More a collection of stories than a novel, but admirable characters and an ample supply of spine-tingling moments leave an...
A historical thriller from debut author Lynch about a vicious murder that serves as the catalyst for a decadeslong family curse.
In the early 19th century on islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Jacob Whalen works hard to make a living while trying to dissociate himself from the name tainted by his father, a thieving murderous picaroon (pirate). But Jacob’s actions on a stormy night may have their own repercussions for his descendants. In the 20th century, young Tig grows up in a family with ties to the Whalens; the connection, among others, isn’t exactly clear. It seems that a family curse has been behind murders, fatal accidents and a festering evil. Though fiction, Lynch’s book is partly based on historical events; as such, the first six chapters, which detail Jacob’s life away from his marauding father, sometimes read like a history lesson more than a narrative—though it ends with a wallop when a storm creates the perfect mood for a massacre. Tig comes across as the story’s focus, but he often shares the spotlight, since most chapters, each with its own title, are their own stories: “Chicken Feed,” for example, is the story of Nick, Tig’s father, working away from his family, with Tig relegated to a supporting role. Still, Tig is a strong, laudable character whom readers see mature from a 12-year-old boy into a grandfather. Perhaps the author’s finest creation is the delicate layer of menace that spreads across the novel. Certain inanimate objects, like a simple statue, are so horrifying that the mere sight of them instills fear. Sherman, another man affected by the curse, has a son—the “boy people talked about”—who dominates the book’s most disturbing moments. In Sherman’s chapter, “The Card Game,” he’s unmistakably frightened by the boy, who imitates animal sounds in lieu of speaking; Sherman even refuses to call him by name. The son’s creepily sudden full-grown appearance in front of Sherman is the book’s most unnerving image. Fortunately, Lynch doesn’t let the loosely connected chapter-stories get out of hand, and she ends it all with a fitting conclusion.
More a collection of stories than a novel, but admirable characters and an ample supply of spine-tingling moments leave an indelible impression.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478233879
Page Count: 236
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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