Thomas (Pictures at an Exhibition, 1993; Eating Pavlova, 1994, etc.) treats us to another trashy feast of cheap sensation and obvious sentiment, in the course of which—imperceptibly at first and against every expectation—he nearly manages to extract the rabbit from his hat. But not quite. Simon Hopkins, a second-rate novelist and the head of Fiction Therapy at Skagathos Holidays (``the New Age holistic centre on the Greek island of Skagathos''), is responsible for the literary egos of the 11 bad amateurs who have paid good money to come to Greece to join his workshop. Even by workshop standards they are a pretty pathetic bunch, and it is Simon's unhappy task to convince them—by having them do such things as chant ``We are as the gods'' for half an hour each morning—that they can write. Simon harbors no illusions: ``It's a load of crap, of course; but in a sense that's why they're here. At least it's different crap from what they get at home.'' His main concern at first is getting laid, an appetite his students share. Trouble enters this lubricous world, however, when one of Simon's students commits suicide. The group dwindles. Meanwhile, Simon learns that his wife is seeing another man, his publisher is starting to remainder his books, and an old girlfriend has given birth to his child. A man of less ordinary abilities would find a way of working off these travails in his art, but Simon is self-aware enough to know he isn't that kind of writer, that he will never win the coveted Booker Prize, and that in some major way his life will have to change. When (at the very end) it does, he is amazed, but his amazement is the only convincing element of an implausible finale that fits neither the circumstances at hand nor the story at large. Good-natured and amusing, but flimsy as a house of cards. A near-miss.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-7867-0308-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”
Once again, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett gets mixed up in a killing whose principal suspect is his old friend Nate Romanowski, whose attempts to live off the grid keep breaking down in a series of felony charges.
If Judge Hewitt hadn’t bent over to pick up a spoon that had fallen from his dinner table, the sniper set up nearly a mile from his house in the gated community of the Eagle Mountain Club would have ended his life. As it was, the victim was Sue Hewitt, leaving the judge alive and free to rail and threaten anyone he suspected of the shooting. Incoming Twelve Sleep County Sheriff Brendan Kapelow’s interest in using the case to promote his political ambitions and the judge’s inability to see further than his nose make them the perfect targets for a frame-up of Nate, who just wants to be left alone in the middle of nowhere to train his falcons and help his bride, Liv Brannon, raise their baby, Kestrel. Nor are the sniper, the sheriff, and the judge Nate’s only enemies. Orlando Panfile has been sent to Wyoming by the Sinaloan drug cartel to avenge the deaths of the four assassins whose careers Nate and Joe ended last time out (Wolf Pack, 2019). So it’s up to Joe, with some timely data from his librarian wife, Marybeth, to hire a lawyer for Nate, make sure he doesn’t bust out of jail before his trial, identify the real sniper, who continues to take an active role in the proceedings, and somehow protect him from a killer who regards Nate’s arrest as an unwelcome complication. That’s quite a tall order for someone who can’t shoot straight, who keeps wrecking his state-issued vehicles, and whose appalling mother-in-law, Missy Vankeuren Hand, has returned from her latest European jaunt to suck up all the oxygen in Twelve Sleep County to hustle some illegal drugs for her cancer-stricken sixth husband. But fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe.
One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-53823-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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