An often entertaining novel featuring some humor and some mystery.
In the latest novel from Bartley (Every Secret Thing, 2014, etc.), the moral and cynical gangster Ross Duncan hunts for a Chinese antique with a long history in storied San Francisco.
In September 1934, Duncan takes part in a bank robbery with some other New York gangland types, which goes smoothly—except for a double cross involving a man named Fingers Pete. Months later, Duncan winds up in San Francisco with some hot gems to fence and a score to settle with Fingers, a dangerous killer with a trademark .22-caliber pistol. When Duncan’s connection proposes a job involving a mysterious auction lot and a chance to get back at Fingers, he decides to investigate. The job starts with a mysterious question (“What do you think about immortality?”) that starts Duncan off on a quest to piece together the history of the artifact, from ancient China through Chinese immigration to San Francisco’s Mayor Adolf Sutro. In previous books, Duncan demonstrated a knack for getting into situations that involved delving into a lot of history: your average detective might investigate an unhappy marriage, but Duncan’s mysteries tend to involve larger historical forces as well. This installment demonstrates some surprising violence and some neat detection (as when Duncan notices a dust-free picture frame). However, he also spends a good amount of time listening to other characters’ history lessons. Duncan’s a fine guide to this world, however, with his mix of tenderness and coolness: when he finds the dying, innocent girl, for example, he comforts her in her last moments; when he finds the dead body of a less-innocent person, he notes that “He had everything except a pulse now.” Overall, though, as interesting as the history is, readers may wish that Duncan had a bit more to do.
An often entertaining novel featuring some humor and some mystery.Pub Date: July 31, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78036-286-1
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Peach Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2015
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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