A dark tale of murder all the more astonishing since it turns out to be true.
A true-crime drama follows the deadly exploits of a madman who always seems to stay one step ahead of the law.
Born in 1831, August Tuxhorn grew up in Prussia under the cruel tyranny of his father, Henry. When Henry committed suicide, August resolved to make his way to the United States with money he had long been secretly saving. He forged documents to allow him to leave the country, an act of fraudulence discovered by a fellow Prussian while August was in New Orleans. August murdered the man and a prostitute who discovered his hoard of cash. He then killed and framed the local banker for the crimes. August then made his way to Illinois, where he bought a large tract of land and began transforming it into a successful farm, becoming well-known for his violent temper. He married Elizabeth Birkenbuehl, a local waitress and fellow Prussian, and the couple gave birth to several children—Charles was the first and most unruly of all of them, made vicious by his father’s savage abuse. Eventually, Charles grew old enough to fight back, and August sent him to Kansas with a visiting cavalry regiment. Charles settled in Missouri and continued his father’s legacy of violence and murder, always slyly capable of evading arrest. He eventually married Eva Whitmore and subjected her and their children to grim mistreatment; he was finally charged with child abuse. Refusing to admit defeat, he liquefied his assets, killed his two sons, and burned his own property down to the ground, escaping yet again. Beltran’s (Trapped!, 2016) painstaking research is clearly evident, and her unadorned prose brings the story to vivid life. The author’s family story—she was adopted by Charles’ grandson, making the killer her great-grandfather—is a chilling one, and she intelligently raises probing questions about the lineage’s legacy of suicide and sadism. In addition, Beltran wisely leaves those questions without definitive answers, fodder for readers’ contemplation. The book reads like a novel, which clearly required some measure of fictional embellishment, a creative contribution supplied with skill and restraint.
A dark tale of murder all the more astonishing since it turns out to be true.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9896362-0-9
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Killing Time Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
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