A fun, keep-you-up-at-night thrill ride.
After a flurry of explosions lights up the streets of Memphis, Lt. Julia Todd and her team of investigators have to play catch-up to stop the bombers before the next strike.
In Paavola’s (They Gotta Sleep Sometime, 2011, etc.) third thriller in the Murder in Memphis series, Lt. Julia Todd and her team are too good at their police work to avoid the heat. As soon as pipe bombs start erupting in Memphis neighborhoods, Todd acts on an instinct that values the lives of others more than her own. Act first, for better or worse, and then deal with the demons that near-death experiences can bring. The bombers’ pattern emerges over the next several weeks, as bomb after bomb targets the decision-makers at Pharaoh Health Management Systems, an insurance company notorious (although by no means unique, as Paavola makes clear) for denying valid claims based on economic expediency, essentially allowing “death panels” to decide who lives and dies. Todd’s team works furiously to predict the bombers’ next move, but they always seem to find themselves a half step behind—too slow to stop the bomb but close enough to feel the flames. Todd, meanwhile, is desperately trying to patch up a relationship that had crumbled while she dealt with the psychological impact from the last time she was seriously threatened in the line of duty. Front and center here is the dysfunction of the health care system, a topic Paavola doesn’t shy away from haranguing. Paavola indicts the system that doles out health care on a bottom-line basis: Money-gorged corporate health care executives indirectly battle the intensely angry individuals who have lost loved ones because of those corporate decisions. Thankfully, the health care debate doesn’t overburden the story, although it tends to weaken some characters on either side of the argument by painting them as caricatures. The action is nonetheless electric: There’s no shortage of bombs and smart, intense sleuthing.
A fun, keep-you-up-at-night thrill ride.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 363
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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