Instead of focusing on the wages of long-ago sin, as he generally does, Burke (Light of the World, 2013) shows the sins...
A sequel to the Hackberry Holland trio (Feast Day of Fools, 2011, etc.) that’s also an unofficial prequel to most of Burke’s other 32 novels.
Weldon Holland’s fate was sealed the day four strangers drove onto his grandfather Hackberry’s ranch and parked there as if they owned the place. After the ex–Texas Ranger had words with them, they drove off at their leisure, but not before Weldon recognized two of them as Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and fell hopelessly in love with Bonnie. The memory of her haunts him throughout his World War II service, and the echo of her he sees in camp survivor Rosita Lowenstein leads him to carry her first to the altar and then back to Texas. The happy couple is soon followed home by Weldon’s wartime buddy Hershel Pine, who’s convinced he has second sight about some things, like the application of Nazi technology to the oil pipelines he’s determined to build and his gift for picking gushers. The two hit up Weldon’s uncle Cody for a loan and go into business, and although Hershel overrates his gifts in some ways, he’s spot-on about enough to make the Dixie Belle Pipeline Company a success that will attract the attention of predatory investor Roy Wiseheart, who smilingly assures Weldon, “We’re more alike than you think,” and tempt Hershel’s wife, Linda Gail, to dreams of Hollywood and adultery. The postwar setting allows Burke to dramatize the uncertain early days of big oil, but the characters, their volcanic conflicts and their implacable demons will be instantly recognizable to Burke’s many fans.
Instead of focusing on the wages of long-ago sin, as he generally does, Burke (Light of the World, 2013) shows the sins actually being committed over several fraught years in the nation’s history. The result is a new spaciousness married to his fine-tuned sense of retribution.Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1079-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
PROFILES
Here, she adapts the plot of Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, about a late-night California disc jockey whose life is...
With her latest, Brown (The Crush, 2002) passes fifty-some bongs on the New York Times bestseller list, though her score probably includes paperback reprints as well as hardcovers.
Here, she adapts the plot of Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, about a late-night California disc jockey whose life is threatened by a listener. Brown bows to Eastwood by having her DJ play the Johnny Mathis classic, “Misty,” but where Clint’s jock was menaced by a murderess, in this version Paris Gibson, a woman who has perfected a late-night voice for her callers and romantic disc-spinning in Austin, Texas, has to deal with a man who calls himself Valentino. He blames Paris’s rotten advice for all of his failures with the ladies, especially his latest, Janey. He’s already made Janey prisoner, raped her bloody (mercifully not described in detail), and plans to murder her in three days, then kill Paris herself for misleading him. The terrified DJ calls for help from her old lover, police psychologist Dean Malloy, but Valentino doesn't even wait three days to kill Janey. Ready for a remake? Play it again, Clint.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2003
ISBN: 0-7432-4552-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2003
Lacking in both thrills and chills.
Another homage to classic horror from a bestselling author.
Sager’s debut novel, Final Girls (2017), wasn’t so much a horror novel as a commentary about horror movies in novel form. It was clever but also very well-crafted. The author tried to do something similar with The Last Time I Lied (2018), with significantly less satisfying results. This new novel is another attempt to make the model work. Whether or not it does depends on how invested one is in formula for the sake of formula. Jules Larsen is getting over a breakup and the loss of her job when she finds a gig that seems too good to be true: The Bartholomew, a storied Manhattan building, wants to pay her thousands of dollars to simply occupy a vacant—and luxurious—apartment. Jules soon gets the feeling that all is not as it seems at the Bartholomew, which is, of course, a perfect setup for some psychological suspense, but the problem is that there is little in the way of narrative tension because Jules’ situation is so obviously not right from the very beginning. While interviewing for the job, she's asked about her health history. She's informed that she is not allowed to have guests in the apartment. She's warned that she must not interact with or talk to anyone else about the building’s wealthy and famous inhabitants. And she learns that she will be paid under the table. While this might not be enough to deter someone who is broke and desperate, it does mean that Jules should be a bit more concerned than she is when the really scary stuff starts happening. It’s possible to read this as a parody of the absurdly intrepid horror heroine, but, even as that, it’s not a particularly entertaining parody. Jules’ best friend makes a reference to American Horror Story, which feels less like a postmodern nod than a reminder that there are other, better examples of the genre that one could be enjoying instead.
Lacking in both thrills and chills.Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4514-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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