A breezy distraction that will keep readers guessing.
Pines (Vengeance Is Mine, 2018, etc.) offers the sixth installment of her Chautauqua Murder Mystery series, set in a peaceful retreat in western New York.
It’s summertime at the Chautauqua Institute, and 50-something Chautauquan Daily sports editor and amateur sleuth Mimi Goldman plans to marry her fiance, Walt Dellaria, on Labor Day. Then she receives a call from her friend Betsy McLaughlin, who passes on a request from Betsy’s aunt Maddie, a local attorney. Maddie’s client, Thomas C. Whistler Sr., the “Energy Bar King” who just sold his company to Kellogg’s for almost $2 billion, has been found dead in his hi-tech, Japanese soaking tub. Maddie suspects foul play, as Whistler’s seven adult children have plenty of reasons to do away with their wealthy father. Would Mimi be willing to observe a meeting of the potential heirs and share her impressions? It’s quickly determined that Whistler drowned—and apparently, not by accident. Pines employs her established talent for misdirection to provide readers with a generous supply of potential culprits, each of whom has a plausible motive. For example, Whistler has mistreated—and in at least one case, physically abused—each of his seven offspring, who range in age from 33 to 45; there’s a business rival with a substantial grudge; and there’s Laura Catter, a mysterious woman whose name appears in Whistler’s will. This series entry has less action than Pines’ previous mysteries, which makes it less of a page-turner. Nonetheless, its many quirky characters manage to keep things entertaining. Especially enjoyable is 93-year-old Sylvia, the mother of Mimi’s dressmaker; she likes to floor the accelerator on her daughter’s Prius, so she’s an able assistant for chasing down leads. The investigation itself is methodical, and seemingly everyone has something significant to hide. Intermittent, short sections involving a one-week lecture series on lying offer clever diversions that merge seamlessly, and sometimes humorously, with the main narrative.
A breezy distraction that will keep readers guessing.Pub Date: July 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-604581-2
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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