Wordy at times, but thrills, chills and substantial characters keep this thriller aloft.
Boswell’s (Miriam’s Journey, 2006) latest novel explores the lives of a prominent family desperate to protect its secrets—at any cost.
In her sophomore effort, Boswell introduces the Crandalls, a family brimming with secrets. While matriarch Bella has always doted on her two oldest daughters, international supermodel Diane and assistant district attorney Lauren, she has treated her son, Alan, and youngest daughter, Jenna, with unbridled contempt—all behind closed doors. In public, the Crandalls present themselves as a loving, philanthropic Christian family. While the rest of her siblings lead successful personal and professional lives, Jenna, at age 32, still lives at home, enduring interminable abuse from her mother. With intimidation and scorn, Bella chases away prospective friends and boyfriends. Only Jenna’s longtime friend, Rosa, and new love interest, Dr. Malachai Chase, are strong enough to withstand Bella’s disdain, providing a source of solace in Jenna’s life. The problem is, Rosa has a history of violence that makes all the Crandalls uncomfortable—even her best friend. When someone attacks Bella and she suffers a severe head injury, the police investigate, but the Crandall family members withhold key information. Before the perpetrator can be identified, Lauren becomes the victim of another devious attack. Is the entire Crandall clan the object of a maniac’s fury? Each of them must decide whether to come clean or risk taking secrets to an early grave. Boswell excels at developing multidimensional characters. They spend a considerable amount of time in introspection, however, which impedes the otherwise brisk pacing. Readers unfamiliar with the Hudson Valley may not find the setting especially vivid; places are often named but not well-described. The noteworthy exception is the spooky house on Thornbush Lane, which even the investigating police officers are hesitant to visit. Cleaning up grammatical and spelling errors would have improved readability, but Boswell’s combination of Gothic, fairy tale and realistic elements should carry readers enjoyably through.
Wordy at times, but thrills, chills and substantial characters keep this thriller aloft.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-1425981815
Page Count: 584
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 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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