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FINAL ARGUMENT

Name: FINAL ARGUMENT
Author: Clifford Irving
ISBN: 0-671-74868-8

by Clifford Irving ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1993

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Hell hath no fury like the women Irving's lawyer heroes love and leave. This time, Ted Jaffee, a former prosecutor now growing fat at a Sarasota partnership, will rue the day he ever laid hands on Connie Zide, whose wealthy husband Solly was supposedly killed by a man Ted prosecuted 12 years ago—but who, new evidence suggests, may be innocent. The unsavory source of the new evidence is Elroy Lee, a.k.a. James Lee Elroy, who tries to barter his way out of a coke possession charge with the admission that his testimony against fellow-inmate Darryl Morgan was bought and paid for by crooked cop Floyd Nickerson, the man who also testified that Darryl had confessed to him even though Darryl denied in court he had done so. With every reason to avoid returning to the scene—he'd broken off with Connie even before her husband was shot; his realtor wife Toba is going through tough times and doesn't need the revelation of his old affair; his son Alan is just starting on the drug-using road that could make him another Elroy Lee unless he gets prompt, decisive help; even his partners in Sarasota make it clear they disapprove—Ted is nonetheless drawn to the sullen man he'd put away for a dozen years, and vows to reopen his case. Key witnesses who haven't disappeared stonewall or suddenly die; Ted's mentors and colleagues are aghast at his switch from prosecuting to defending Darryl; and Ted's own client, on first meeting him, tries to kill him. If you think all this slows Ted down from seeing that justice is done, you haven't read many books like this. Not as fresh or resourceful as Irving's last take on a similar subject (Trial, 1990), but still a potent threat to your reserves of midnight oil.

Pub Date: April 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-671-74868-8

Page Count: 356

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.