A fast-paced, smoothly told thriller.
In this mystery thriller, a convicted criminal is set free after becoming a cause célèbre—but it turns out that the woman who orchestrated his release has a hidden agenda.
This media-drenched age is full of causes: Save the whales, find the child, don’t eat certain foods, free the wrongly convicted. The latter is the theme of Finley’s debut novel, which opens with Sabbath Dyme of Little Rock, Arkansas, awaiting execution following his conviction for murdering two children. His case had all the earmarks of a wrongful prosecution—bad lawyers; ignorant jurors; a clueless, teenage defendant—and several celebrities have been advocating for his release. However, the effort seems stalled until a local Little Rock woman named Dawn Daniels forms a high-profile nonprofit organization dedicated to setting him free. After Sabbath is ultimately set free, he marries Dawn and moves to an exclusive neighborhood in Little Rock. One night, however, the couple has an argument, and Dawn falls into a nearby pond. Afterward, it’s slowly revealed that her motives may not have been completely altruistic. This smart, lively mystery has engaging characters, snappy dialogue and enough surprises to keep readers interested. It repeatedly turns convention on its head; just when the characters’ roles seem clear, the author switches things up. Suddenly, the strong becomes weak, the guileless guilty, and the predator prey. This effect works especially well with a character named Connie, who starts off as an all-knowing neighbor but winds up a hapless victim. Similarly, the book starts by focusing on Sabbath but features him less and less as the story progresses, until he eventually becomes a mere supporting player. Finley keeps the book free of unnecessary subplots and resists the temptation to detour the story into extraneous detail. The result is a book that, like a racehorse, starts off strong, sprints in a straight line and doesn’t quit until the finish line.
A fast-paced, smoothly told thriller.Pub Date: April 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615953007
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Hannah K Finley
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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