A thriller with an intriguing premise that misses opportunities for even greater terror.
A debut horror novel about a small town with an evil sheriff.
Welcome to the Village of Wrong, a place with a most unwelcoming lawman. Sheriff Harrigut, known as “Stargut” to most, is a man with a face that “resembled Jackie Gleason, but it wore no smile and it was carried by no comic.” He’s not the type of figure you want to see pulling you over for a traffic violation, particularly if you had the misfortune of hitting an animal. It turns out that killing a wild creature, or “friend of the wood,” is a serious offense in Wrong, whether it’s intentional or not. As readers learn early on, the penalty for this crime is no less than death—a violent, fiery one behind Richie’s Tavern. It’s a fact that a woman known as “Lovey” knows all too well. Ten years ago, after Lovey’s husband, Bill, hit a deer with his car, he made the unwise decision to notify Stargut, which cost Bill his life. Now, Lovey has a mysterious neighbor in Wrong named Tom—a friendly “preacher of sorts” with an unusual past. They soon team up to tackle their common foe: Stargut himself. Author Jerry paints the sheriff as a frightening authority figure, indeed, who manages to get even more sinister as the novel progresses—although he’s scariest when readers first meet him. The problem with the narrative is that too much information is given away early on. Instead of leaving a sense of mystery about one early murder, for example, the author reveals all the details about it immediately. When it comes time for more deaths as the story goes on, there’s not much that’s new for readers to discover. There are other revelations involving supernatural phenomena, but none are quite as memorable as the earliest ones.
A thriller with an intriguing premise that misses opportunities for even greater terror.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-64069-711-9
Page Count: 211
Publisher: Book Venture Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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