A crafty, lightweight mystery anchored by a fearless female sleuth and lively supporting characters.
An economic collapse drives a hedge fund manager to murderous desperation while a police detective races to break the case before the body count rises in this intricately plotted mystery thriller.
When the titular envelope containing a sheet of paper with a bloody handprint and the word “JOSH” scribbled on it arrives in the mail, veteran psychologist Tonya Proctor and her husband Josh, a biomedical engineer, panic. Enter tough, seasoned Memphis police lieutenant Julia Todd, who, together with precinct secretary Teresa Johnson, swiftly pieces together the case. The investigation soon reveals that other medical scientists have received the same chartreuse calling card—before perishing in suspicious “accidents.” Todd’s investigation of a missing scientist pits her against Frederick Durnst, the CEO of BP Tech, who is less than forthcoming with company information. Todd sifts through a variety of leads as more local scientists go missing, Josh receives anonymous warnings and envelopes continue popping up around town. Fingerprints on Josh’s mysterious envelope match those of Carl Huong, a senior scientist at a company developing advanced (and controversial) joint replacement equipment, but Huong ends up murdered. Did he have compromising knowledge or was he just in the killer’s way? Complementing the narrative is a subplot involving Charleze Washington, a former foster child turned obsessive, aggressive financial hedge fund manager who finds herself knee-deep in an insider trading scam. The conventional sleuthing is engaging (though Paavola’s steady introduction of new characters becomes a bit distracting), with dangerous, illegal stock activity; cryptic e-mails; troublemakers; hit men and Josh, whose life remains in danger as everyone around him tries to piece together the clues. Paavola, a practicing Tennessee psychologist, keeps the action coming and his characters consistently interesting, though the conclusion isn’t nearly as satisfying as the search for clues.
A crafty, lightweight mystery anchored by a fearless female sleuth and lively supporting characters.Pub Date: June 11, 2010
ISBN: 978-0579057902
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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