An engaging, light read spiced with Big Easy irreverence.
In Sanchez’s (Exploration’s End, 2018, etc.) third mystery-series installment, thespian and part-time sleuth Jeff Chaussier returns to New Orleans, prepared to marry his fiancee—before their world turns upside down.
Jeff wakes up next to his girlfriend, Bryna, still disoriented after a flight from London following an acting tour. He evidently overindulged in liquid courage during his trans-Atlantic journey—or was he drugged? When the doorbell rings, Bryna heads downstairs and, within moments, someone kidnaps her. Frantic and naked, Jeff runs into the street, but she’s nowhere to be found. He calls the police, but when a rookie cop talks disrespectfully about Bryna, Jeff becomes violent, leading to his arrest. After his release, the distraught hero goes on a lengthy drunken binge that lands him in the hospital. Because Jeff is the narrator of this tale, readers, for better or worse, share his detox experience as well as his recovery with the help of friends in a support group. The section describing Jeff’s delirium offers a visceral portrait of his temporarily tortured psyche, but it also indulges in a lengthy tangent. Finally, healed in body if not quite in soul, Jeff embarks on the journey to rescue Bryana. Fortunately, many people who have his back, including his three brothers, Charley, Space, and BroBoo; New Orleans Police Capt. Ramirez; and other longtime friends. He also gets the protection of a mysterious, powerful family whose daughter and granddaughter he helped return in the previous series installment. Once Jeff gets his mojo back, there’s enough action to keep the narrative interesting, including a few shootouts. The large, diverse, and eccentric cast also provides plenty of amusing entertainment throughout. Although readers will certainly benefit from reading the series in sequence, Sanchez does his due diligence in catching readers up on past events, and as a result, the novel can be enjoyed as a stand-alone. The author ends the story with a surprising cliffhanger, leading fans to the next installment.
An engaging, light read spiced with Big Easy irreverence.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72380-777-0
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2019
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
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
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