An enjoyable, but unfinished glimpse of Latvian history.
A young man revolts against a chaotic Communist regime in this debut historical novel.
This first installment in the Article 58 series opens in 1992, with the scene of a crime: the Latvian home of Karlis Perkons, where the body of retired KGB agent Igor Volkov has just been found. Karlis recognizes the Russian as his nemesis from nearly 50 years ago during the brief Soviet occupation of Latvia on the brink of World War II. The scene then shifts to 1940, when an 18-year-old Karlis learns the hard way that Communist soldiers are not to be trifled with. After his friend Peters is arrested and his family is threatened, Karlis joins a secret society of like-minded youths who call themselves the Nonchalants. Together they secretly publish a newspaper condemning the Soviet regime, and plot to blow up the infamous torture chamber known as the Corner House. But the work is incredibly dangerous, especially because Igor has just moved into Karlis’ father’s shop, supposedly as an apprentice but really, the teenager fears, as a spy. The book is illustrated throughout with paintings by Latvian artist Smiltens, on whose life the story is loosely based, and it contains a character list and glossary of Latvian terms at the end. Mathur’s tale draws the reader in immediately with a murder mystery and keeps up a brisk, action-packed pace throughout. The artistic, rebellious, yet sometimes cowardly Karlis works well as a protagonist, and Igor makes a shifty, enigmatic villain. Other characters tend to fade into the background, but in a novel this brief, that’s forgivable. What is less forgivable is the book’s lack of completeness. Although the beginning of a series needs to leave some questions unanswered, this opener ends abruptly with no sense of closure. Worst of all, the murder mystery at the beginning is never mentioned again. While most of the dialogue is passable, some out-of-place exposition (“The Russians have imposed a ridiculous exchange rate, impoverishing most of us”) becomes irritating.
An enjoyable, but unfinished glimpse of Latvian history.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5236-7047-5
Page Count: 134
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
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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