An English environmental activist teams up with an immensely wealthy rock star to prove that a new pesticide is by no means as benign as its maker would have the world believe. Francis's immense skill as a storyteller (Wolf Winter, 1988; Night Sky, 1984) steers her thriller firmly away from the usual ecohysteria. A rush crop-dusting job, an overworked pilot, poor maintenance, a sticky valve, and a sneaky new pesticide come together in the skies over the vast, isolated, Scottish holdings of a middle-aged rock star who's so much like Paul McCartney there's no point in imagining anyone else in the role. The misplaced pesticide settles on the rock star's pregnant wife, who begins a slow and painful death that, since there were no witnesses to the disaster, is blamed on a harmless wood preservative she'd been using. Into the life of the grieving musician comes Daisy Field, an exceptionally attractive lawyer who's now working full-time for an environmental action organization. Ms. Field has been digging into the cases of some much less famous people who've succumbed to the same symptoms as the musician's wife. Daisy narrows the suspect insecticides down to Silveron, a new product about to go on the market in the UK. Of course, Silveron's manufacturer has no intention of letting Daisy interfere with the success of the lovely new chemical, and her detective work is brutally blocked at every turn. Daisy's budding romance with the musician founders when her shakily documented case crashes. But all's not lost. An American scientist has some important evidence that, if the man will just stiffen his backbone, may help, and the pilot who started the mess, if he can be found, may clear up some crucial points. Ms. Field persists. Thoroughly readable. Daisy is the perfect heroine, and for once there is none of the pious, windy self-righteousness and sermonizing that are the usual curse of eco-thrillers.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-76939-1
Page Count: 728
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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