An absorbing, if fatalistic, first volume of an epic historical fiction trilogy.
A debut novel tells the story of a young immigrant in Canada pulled into World War I.
Manitoba, 1914. Twenty-year-old Sidney Turner, a recent immigrant, harvests hay and dreams of the life he will build for himself in this new land. His journey from his native England had included labor aboard a ship filled with outcasts and fugitives. After a stop in Montreal, he headed west to Manitoba with a French-Canadian courtesan named Mystique in tow (though after discovering she was pregnant by another man, she decided not to marry Sidney and return to Montreal). Sidney stays in Manitoba because of a vision he has of an old Sioux warrior, though he does not understand it. When war breaks out in Europe, Sidney is just beginning to finally make his place in the world, starting a business with a former crewmate. One of Sidney’s Canadian-born friends joins up, only to be quickly killed in the fighting. When a major with the Lord Strathcona Horse regiment of the Canadian army comes by recruiting, Sidney must decide if the call to serve his old country—and his new one—is worth risking the life he has built for himself, which includes his new love, Emma, the granddaughter of a Sioux warrior who once had a dream of a young white rider on a horse. In this first installment of a trilogy, Turner (who based Sidney on his own grandfather) writes with a precise, evocative prose: “In the swirling dust, the face of a Sioux warrior became distinct and the power of his quiet authority mesmerized Sidney. He knew the face from some faint memory.” The plot takes a while to come together, particularly after a long prologue following Emma’s grandfather, but Sidney’s travels are intriguing enough to keep readers mostly invested. They may be disappointed, however, by how heavily the author relies on destiny as the determining influence on the lives of his characters. Further books in the series will presumably be about the descendants of Sidney in later periods of Canadian history.
An absorbing, if fatalistic, first volume of an epic historical fiction trilogy.Pub Date: May 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-1761-7
Page Count: 306
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2018
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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