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THE FEUD

Name: THE FEUD
Author: Frank Heiberger
ISBN: 978-1502814289

by Frank Heiberger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 2014

A macabre thriller with a message of tolerance and respect for nature.

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By the author of Entangled (2014), this supernatural thriller pits a writer against ghosts, witchcraft and worse while researching a wealthy family’s history.

Writer India Hills is just about broke. Luckily, her publisher has pointed her toward the Duvall-Richards family of Willow Creek, Missouri. Robert Duvall-Richards, charming owner of an Oriental imports business, has commissioned India to write a book about his family’s history—which stretches back to the mid-1800s. For her research, India has access to the old mayor’s mansion, a dilapidated Victorian structure with a cellar full of town records—and according to legend, the ghosts of deceased Duvall men; thanks to an old rivalry with local witches, a curse has supposedly bound their spirits in place. India finds the legends silly until one of the witches—or Wiccans, as they prefer—is killed. The writer interviews Wiccan Melissa Ferrier about the Duvall feud, and she explains that her religion involves healing and peaceful ties to the Earth, not grudges or violence. Melissa offers her a protective necklace, but India refuses. A fearsome ghostly encounter in the mansion cellar, however, makes her a believer. As the irresistible Robert and the lovely Melissa each draw India further into their worlds, the writer suspects that the renewed violence has a human perpetrator. Author Heiberger establishes a classically gothic premise in a fabulous locale, which sits “nestled in rolling hills and ridges at the junction of two rural roads.” India’s narrative treats readers to snippets of writerly optimism: “knowing you can delight, even move others with just the words from your mind.” Heiberger also sets up a love triangle when India confesses that Melissa is “Richards’ counterpart; the best female catch in the county.” Fleshing out the atmosphere are moments in which green witchcraft (a type of magic tied to the Earth that is focused on “nurturing and healing”) is explored and characters wonder how long a decapitated head lives. Yet the story’s second half feels overburdened by India’s neurotic thoughts about her romantic entanglements; and certain details are needlessly repeated. Still, a worthy supernatural whodunit.

A macabre thriller with a message of tolerance and respect for nature.

Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2014

ISBN: 978-1502814289

Page Count: 362

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
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by Kristin Hannah

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by Kristin Hannah

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.