by CSP McNulty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 21, 2017
A brutal, mesmerizing, and historically compelling war story with a fully drawn protagonist.
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A historical novel brings readers deep into the agonizing battles of World War II’s final year on the European front and the trials in Germany following the Allied victory.
William Connelly was raised in privilege, part of Philadelphia’s Main Line elite. His grandfather was a penniless Irish immigrant who, through fortitude and good fortune, opened his own brickyard, which his two sons expanded into a prominent paving company. Now his uncle is a United States congressman. But despite his access to a safer stateside deployment, Will, an Army lieutenant with a law degree, ships out to join the 106th Infantry Division. In December 1944, Will is stationed in Belgium when word comes that the Germans, who had been in retreat, are mounting a major new offensive. Will unexpectedly finds himself thrust onto the battlefield, to which, despite being seriously wounded, he returns, in one capacity or another, until the end of the conflict on the European front. On May 5, 1945, two days before the official armistice, Will is ordered to help liberate a “prison” camp. The shock of what he finds in the Mauthausen concentration camp in northern Austria, even more than the brutalities he witnessed in combat, is a turning point for him. He remains in Germany for several more years, attached to Gen. George S. Patton’s JAG Corps, prosecuting war criminals. These trials, less well-known than the Nuremberg Tribunals, were held at the notorious Dachau concentration camp and are riveting. A bit less than half the book graphically depicts the excruciating details of battle. Familiar luminaries make appearances, but this portion of the narrative is propelled by action and gore—it’s highly informative but tough to read. The postwar section focuses more on the scars of war, the traumas that kept soldiers like Will rooted in place, unable to return home quickly after what they had witnessed. McNulty (The Parachutist’s Daughter, 2011) delivers a vivid, fully developed hero. The author is a skillful writer, both in prose and dialogue. A few missing words can be easily overlooked, although one linguistic quirk is puzzling: He consistently writes “padded” when “patted” is required (“Will padded him on the shoulder”).
A brutal, mesmerizing, and historically compelling war story with a fully drawn protagonist.Pub Date: Dec. 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9993788-4-7
Page Count: 444
Publisher: Bashton Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by CSP McNulty
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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