by Bill Fernandez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 2019
While it sometimes lacks tension, this terrorism tale expertly draws on portions of Hawaii’s history.
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A historical novel focuses on murder and turmoil in 1920s Hawaii.
Grant Kingsley is the son of a sugar plantation owner in Honolulu. At the outset of the narrative, Grant; his brother, David; and their father, James, are set to meet with the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association. It is 1924, and labor relations in the sugar industry are not exactly amicable. A recent strike ended with deadly force, and things show few signs of improving. The planters insist they need to keep wages low for their product to compete on the international market, but the laborers demand better wages. The HSPA feels that the Kingsleys are too soft on their workers. Before discussions can progress, the unthinkable happens: An explosion occurs and James is killed. Who would perpetrate such an act? The HSPA believes that some disgruntled Japanese workers are to blame (“Japanese dynamiters are the culprits,” one man insists), but Grant feels otherwise. Grant, an attorney, decides to investigate. He helps his detective friend Chang Asing track down the killer. Many different ethnic groups—native Hawaiians, the Japanese, and Filipinos—have a reason to be upset with the HSPA, but would any of them resort to murder? It turns out the assassin is a communist named Miguel from the Philippines who has received KGB training. Will Grant and Asing be able to pick through all the thorny relations in Hawaii to stop Miguel before he strikes again? The main problem with Fernandez’s (Splintered Paddle, 2019, etc.) novel is that there is not much to unravel about who murdered James. Sure, Grant and the other characters do not know the killer or why he would resort to such means, yet readers do. Likewise, Miguel’s motivations are clear from the outset. As Grant and Asing collect clues, there is not as much tension as one might anticipate from a plot based on catching an assassin. The book’s excitement stems instead from the many facets of Hawaii’s past that play, in some way or another, into the bigger story. Many readers may not know much about the uneasy melting pot that was Hawaii at the time, and so, for those unfamiliar with, say, the 5-5-3 Treaty of 1922, there is certainly much to learn. From Hawaii’s past as a place ruled by royalty to the many ways the wealthy sugar planters attempted to manipulate their workers, the historical tidbits are weaved into the tale in entertaining ways. Even the history of the ukulele (which Asing plays well) makes an appearance in the narrative. Then there is the complex story of Miguel. How exactly does one become a devout, murderous communist in early-20th-century Philippines? Miguel may not be the most sophisticated villain (for instance, he declares matter-of-factly: “I cannot wait forever to have my vengeance against the killers of Filipinos”) yet his presence helps shed light on international relations at the time. After all, if a communist revolution could happen in a place as vast as Russia, who could stop it in a collection of islands like Hawaii, especially with so much conflict between classes?
While it sometimes lacks tension, this terrorism tale expertly draws on portions of Hawaii’s history.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9990326-8-8
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Makani Kai Media
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Bill Fernandez ; illustrated by Judith Fernandez
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by Bill Fernandez , illustrated by Judith Fernandez , photographed by Judith Fernandez
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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SEEN & HEARD
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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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