A fair middle chapter in the series, which will undoubtedly appeal to Turtledove’s fans.
Turtledove (The War That Came Early: The Big Switch, 2011, etc.) delivers the fourth installment in his latest series, depicting an alternate-history version of World War II.
This grandly staged what-if series began with Turtledove’s 2009 novel Hitler’s War, which portrayed an alternate version of WWII starting with a 1938 German invasion of Czechoslovakia. (In the real world, the war began in 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland.) A domino effect of divergent events followed in the next two books. As this book opens in January 1941, British and French forces have joined with Germany against the Soviets, while the U.S., fighting Japan, is staying out of the European conflict. Soon, however, a governmental coup in England begins a shifting of alliances. As with previous books, Turtledove tells his story through many different characters—frontline soldiers, civilian Americans and persecuted German Jews, among others—while major historical figures, such and Hitler and FDR, exist solely in the background. (Winston Churchill, however, has already met an untimely end.) Turtledove’s huge cast is a testament to his commitment to worldbuilding, but the constant scene shifts make the story feel a bit scattered, and some plotlines, such as the English situation, are more consistently interesting than others. For the most part, the story merely inches along, which may tax the patience of all but the most ardent WWII aficionados. While the book’s grand scope and Turtledove’s impressive historical knowledge are admirable, this installment seems to be merely laying groundwork for more earthshaking events to come.
A fair middle chapter in the series, which will undoubtedly appeal to Turtledove’s fans.Pub Date: July 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-345-52465-2
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
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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