Acting jobs in New York aren't the most reliable source of income, and so Dana Coakley fills the time between TV ads for coffee by doubling as super of her Upper West Side building. As a super she's naturally interested when things go wrong in other buildings, but she finds Travis Williams's story hard to believe. The surly kid from an alternative school tells her that his building, an SRO called the Harrison, was torched (to the tune of ten fatalities) by a friend of a friend of a friend—and this last friend, the only potential witness, can't go to the cops because he's been the victim of a timely drive-by shooting. Putting on her actress hat—despite this debut novel's title, she puts in almost no time as a super—Dana makes a series of increasingly nosey, and dangerous, forays into the rarefied world of Mitchell Brandon, the sharklike developer who'd been interested in the Harrison site. Before you know it, she's getting razzed by her sidekick, socialite book editor Peggy Woodruff; pushed around by the D.A.'s office; and beaten up by thugs who threaten her with worse. Dana's masquerades—she tries to be all things to all men in order to pump at least some of them—are often amusing, as is her banter with Peggy; but they're not enough to compensate for the pokey pace and lack of mystery. A lackadaisical slice of downscale New York chic, whose dependably bright-eyed heroine deserves fewer fits and starts.
Pub Date: June 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-312-15651-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997
The third Kat Colorado novel (Katwalk, Katapult), a contrived affair, replete with Meaningful Chapter Headings, that concerns weepy Paige (formerly Pearl) Morrell, who hires the sardonically edgy Kat to find her unknown mom—her granny, who has just died, brought Paige up and said nary a word. The usual p.i. statistics- dredging discovers granny's twin daughters, Opal and Ruby, one now heading up an Omaha future-trends consultancy and the other squirreled away in a care facility. Are they lying about who's who, and does it relate back to their late teen years and one girl's illicit romance and the other's departure for the East? Paige's fiancÇ, yuppie Paul, nearly kills Kat to get her to drop the investigation, and Derek, the business brains behind the trends company, romances her into virtual slow-wittedness. Two more deaths later, Kat unravels an unsurprising identity switch, turns a goodnight kiss into a shootout, and stares unblinkingly at Paige's crocodile tears. A calculated rendering of p.i. conventions, readable if not particularly original.
Pub Date: March 16, 1992
ISBN: 0-385-42095-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
Maynard (Quiet, Wyatt!, 1999) makes fire the pivotal plot element in this short, episodic action novel. In the small village of McIntosh, Jed, the fire chief’s son, is branded a fire bug for a past transgression in which he accidentally burned down the family garage. Now, when a local swamp catches fire, he is the first to be blamed. Norm Dempsey, wannabe fire chief, is first to point the finger. Through a freak accident, Jed’s father lands in a coma in the hospital. A series of fires, a swamp fire, brush fire, barn fire, and school fire in the sports equipment room, forms a string of actions that make up the story. Toss in a few boyish pranks and some not-so-subtle clues and the story builds to its natural climax—an even bigger fire. This time, a monster train wreck sets the whole pond ablaze. Not surprisingly, Jed takes charge and steps in to rescue the day, the nursing home and surrounding houses, with a little help from his recuperating father, all in the name of saving face and proving that Norm Dempsey is behind the arsons. This fast-moving, predictable fare has some great action sequences, with appeal for mystery fans. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-399-23439-X
Page Count: 149
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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