An enjoyable and well-paced mystery with a surprise kicker.
An ex-photojournalist and owner of the Joyeux Winery on the central California coast finds herself at the scene of another murder—but this time her cousin turns out to be the prime suspect.
O’Neil’s (Ripe for Murder, 2016, etc.) third Cypress Cove Mystery is a delightful addition to the series. Amateur criminal investigator Penny Lively just can’t stay out of trouble—and danger. Bodies seem to turn up whenever she’s around, much to the consternation of the local sheriff, who warns her to stay out of his cases. But what is Penny to do when veterinarian Brian Grasser is found stabbed in the back on the floor of the clinic he shares with Penny’s cousin Annie Moore and Annie is holding the knife? Fortunately, there are plenty of other suspects for Penny to pursue, although that number drops when one of them is also killed. There’s the aging hippie Dot, who was working in the back office at the time of the vet’s murder; tech Nicole, whom Brian caught stealing pills from the dispensary; Dr. Eric Sloan, the about-to-be-millionaire researcher; and Jason, head of Amerigen, the pharmaceutical company investing in Eric’s new rabies vaccine. Even Brian’s wife, Claire, has something to hide. Penny is an engaging narrator—a pushy and pleasantly sarcastic observer who zooms in on details. The only time she is tongue-tied is when her handsome winery manager, Connor, is around. O’Neil’s prose is breezy and fluent. Dialogue is natural, filled with banter, and not cluttered with constant he said, she said fillers. She is also linguistically comfortable with the tale’s California backdrop, delivering evocative imagery: “The fog was creeping in from the sea, an almost nightly occurrence this close to the ocean. It danced along the ground and curled around the car. There’s a silence that accompanies this ritual.” Plus, there are bonus tidbits about the winery business: “Years ago, wineries were for one thing: making wine. Now, hosting functions was one of the more reliable ways wineries made money.” Appropriate to the story’s veterinary theme, Joyeux hosts the “Fabulously Ugly Dog Contest."
An enjoyable and well-paced mystery with a surprise kicker.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9992703-0-1
Page Count: 300
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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