by Elizabeth Palmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1993
An English country manor is nearly consumed by a naughty adventuress from Rome—in this classic British melodrama's entertaining depiction of lust and greed. George Marchant, a wealthy British businessman and a pleasant if hardly stimulating fellow, suspects nothing of the trouble he's invited when he proposes marriage to Camilla Vane after a tumultuous love affair in Rome. Sleek, beautiful, 34-year-old Camilla is an adventuress from way back whose aim is to secure enough money to fuel her carefree, hyper-amorous European life. She waits until after the wedding, therefore, to inform George that she has a ten-year-old son stashed away in boarding school—and that instead of a dowry she brings a mountain of debts. George rallies with a shock of his own: His father has recently died and left the family seat to George, who intends to take up residence there. Forced to vacate Rome for the frumpy English countryside, resentful Camilla tries to make her stay bearable by toying with the lives of George's relatives: his twin brothers, Marcus and Tom; Marcus's wife, Diana, who—Camilla instantly intuits—is also Tom's lover; and George's mother, Sarah, who observes Camilla's mischief with an alarmed and wary eye. Seducing, offending, and lying to each in-law in turn, Camilla gets serious after George dies of a heart attack (the result of catching Tom in bed with his pregnant wife), her own heart pounding at the thought of winning the entire estate for herself. But Camilla has underestimated the other Marchants, who have admittedly proved themselves unusually weak-willed, selfish and short-sighted so far. With the future of the dynasty lying in the balance, the Marchants will unite as one against the interloper.... In the deliciously deadpan, confidential tone of an avid gossip, Palmer gives us a world in which the evil are very, very bad, and the good often betrayed by their own timidity. (First printing of 50,000)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-09917-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1993
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BOOK REVIEW
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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