A strong combination of characters and narrative produces a winning thriller.
A debut novel examines the dictum “Be careful what you wish for.”
In this paranormal thriller, one man’s wish to go back to a simpler time ultimately adversely affects several lives. Tim Bartington, a single father to his tween daughter, Missy, is enamored of the 1920s. His escape is visiting weekend yard sales and searching for memorabilia from that decade. At one such stop, Tim strikes a mother lode, including an ugly medallion with a dragon on it. While holding the object, Tim wishes he could go back to the ’20s and instantly finds himself there. But he determines that “nothing was familiar.” Tim meets crime boss Angela Torrelli, who takes the strange man under her wing. This makes him an enemy to Charles Yates, Angela’s lieutenant and former lover. Drawn in to Tim’s disappearance is Jack Weston, a narcissistic construction manager, who moves back to his hometown of Minneapolis in hopes of reviving his career. While preparing a run-down bank building for destruction, Jack and his pal Sam, also in construction, discover an old journal and a spooky painting in one office, items that will impact their future. They will also affect Rene, actually Tim’s daughter, Missy, who is dating both men without either one knowing. Those three, along with Jack’s boss, Steve, and Rene’s employer, Liam, all experience inexplicable losses of time. The answer lies in the past, if only Jack can figure out how to get there so he can find a way to fix the present. Webster has created an involving time-travel mystery that should keep readers guessing up until the final page. His jumping back and forth between the ’20s and the present day will likely be somewhat challenging for readers, but mostly his narrative flows smoothly. A nice touch is all the current-day characters having some connection to the players in the past. While it is obvious that today’s characters are being possessed, exactly by whom remains a delectable mystery. The author also allows flawed characters such as Jack and Angela to evolve by the end. Webster’s crafty efforts result in an entrancing whole.
A strong combination of characters and narrative produces a winning thriller.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5300-5467-1
Page Count: 374
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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