An uneven thriller but one with enough momentum to keep the pages turning.
A Southern-fried Rear Window from McCallister (The Year They Cancelled Christmas, 2017, etc.) that focuses on a woman who discovers a dogfighting operation in her backyard.
As the year 2000 approaches, Randi Margrave is looking for a new house, hoping to distract herself from the memory of her recently deceased son, Denny. Her husband, Cullen, a film professor at Southeastern University in Columbia, South Carolina, is initially hesitant to move out of the city, but he acquiesces, and they end up in a pretty hilltop house in rural Edgewater County. The couple’s marriage is further stressed by Cullen’s infidelity, which Randi hasn’t entirely forgotten or forgiven. After the move, Randi spends her days alone attempting to write fiction, but she’s assailed by the mournful wails of dogs from down the hill. As a former reporter and a lover of animals, Randi decides to investigate the source of these noises and quite literally stumbles upon her neighbors’ dog-breeding facility. The Macon brothers—vindictive Esau and simple-minded Julius—run the compound, breeding and training dogs for local fights. After discovering that local authorities are in on the scheme, Randi decides to take matters into her own hands, entering into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with Esau as she attempts to expose the abuse to the wider world. McCallister does well to slowly build the fictional world around Randi, and there’s a building sense of tension as she discovers more about the Macons; this is counteracted by scenes that focus on Randi’s connection with Julius, whom she secretly befriends as she continues her snooping. The combination effectively gives the plot a feeling of balance. The depictions of some characters are somewhat stereotypical, such as Cullen’s nebbish film professor and Esau’s hypocritical preacher, but McCallister rightly keeps most of his attention on Randi, who receives some real depth of characterization as the story goes on. However, the effect of McCallister’s clipped sentences (“Randi, waiting”; “Solitude, achieved”) gets dulled by repetition over the course of the novel.
An uneven thriller but one with enough momentum to keep the pages turning.Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-946052-04-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Mind Harvest Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
