by Bill Cooke ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 29, 2014
Reads like an introduction to something bigger; fans partial to epic apocalyptic thrillers should keep an eye out.
In Cooke’s debut thriller, copycat murders that seem to be emulating the work of a serial killer culminate in lethal riots in the Texas Hill Country, leading the few survivors no choice but to fend for themselves.
The man believed to be the Hill Country Killer is dead. Yet Texans are now tormented by a new serial killer, this one dubbed by the media as The Girl Eater (it’s literal). Subsequent murders are apparently copycats of The Girl Eater’s first attack, but things really turn bizarre with the Circle, an event in which various participants ritually sacrifice a girl. A mob of crazed people (mostly men) then take to the streets, violently killing those who refuse to join them. The group specifically targets Hope, a rescued would-be victim of the Hill Country Killer and young amnesiac who can only remember her name. Cal Ward, recently released from a mental health clinic, is determined to keep Hope safe, even if he doesn’t know why the rioters are after her. Though the author’s novel has shades of a murder mystery (detectives Dwight Hesting and Valerie Marshall do start an investigation), it owes more to post-apocalyptic fiction. The bulk of the story follows Cal, Hope and Jenny, who worked at the hospital where Hope was a resident, evading the deranged mob through a city littered with bodies and devoid of electricity or communication. Many of the survivors, including the detectives and pothead Charles Spiritwalker, are invested more in fleeing the killers than finding answers to explain the goings-on. In fact, readers hoping for monumental revelations may be disappointed: Dwight and Valerie (on horseback) make a concerted effort to track down thuggish Tomas, who may be able to shed light on the motive behind the riots, but the ending offers very little resolution and not much more than a setup for a second book. However, what clarification there is—which recalls an earlier hint during The Girl Eater’s initial appearance—will definitely have an impact. The book is hampered quite a bit by structural issues. Paragraphs, in particular, are broken only by dialogue and scene transitions, so some action details, bunched together in excessively long segments, can feel rushed.
Reads like an introduction to something bigger; fans partial to epic apocalyptic thrillers should keep an eye out.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495406034
Page Count: 506
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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