An often entertaining mystery with a satisfying ending despite a few too many subplots.
In Berger’s debut novel, a human-interest journalist for a small New York City weekly finds herself unexpectedly investigating a 14-year-old insurance scam related to the World Trade Center attacks.
Jordan Marshfield writes articles for the magazine Gathering Moss about ordinary people with unusual avocations. Her latest assignment takes her to a prison in upstate New York to interview Giuseppe “The Bishop” Romano, a dying gangster who established an animal rescue foundation before his incarceration. He promises Jordan that he’ll give her a story about Ted Lipman, a man who faked his own death on 9/11, on her next visit, and she quickly becomes obsessed with uncovering the fraud. It’s a personal and emotional journey for Jordan, whose father was one of the 343 firefighters who died that day. Meanwhile, Jordan’s unpleasant ex-husband, Peter, adds domestic turmoil to her life. Back at the prison, Giuseppe admits to Jordan that he helped hide Ted for the first few months, and he tells her that she needs to track down Ted’s best friend, Leonard Legasse; Ted was killed in the Bahamas after collecting the insurance payout, and Leonard has disappeared. Jordan finally connects with Leonard through his daughter, Abby, who’s living in an art commune in Taos, New Mexico. Debut novelist Berger has some tricks up his sleeve for his protagonist, and as the plot twists and turns, Jordan’s relentless pursuit places her and her young daughter, Kristen, in danger. However, it will likely take readers a few chapters to keep the plethora of characters straight—and every one of them is hiding something. The novel is written in two voices: Jordan’s first-person account of the present (in 2015) and a third-person narration for sections set in the past (2001-2002). It’s a device that effectively sprinkles crumbs of disinformation throughout the story and lulls readers into believing they know more than they do. The most sympathetic character is Jordan, but the most interesting one is Leonard—a quirky gentleman who stages beetle fights; he’s also quite a storyteller who’s always shading the truth.
An often entertaining mystery with a satisfying ending despite a few too many subplots.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5424-8986-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: TouchPoint Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2017
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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