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DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR

Name: DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR
Author: Barnaby Williams
ISBN: 0-684-86829-6

by Barnaby Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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British author Williams makes his US debut with the tale of an ancient noble family almost destroyed by war, taxes, and a blue-blooded murderer. The story, which begins in 1914 and ends in 1962, chronicles the decline of the once powerful De Clare family, offering a breathless take on 20th-century history along the way. Battles of both World Wars are graphically described, and historical figures like Winston Churchill and King George VI make cameo appearances. Williams also airs some of the period’s seamier gossip: the Duke of Windsor has sexual problems, and his Duchess, supposedly a Nazi spy, plots to overthrow the British government. One of the bad De Clares, Godfrey, is a homosexual who, like Anthony Blunt, spies for the Soviets while working as a distinguished art historian. In 1914, all the eligible De Clares go to fight in France. But the only survivor, ironically, is cousin Fish, who takes the De Clare motto (death before dishonour) so seriously that he insists on fighting on even when badly wounded. Fish marries Vi and becomes the 20th earl after his uncle suffers a fatal fall, and older brother Cromwell cuts his throat. While the other De Clares spend the years between the wars either spying (like Godfrey) or preparing for the next war (like soldier Freddie), Fish farms. When Hitler attacks, the De Clares are again ready: Fish is killed rescuing soldiers from Dunkirk, and his son Gawaine, the new earl, becomes a fighter pilot. Gawaine barely survives a German attack, but lives to marry and reproduce. Time speeds up, as the characters—who have neither inner lives nor shading, only parts to play—rush to the 1960s. There, Godfrey, determined to be earl, continues his murderous scheming, only to be thwarted by plucky Vi. As energetic, and superficial, as a “See Seven European Capitals in Seven Days” tour.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-684-86829-6

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).

Pub Date: July 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-345-45071-X

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.