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MARSHLAND

Name: MARSHLAND
Author: D.R. Bell
ISBN: 978-1-5376-2336-8

by D.R. Bell ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2016

A remarkable detective novel, thanks in part to its sincere, exemplary protagonist.

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In Bell’s (The Outer Circle, 2015, etc.) mystery, a California man digs into the peculiar circumstances surrounding the death of his former high school football teammate.

Ben Feldman is a 50-something divorcé who lost his son in a tragic accident several years back and his mother to cancer more recently. He now lives in his childhood home in Rochester, California, with his widowed father. In the three weeks since he moved back, he hasn’t once visited his high school chum Evan Johnson, who lives only four houses down. Then Ben hears that Evan shot and killed his wife, Rose Johnson, before killing himself. Alex Martinez, another friend from school, now a Los Angeles police detective, asks for Ben’s help in investigating what happened. He gives Ben, who works at a tech company, a copy of a partially damaged video from Evan’s computer; the few seconds of footage show Rose having sex with an unidentified man. Ben soon uncovers other secrets among his neighbors, including other extramarital affairs, blackmail, and another apparent suicide. With assistance from others, including his co-worker and lover, Kenya Jordan, Ben looks for a pattern among the various events. Other cops aren’t pleased with his unsanctioned investigation—Alex isn’t even officially handling the case—but it seems that Ben is on the right track, particularly when a couple of people he questions turn up dead. Bell’s mystery offers a worthy twist on the standard amateur-detective tale, in that the investigation also helps the protagonist deal with other, unrelated problems: Ben blames himself for his son’s death, but his sleuthing pulls him away from dwelling on somber thoughts. Bell’s scenes are concise and engaging, and the complex plot never feels convoluted despite its numerous characters. The various subplots are absorbing and relevant to the main story, such as Ben’s relationship with Kenya, in which he may be looking for more of a commitment than she has in mind. The resolution to the mystery may not surprise many readers, but they’ll find it exhilarating to watch the protagonist make connections.

A remarkable detective novel, thanks in part to its sincere, exemplary protagonist.

Pub Date: July 12, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5376-2336-8

Page Count: 254

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: April 30, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.