A fine Chicago procedural that proves its worth in day-to-day grit.
The second installment in Shaffer’s (His Honor, 2012) crime series about Chicago Police Lt. Ed Slate tracks a murder investigation from the Windy City’s suburbs to Hong Kong and beyond.
Slate heads up a new Major Crimes Section on the north side of Chicago with a full caseload on his hands, including a gang killing, a cab-driver homicide, and the robbery and death of a diamond salesman. Meanwhile, Susan Thanajaro, an attractive Asian-American med-school student, has disappeared from her dorm room at Northwestern University, leaving only a “narrow splash” of blood behind. Slate methodically works leads in the Thanajaro case, investigating a university janitor and her current and ex-boyfriends, who all have histories of sexual violence and seem likely suspects, until an important clue falls into Slate’s lap: a phone call from Hong Kong. Slate dispatches Roger Daniels, a trusted Vietnam buddy, to investigate, and the narrative travels with him through the streets of Hong Kong. In the end, the hardworking Slate finally gets his man. Shaffer sketches the wide-ranging investigation in exacting detail, right down to the paperwork, and paints a true-to-life picture of what law enforcement really entails: days that start with coffee and a Danish; pressure from higher-ups to balance hot cases with less-interesting ones; stretches of unfruitful legwork punctuated by violence; and commiseration with colleagues about when to retire. Slate and his right-hand man, Sgt. Joe Barona, also have their quirks: tall, dark Barona likes expensive suits, while Slate wears his trademark “Colombo coat.” Although the dialogue tends to be heavier and more fact-laden than the average gruff detective’s bark, it nonetheless serves the story well.
A fine Chicago procedural that proves its worth in day-to-day grit.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1457519079
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
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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