Straightforward fantasy tales showcasing diverse forms of alleged justice.
Dean’s (Cryptic, 2016, etc.) short story collection explores the darker—and supernatural—side of the American judicial system through the centuries.
The opening tale, “Witch Tryals (1692),” like the three stories that follow it, begins in familiar terrain. Puritans in the late 17th century are accusing people of witchcraft and sentencing them to death. But the witches in Salem Town, who practice “white magic,” mete out their own brand of justice against those who commit perjury to ensure wrongful convictions. “Judge and Jury,” the longest story, is set in the Old West in 1881. In it, Dr. Donovan encounters robbers on his way to the lawless town of Canyon Diablo, Arizona. The town’s new sheriff, Sam Canton, saves him and throws one of the outlaws in jail—but members of his notorious gang are intent on breaking him out. Fortunately, Donovan has a strange device of his own design to combat them—even beyond death. “The Devil Made Me Do It!” follows the televised 1978 trial of Derrek Wagner, who declares that he murdered people at the devil’s command—but a surprise witness may counter that claim. In the near-future world of “The Wheel,” a new, particularly savage form of capital punishment may well steer some from lives of crime. Dean ably tackles serious issues throughout this collection, from religious persecution to kangaroo courts. The no-frills prose not only maintains a steady pace for each story, but also effectively grounds the supernatural components, making someone returning from the dead, for example, seem plausible. Likewise, Dean takes time in establishing his characters. Defense attorney Barry Palmer is a relatively minor player in “The Wheel,” for instance, but the author deepens his portrayal, showing him to be a lawyer with a high success rate who’s likely facing a losing case. Despite the stories’ horrific elements, they’re neither graphic nor excessively violent.
Straightforward fantasy tales showcasing diverse forms of alleged justice.Pub Date: June 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5447-6436-8
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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