by Douglas Kennedy ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1997
Kennedy's well-hyped debut showcases a Connecticut lawyer who loses his designer life to a moment of murderous rage—and then squirms frantically to avoid retribution. Ben Bradford has it all, even though he doesn't want it. Years ago he surrendered his desire to be a photographer to his father's demand that he go to law school; now he's immured in a junior partnership in his New York firm's cozy Trusts & Estates division; in family responsibilities—a second child who's keeping him up nights, a wife who's stopped loving him; in the upscale consumables that holler success; and in the excess acid that pays for it. Shattered by the news that his wife Beth prefers the embraces of Gary Summers, a neighbor who's never given up his technical status as a professional photographer, Ben sees his life held hostage to this layabout. But he's the one who gives it the final calamitous push when he punctuates an ugly scene with Gary by killing him. Desperate for confession and absolution, Ben steels himself instead to hide every trace of the murder—and since he's a lawyer with money and unexpected leisure (Beth has bolted with his sons) as well as extended access to Gary's place, it's a world-class effort that involves faking an accident that will apparently kill Ben but will leave Gary dead in his place. Ben's taut narrative, which deftly mingles yuppie angst with obsessive plotting, almost makes you overlook how ancient this gambit is, and how cheesy its pulp antecedents. The accident staged, Ben flees the scene, lights out for the territories, scans the Times daily for his obituary, settles into a new life backed by Gary's ID and trust fund—and waits for the postman to ring twice, as he does in a satisfyingly ironic way. A startlingly unoriginal story whipped up by Kennedy's overdrive pacing and mastery of detail. (First printing of 400,000; Literary Guild selection; $750,000 ad/promo)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7868-6298-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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