Debut thriller about a very irresponsible, very sexy young woman who drops in on her friend, the American consul, and changes the course of his career, local politics, and the social life on a backwater Caribbean island. Idle hands, etc. Nobody except the local crime boss has enough to do on tropical Navidad. Slowly rising young State Department fogy Jim Biggins spends his time approving visas and padding his paunch. The CIA station chief spends his time tut-tutting about liberal reforms. The natives nap. Then, about the time the corpse of a young American is found by the side of a road where he appears to have been run over by a truck but was, in fact, not, Miss Bobbi Lyons, Biggins's semi-truthful former colleague from his previous publishing existence, seeks Jim's protection, having fled the lustful approaches of a yachtsman from whom she has bummed a ride. Bobbi bums rides everywhere. People can't say no to her, even though they might like to. Jim certainly can't say no to her moving in on him, even though he can expect no quid for his quo. Biggins's quiet life is over. Bobbi, to Jim's considerable surprise, crawls into his bed, and then, to his great chagrin, worms her way into his professional life and the investigation of the death of the young American, which is connected to the mysterious nighttime activities of the local criminal strongman, who's being investigated by the CIA for his involvement with the local Cuban spy chief, who may or may not be crooked. Every bit of mischief is interrelated. It is, after all, a very small island. Witty, stylish, smart thriller, with far more than its share of splendidly drawn characters.
Pub Date: Feb. 24, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-12164-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992
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
BOOK REVIEW
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