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
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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