An enjoyable, sexy, light mystery with likable characters.
An actor and amateur sleuth returns to the Crescent City to deal with a family complication in this second installment of a series.
Jeff Chaussier has been away from New Orleans for the past few years, plying his trade on the Midwestern theater circuit and trying to keep himself distracted from thoughts of Bryna, the girl he left behind: “Really, it was my reluctance to face her hurt and anger that kept me far up the Mississippi.” Now, his mother and Aunt Marie are worried that Jeff’s cousin Cal, Marie’s son, is in some sort of trouble. He is enrolled at a university, is involved in a theatrical production, and may have a girlfriend. But “his behavior had changed and he had become secretive. He kept odd hours and his comings and goings were erratic and hard to chart.” As Jeff begins nosing around, he finds himself immersed in another chaotic and dangerous caper that includes a very tempting gastronomic tour of New Orleans’ hidden treasures. He seeks help and advice from his family and an impressive array of quirky friends, including an ex-Marine and his wife, also a former Marine, who own and perform in a female impersonator club. Everybody seems to know something but no one offers enough clues to solve the Cal puzzle. And, of course, there’s the beautiful Bryna, whom Jeff finally seeks out only to discover her with a baby girl. He assumes she has moved on without him. Add in drug dealers flooding the city with their wares and a mysterious missing young woman, not to mention an abundance of reasonably tasteful bedroom scenes, and the tale delivers plenty of action to keep the novel engaging. While the story has a few loose threads, Sanchez (Lit by Lightning, 2014, etc.) creates appealing characters and vivid images, his prose elevated by a flair for the absurd: “A cigar and a Marine tattoo did not go well with a blonde wig and mascara, but Tommy was between shows.” Still, many female readers are likely to find Jeff’s frequent playful slapping of Bryna’s naked derriere (she always “yelps”) less than amusing.
An enjoyable, sexy, light mystery with likable characters.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72380-970-5
Page Count: 267
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2019
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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