This promising first novel takes readers onto the catwalk while skillfully maintaining suspense.
A debut thriller examines the dark underside of the glamorous modeling world.
This tale, set in 1978, introduces readers to naïve Anna McKenna. Anna lost both of her parents at an early age. When Anna was 7, her Italian American mother, Gina, was fatally hit by a truck. Anna’s hard-drinking, Irish American father, Patrick, died of a heart attack two years later. She ends up living with her mother’s parents, Maria and Carmelo Gallo, along with her younger brother, Joey, born prematurely on the day of Gina’s death. Joey suffers from numerous medical problems, including “learning issues” and bad eyesight. Then Natasha Burns, owner of Top Form Management, pulls into the Gallos’ farm stand. She is taken by lovely 18-year-old Anna, with her red hair and emerald eyes. Natasha returns to recruit Anna as a model for her agency. Anna moves into Natasha’s New York City town house, where she lives with other fledgling models. But while Anna is learning the ups and downs of modeling in New York, then Milan, something sinister is happening in the background. A killer is stalking models, including Anna’s friend Petra. Anna’s Uncle Mickey, a detective, inserts himself in to the case. Even though modeling seems glitzy and alluring, the novel deftly describes its downside through Anna: “Many days were spent schlepping around New York City” with a heavy bag “filled with her portfolio, makeup, shoes, and sometimes even a wardrobe.” The protagonist’s work ethic serves her well when it comes to avoiding the pitfalls of her industry. A model’s social life then offered many obstacles, including predatory men and free-flowing drugs and alcohol, especially at clubs like the famed disco Studio 54. A former model, Moran draws on her own experiences to create a likable protagonist. The author does a masterful job illustrating how short-lived models’ careers are, during which beautiful people must make a name and a fortune quickly before their “look” goes out of fashion. Unfortunately, the whodunit portion of the thriller gets shorter shrift: Mickey and New York City Detective Frank Tansey lock onto a suspect fairly early. But Moran does throw in a nifty twist in the end. Still, there’s plenty here that will please mystery and modeling fans alike.
This promising first novel takes readers onto the catwalk while skillfully maintaining suspense.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9995235-0-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Tree Lane Press
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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