All-in-all, an enjoyable ride.
A former gunslinger must revisit his past to save his family.
William Hart is a farmer on the West Texas frontier in the 1870s, with a beautiful wife and son. He tries to instill in his son Billy an abhorrence for violence, but the boy is ashamed of his father, who refuses to fight and won’t even carry a gun like all the other men in town. When Hart’s old friend Sheriff Noble Caulder stops by one night, he knows it’s not just to warn the family about possible Comanche sightings in the area. A band of lawless “regulators” have overrun the town of Enterprise to ensure an outcome to the upcoming mayoral election favorable to their employer, Sam Granger. The ruthless cattle baron is determined to bring the railroad to town so he can ship his cattle cross-country and wants his yes-man Aaron Mobley to win the election. Caulder asks for Hart’s help in driving out the pistoleros, reminding him that he’d saved his life more than once during their days fighting for the Confederates in the Civil War. Hart refuses, saying that he can never repay that debt and that he’s put his guns and his violent past behind him. However, when Granger’s son murders Caulder, he feels compelled to take action, though it means his wife will find out about his past, which she may never understand nor forgive him for. In his quest to restore peace and justice, Hart makes an unlikely and invaluable friend and ally. Edmondson treads well-traveled territory in this Western thriller, but he knows it well, and he’s put together an engrossing tale, led by an engaging and sympathetic protagonist. Though his scene descriptions are ponderous at times, his gun battles are well-executed. The narrative is marred, however, by a lengthy flashback dream, a clichéd device used to relate the details of Hart’s past.
All-in-all, an enjoyable ride.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59330-492-8
Page Count: 165
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
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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