A supermom with a fearsome past must relive it or lose all she holds dear—in a moody, symbol-ridden melodrama (and first hardcover) from Mills. At 34, Wren Cameron, a science teacher in a suburban San Antonio school, is happily married with two children. Although seemingly without a problem worse than a rebellious 15-year-old son, Daniel, her picture-perfect life is shattered by the unexpected reappearance of Jeremiah Hunter, the charismatic militia chieftain who had lured her from SMU 16 years earlier. Then known as Elizabeth (Lissie) Montgomery, Wren escaped her Svengali when the FBI mounted a bloody raid on his encampment in Louisiana. Older and wiser (though still a federal fugitive herself), Wren refuses the magnetic parolee's invitation to rejoin his movement. In short order, Hunter kidnaps Wren and Daniel, transporting them to a remote base in the west Texas wilderness, where he and his so- called Armageddon Army prepare violent strikes against government and society. Self-indulgence apart, the cult's leader wants Wren (and her explosives expertise) for an assault on Buck Leatherwood, a wealthy industrialist and vocal advocate of stricter gun-control laws. After one harrowing failure to break away, Wren (disturbed by the realization that Daniel is beginning to respect his macho abductor) draws spiritual strength from her Cherokee heritage and ostensibly submits to Hunter's will. But she sabotages the bombs meant to kill Leatherwood in his Midland office, and a concurrent bank robbery goes wrong as well. With Daniel as hostage, Hunter flees the scene in cowardly haste, and only Wren knows where they might be holed up. Before she can return her son to the family he now prizes, Wren must play the role of an avenging angel. A Texas tall-tale complete with trendy exemplars, including a gutsy heroine who sets great store by animist vision quests, which adds an arresting new dimension to the concept of mother love.
Pub Date: May 19, 1997
ISBN: 0-525-94202-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1997
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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