Another tale of incisive sleuths that’s short but thoroughly enjoyable.
In Chen’s (An Intangible Affair, 2017, etc.) latest series installment, Bostonian amateur detective and biologist Ann Lee sets out to prove the innocence of a friend accused of murder.
Ann knows that potential in-laws can be burdensome; after all, her former boyfriend’s stepmother turned out to be a killer in a previous book in this series. So she understands when her friend Betty Foreman is stressed by her fiance Peter Shi’s mom, Emily. Betty thinks that the overprotective parent has made her son a “mama’s boy”; indeed, Peter takes his mother’s side whenever she and Betty have an argument. It’s not surprising that Betty is a suspect after Emily’s body is discovered at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The dying woman’s 911 call, in which she named Betty as her murderer, only solidifies the police’s case. But Ann believes Betty’s claim of innocence; she says that she argued with Emily on the day in question but left when the old woman threw a vase at her. With Betty’s trial imminent, Ann decides to try to debunk the damning evidence against her. Luckily, she has help from her best friend and partner at their detective agency, Fang Chen, who’s a chemist as well. The investigation involves interviewing Emily’s neighbor, who called 911 regarding the women’s loud squabble, and talking to Emily’s sister in Hong Kong. As in preceding novels in this series, Chen delivers a brisk story with a simple but tight mystery that’s often heavy on dialogue. Along the way, the author has Ann meticulously develop a theory to fit the evidence—that is, one in which Betty isn’t guilty of murder. Romantic relationships also complicate matters, as Ann is currently dating Betty’s older brother, Seth Foreman. Ann’s investigation, along with Fang Chen’s input, has an organic feel: Every conjecture has a clear source, and nothing that she deduces feels like a wild guess. Still, the ending, while plausible, gets a bit convoluted as Ann juggles multiple theories of the crime.
Another tale of incisive sleuths that’s short but thoroughly enjoyable.Pub Date: June 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71863-069-7
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Back Bay Investigation
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
