A zigzagging mystery with an intuitive, competent protagonist.
A forensic psychologist in the mid-1990s consults on an investigation of the murder of her former intern in Averett’s (Cameron and the Girls, 2013, etc.) thriller.
It’s not the first time that Detective Olive Durant has hired Dr. Carmen Carillo as a consultant. The difference is that, in this case, Carmen knows the murder victim. Cops discovered Dr. Denny Musgrove’s mangled corpse inside the carcass of an eviscerated cow. Carmen had supervised him years before while he was a graduate student, and both doctors eventually had practices in Lamona, Washington. Denny’s last patient was Vincent Berenga, whom Carmen had referred to him and who’s now missing. Carmen knows that Vincent’s capable of such a grisly murder, but as the investigation continues, she’s surprised by a number of things that Denny had been up to, from making house calls for patients to possibly cheating on his wife. Complicating matters is Sturdevant Day, who owns the property where police found Denny’s body and who’s caring for his sickly neighbor, Evangeline (who happens to be Vincent’s mom). Carmen falls for the handsome Sturdevant, but she refuses to allow that to distract her from the case, which soon involves another murder with the same M.O. and a physical threat against Carmen herself. Averett gets his mystery off to a running start, establishing the various character relationships early. Along the way, there are myriad plot turns, not just regarding the investigation, but Carmen’s personal life as well. Readers may find some of the material that Carmen digs into, such as pornography, to be relatively tame, but they give the protagonist opportunities to view the case from a more clinical perspective, which adds credibility to the story. Her narration is rife with questions, effectively indicating the amateur sleuth’s tendency to constantly examine what she’s learned. A significant drawback, however, is the fact that Olive is limited to periodic appearances, as Carmen tends to work alone; as a result, two minor characters’ offensive slights against the detective have less impact, as only Carmen is there to hear them.
A zigzagging mystery with an intuitive, competent protagonist.Pub Date: June 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9989359-0-4
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Wellborn Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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
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SEEN & HEARD
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