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
BOOK REVIEW
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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