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PURGATORY ROAD

A banal chiller from Reiss (The Last Spy, 1993, etc.), this set at an American research base in Antarctica, in which a lone scientist battles the elements, colleagues, and superiors to solve the deeper mystery of his sister's death. Against administrative orders, gifted seismologist Jack Amirault (engaged in classified sounding work for the US Navy) and best friend Brian Phillips venture out to save sexy environmentalist Robyn Cassidy, who's marooned on Purgatory Road, a perilous mountain pass she's traversing to dramatize the dangers that development poses to the polar continent's ecology. The rescue mission succeeds, albeit at the cost of Brian's life—and Jack's status as a reliable team player. One year later, Evylyn Amirault, also working at the base, is found dead, floating in the frigid waters bordering the remote US station. While Jack believes his sister's been murdered, the official verdict is that she was the victim of an unfortunate accident. And fellow scientists—unwilling to jeopardize their government grants on the eve of a treaty that could open the resource-rich land to commercial exploitation, and wary of the grieving Jack's mental stability—decline to help. Jack nonetheless persists in his unwelcome inquiries and unearths evidence convincing him that there's a more sinister conspiracy. Circumstance obliges him to join forces with Robyn (who has her own agenda), and the two light out through the treacherous wilderness to confirm Jack's suspicions. Before they can come in from the cold to expose the schemes of the Western world's military/industrial complex, however, they must survive a fearsome blizzard, great sex on the glacier, and a lethal shootout in a craggy redoubt that houses mummified seals. Despite intentions good enough to pave an alternate route to hell, a preachy tract largely unredeemed by entertainment value.

Pub Date: Feb. 12, 1996

ISBN: 0-684-81119-7

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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MAGIC HOUR

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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