Stewart (Deadly Rich, 1991, etc.) and his ace homicide detective Vincent Cardozo are at it again—tracking and thwarting another Manhattan serial killer through the gripping and blood- spattered pages of this tidy thriller. The boundary between New York's blessed and depraved becomes blurry as brutally butchered adolescent bodies—those of homeless hookers and junkies—begin cropping up in styrofoam baskets around town and all clues point to Father Joe Montgomery's Upper East Side Episcopalian church, St. Andrews. Father Joe and his loyal reverend, Bonnie Ruskay, stage musicals for promising teens, counsel upper-crust parishioners, and provide outreach to dysfunctional, down-and-out, and dangerous youths. The cases of the murdered kids are covertly parceled out to different detectives in a move that looks to hawk-eyed Cardozo like a conspiracy between the nervous cardinal and the obliging DA But Cardozo links forensic evidence—wax burns, incense traces, drugs, gruesome butchery, and wafers on their tongues—and discovers that a headshot of each murdered urchin appears in Father Joe's photo talent files. The Communion Killer (as he comes to be known for the last rites he administers) must be a priest, luring the kids into his trap through a complicated network comprised of a ruthless runaway, a transvestite hooker, a wealthy therapist, and a shady lawyer, among others. Cardozo forces the investigation, digging deep into the ugly and Byzantine pasts of the priests, the junkies, and himself, all the while stepping on the toes of strait-laced bureaucrats, St. Andrews's rich neighbors, and the retiring police captain. The suspenseful plot hurtles to its startling and satisfying conclusion, delivering all the lurid titillation that a Stewart novel promises: chase scenes, rapes, be-pearled aristocratic ladies contrasted with pregnant HIV-positive hookers, red herrings, secretive clergy, a clever cop, and lots of blood. Same thrills, different book. (Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selections)
Pub Date: July 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-31132-X
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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