An engrossing novel that should earn the series a bevy of new fans.
In Holing’s (A Boatload, 2014, etc.) thriller sequel, an ex-con dabbles in his dormant criminal ways to prove that his wife’s friend is innocent of murder.
These days, reformed grifter Jack McCoul is legit, financing his startup business for an app he’s developing. So he’s understandably perturbed when former partner-in-crime Bobby shows up at his door. Bobby has his eye on Dexter Cotswold; more specifically, Dexter’s solid-gold Buddha, which Jack and Bobby once stole years ago. But when Dexter winds up dead, cops set their sights on his wife, Laura, best friend of Jack’s wife, Katie. Jack is determined to find the real killer, while he watches out for two thuggish investors pursuing his app a bit too aggressively; they may be the ones whose car tried to run down Jack and Katie. To get answers, Jack resorts to his old skills—e.g., breaking and entering. The author’s second novel featuring Jack McCoul is a proficient detective story that keeps the plot turning. Jack’s not a typical PI, but he employs his mastery to great effect; he gets help from less reputable types, like a black hat hacker, and runs a con with pal Hark to get into a private club. He’s a likable, levelheaded protagonist faced with endless hurdles. Lead homicide investigator Terry Dolan, for example, hates Jack simply because Terry is Katie’s ex-fiance, and Jack isn’t sure he can trust Bobby, especially because he disappears after the murder. The story is loaded with dishy one-liners for Jack, but even the third-person narrative gets in on the fun, noting a mysterious driver (from the night of Dexter’s murder) who may live “within honking distance.” Jack’s investigations, be they murder- or app-related, come together seamlessly, as he deals with at least one more dead body, a kidnapping, and the Mumbai mafia. Katie is a fine character, but readers unfortunately see little of the smart and strong-willed woman the story describes. She’s often a mere sidekick and at one point even complains that diligent Jack hasn’t yet managed to get Laura out of jail.
An engrossing novel that should earn the series a bevy of new fans.Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0991130146
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Jackdaw Press
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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