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MIGUEL'S GIFT

A long and winding road.

An Immigration and Naturalization Services agent uncovers what was really behind the arrest of an illegal immigrant that went awry.

With 26 years of experience as an agent for the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency, and INS, author Kading delivers a debut thriller that, initially at least, promises a timely angle in its subject, illegal immigration. An opening prologue becomes the crux of the case: on patrol in Chicago in 1974, INS agents spot a Argentinian who appears to be, in agency vernacular, a “wet,” or illegal immigrant. In the violent scuffle that ensues, the suspect is shot dead; but so, too, is one of the officers, and by his own gun. Thirteen years later, new agent Nick Hayden arrives at Chicago INS headquarters with “callowness in [his] eyes.” Hayden works with 54-year-old Joe Willis, a hardened veteran who greets the rookie with something between “indifference and outright hostility.” The pairing seldom moves beyond the schematic to develop the men’s characters more fully. Hayden, in particular, is only sketched in as a law school dropout who's put his personal life on hold until he becomes a top agent. He also remains off scene for long stretches while Kading works in routine and familiar subplots that could be interchanged with any number of other thrillers. Chief among them is one that follows Salvador Rico, who traffics in counterfeit green cards, sparking a turf war among gangsters profiteering from the wave of immigrants arriving in Chicago. With the appearance of each new character, Hayden follows a by-the-numbers approach that turns to expository flashbacks that put a drag on momentum and, as written, do a lot more showing than telling. The plot remains largely unfocused for a good third of the book until attention shifts back to Hayden who, it appears, is certain the 1974 killing masks a major coverup. As he endeavors to uncover the story behind the shootout, the second half of the book gains drive and momentum.

A long and winding road.

Pub Date: April 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-61373-625-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Academy Chicago

Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017

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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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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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