A grim, moving thriller from the prolific Poyer (The Only Thing to Fear, 1995, etc.), who here returns to the aptly named Hemlock County. Hemlock, in a forgotten corner of Pennsylvania, is sinking back into wilderness after a century of rapacious exploitation. The coal, oil, and gas deposits that once fueled the economy are gone, leaving poisoned landscapes and a dwindling, embittered population. Among them is W.T. ``Racks'' Halvorsen, a legendary hunter. In Poyer's earlier Hemlock County novel, Winter in the Heart (1993), the elderly Halvorsen figured as one of a group who turned to violence to stop a local businessman from illegally dumping quantities of toxic waste in the county. This time out, Halvorsen is on his own as he deals with an equally lethal conspiracy. Walking in the woods, he comes upon two men methodically beating a third to death. They flee with the body, but Halvorsen, angered by what he has seen, looking for anything that will dissolve some of the grief he still feels for his wife's death three years ago, tries to track them down. His search leads him into the heart of a supposedly uninhabited wilderness area, where he finds a kidnapped girl and an ambitious plot to steal quantities of natural gas. Rescuing the girl, he flees deeper into the wilderness to elude the killers. Poyer hits his stride with Halvorsen's ingenious and convincing use of wilderness skills to outwit his pursuers in a long midwinter duel that's tense, vivid, and believable. Both Halvorsen and the resilient girl he has rescued are complex, convincing figures. And the outcome is satisfying without seeming either forced or melodramatic. A subtle, highly original blend of eco-thriller and novel of character. Halvorsen, bitter, almost overcome by age and regret, very much a man of an earlier time, lingers in the mind.
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-85601-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
