Another solid, entertaining noir thriller from Bartley.
In Bartley’s (A Bullet to Dream of, 2014, etc.) latest historical novel, a 1930s gangster with a conscience finds himself tangled up in big small-town mysteries involving murder, drugs and—most dangerous of all—young love.
In the book’s very first paragraph, Ross Duncan drinks Old Overholt rye, checks his pistol and reads his Bible, which provides a succinct snapshot of his character: a man with a hard past who’s willing to do hard things but who’s also looking for a redemptive path through life. Unfortunately for Ross, his path out West, after a couple of flat tires, leaves him stranded in Gentryville, a small California town that’s a hotbed of noir suspense. There’s a young, up-and-coming boxer whose trainer uses some unorthodox methods, including narcotics; a blowsy drunk with a hard-luck tale of an embezzling husband; and a good-time mayor with the muscle to enforce his special rules who’s facing an imminent election against his old mentor. As a bartender tells Ross, “There are a lot of things about this town you wouldn’t guess.” Ross, who stands up to bullies, becomes drawn to the tragedy of the boxer and his girlfriend; finally, he ends up working for the shady Mayor Vargas. The mayor has a blurry past, a mysterious wife and a plan for a big score. The mysteries of Gentryville soon stretch to San Francisco, with its scandal-ridden Hetch Hetchy plan to bring water from Yosemite, and to Detroit, with a tale of missing drugs and a missing wife. Bartley’s writing is confident throughout, moving smoothly from the clean prose of action scenes (“I shot him once in the chest”) to poetic asides on small-town sin; Gentryville, for example, is described as “a confined space that allowed the whispers to echo.” Ross, in particular, is a curious character: a bank robber who talks about physicists, evolution and psychiatry (“In prison I’d read some writings by a guy named Freud: ‘No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore’ ”). Although he sometimes seems overly informed, he’s an intriguing guide for a redemptive tale that’s also a meditation on love.
Another solid, entertaining noir thriller from Bartley.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1780362601
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Peach Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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