Laced with grue and a trace of black humor, the latest by Australian d'Alpuget (Winter in Jerusalem, 1986, etc.) is set in the Australian outback and rings with alarm bells about the plight of primates (human and otherwise) and creatures in general on our rapidly deteriorating planet. On the grounds of the Exotic Feral Species and Microbiology Research Center, Diana Pembridge, avian specialist and quiet animal-rights activist, faces a dilemma: Should she immediately report her discovery of the tortured corpse of former friend Carolyn Williams to the police? Or should she first rush the huge wounded eagle—who's also shown an interest in Williams's remains- -to the vet? The vet (one of the many who will soon perish) wins. The particularly nasty murder of Williams is of special interest to the employees of the Center: Sonja, director of personnel, sister of a beleaguered politician and wife of the science chief, the elegant John Parker; Joe Miller, director of security and devoted father of a Sydney policewoman; and little Thai assistant Lek, sequestered with the lab chimps. Parker is in Bangkok at the time of the murder, reporting to the underworld heavy who supplies the illegal chimps and whose chauffeur will have a busy assassination schedule. Parker is working with a Curie-like dedication on his very own project, the fatal disease ``White Eye.'' He dreams thrilling dreams of mass wipeouts. While Pembridge, at home, tames and trains the mighty eagle (a process given in riveting detail) and sleuths, there's a shower of murders. The bad guys are exterminated, and love finds Pembridge. But later—What means this report of White Eye in faraway Canada? With eye-opening events and a collision of people, d'Alpuget achieves a hortatory effect with the calm of ashes settling after a conflagration.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-62005-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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