulted by: her former lover George Fonseca, ex- footballer Marquis Lamont, and moneyed boutique owner Klaus Ruffini. Handed this hot potato by a see-no-evil Florida state's attorney, Miami prosecutor Sam Hagen presses for indictments, and in no time at all—okay, it takes practically forever—his key witness, pretty-boy model Charlie Sullivan, is murdered. Can Sam make a case with a dead witness and a victim who's only too eager to drop her complaint for a fat Ruffini settlement—and who's no poster girl anyway? It may not matter, because the next victim is George Fonseca. Sam doesn't realize (though the gentle reader will) that the murders have less to do with what happened to Ali Duncan than what happened a year ago to Sam's son Matthew, a.k.a. aspiring model Stavros, a rebellious kid who mixed liquor, drugs, and his new motorcycle into a suicidal cocktail. As Sam drifts away from his obsessively grieving wife Dina and back into the arms of his onetime lover Caitlin Dorn, a model-turned-fashion- photographer who's survived as long as she has by knowing all the wrong people, Sam's former partner in war and work, Frank Tolin, warns Sam that Caitlin knows more than she's ever admitted about Matthew's death. But does Sam listen? And will he deserve everything he gets? Parker (Suspicion of Guilt, p. 18, etc.) moves toward Dominick Dunne's soapy territory, but without Dunne's (or Parker's own previous) knack of keeping the story clear and compelling by taming subplots and keeping minor characters vivid and distinct. A painfully obvious snoozer. (First printing of 50,000; Literary Guild Selection; author tour)
Pub Date: Feb. 19, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-93976-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995
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
BOOK REVIEW
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