A convincing amateur sleuth whose kinks are as equally enjoyable as his triumphs.
Helping out a friend by tying up a dead woman’s affairs, a man stumbles upon a possible real estate scam, along with a couple of murders, in this debut thriller, the first in a series.
Owen Delaney has been in a funk ever since his mom died and his heretofore unknown birth father made it clear that he wants nothing to do with Owen. A law school graduate, Owen’s dawdling in his Philadelphia home, unsure that he wants to be a lawyer. So he readily agrees when New York pal Rick Jennings asks him to tend to details regarding recently deceased Virginia Steele, who lived and worked in Owen’s city. The once desultory Owen can’t help but stew over Virginia’s suspicious car accident: no skid marks and a disconnected airbag suggest suicide. But when he learns that Virginia’s friend Marian McNeil died in a similar accident, he thinks maybe someone has killed the two women. Owen pokes around, uncovering a potential motive after linking Virginia to a bogus mortgage, a way to finagle money from an oblivious client at Virginia’s firm. Perhaps someone wanted to keep Virginia quiet—and now Owen as well, who believes the mugger’s attack he survived was actually a murder attempt. Readers, meanwhile, know for sure that a man named Barrett is out to “neutralize” Owen. The slow start to this book is befitting to the protagonist. Owen considers simply speaking to people a hassle, so when he’s suddenly faced with a murder scenario, it’s a welcome spark to ignite the plot. Owen certainly has his share of alarming moments, like a break-in at his house and a dubious attorney accosting him with questions about Virginia. But the best scenes showcase his shortcomings or mistakes, reminders that he’s a relatable Everyman wrapped in an amateur investigation. When, for example, Owen asks where Marian’s life insurance goes, a receptionist shuts down his questioning by telling him it’s none of his business. Caffrey occasionally slips in a dog-eared cliché, like a captured Owen escaping by employing the “Look over there” trick. But the author boosts his thriller with a few effective turns, including red herrings and double crosses.
A convincing amateur sleuth whose kinks are as equally enjoyable as his triumphs.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5177-9033-2
Page Count: 300
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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