A dark mystery story that, despite its potential, juggles too many characters and plot twists.
Detective Mike Carr tries to solve a cold case amid a sea of suspects in a small town in this mystery/thriller set in 1979-1980.
This novel is one of several by Summers (Gethsemani Journals: Two Retreats in 2012, 2012) that stars Lynch’s Corner and its various residents. Mike Carr, a private detective and grieving widower, takes the case of Amber Yeager, a young girl whose murder is still unsolved. Along the way, Mike crosses paths with former Office of Strategic Services members, a mysterious cult of man-hating nuns, and a whole host of small-town adultery, lying and cheating. Summers engagingly establishes the different plot threads, and the mystery is intriguing. An overlarge cast of characters confuses the reader, however, especially Mike’s older relatives—all seem to be spies with a history of crime and an extensive knowledge of religious cults. In addition, while many of the various mysteries come together as the novel progresses, multiple storylines distract from the main plot. The case of Amber’s murder ends up building toward a climax that doesn’t pay off, and the psychopathic-nuns angle is derivative at best. In that vein, despite the abundance of female characters, none of them feel complex or realistic. This is especially true for the character of Crissy, Mike’s love interest, who helps him recover from the death of his wife. Crissy is supposed to be a mysterious woman with a secret, but instead, she comes across as merely inconsistent. All in all, the author lays the groundwork for a fast-paced mystery but doesn’t quite wrap up the many plots set in motion.
A dark mystery story that, despite its potential, juggles too many characters and plot twists.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1493510474
Page Count: 374
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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