That writers are dreaming up still more variations on the serial-killer thriller is some sort of testament to human ingenuity. Here, Freemantle (the seriocomic Charlie Muffin spy series, etc.) takes his own erratic stab at the subgenre by setting loose a maniac in Moscow, to be hunted down by a joint Russian- American task force. Who fatally knifed American embassy employee Ann Harris, then chopped off her hair and snipped the buttons from her coat? Colonel Dmitri Danilov of the Moscow People's Militia wants to know—as does Ann's powerful uncle, US Senator Walter Burden, whose meddling in the case forces Danilov to accept the help of FBI agent Bill Cowley. Cowley and Danilov cooperate edgily (it's some time before Danilov admits that a male cabbie has been killed in the same way as Ann), and Freemantle—whose thrillers are always character- driven—limns the tentative dance of trust between the two cops in suggestive detail (e.g., Danilov's fear that his stained shirt- -product of a typically broken Russian washing machine—will diminish him in the eyes of the gleaming Yank). Meanwhile, subplots about marital betrayal (Cowley's subordinate in Moscow is the FBI agent who stole his wife; Danilov is cheating on his own wife) add further resonance. But as the cops pursue clues (forensic, as well as eyewitness offered by a third victim, who survives) that lead them to accuse the wrong man, it becomes clear that, here, Freemantle's plotting skills fall short: Readers may i.d. the real killer long before the author intends, and they'll also see through his cursory attempts to shunt suspicion onto yet a third suspect. Read this for its smart local color and sharp insight into human relations—not for its strained, eventually almost suspenseless, storyline.
Pub Date: Aug. 19, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-08716-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
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
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
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