An action-packed thriller, marred by a lumbering plot and mechanical prose.
A real estate agent is unwittingly drawn into a murder mystery that involves political intrigue in this debut novel.
Imogene Byrne is a controversial woman in the small town of Conrad: twice widowed, with both of her former husbands dying under circumstances considered by many suspicious, and both leaving her considerable life insurance payouts. She runs a successful real estate firm and raises two sons—one from each of her marriages—and regularly rails against what she perceives as the decline of the country into complacency and mediocrity. She even establishes an organization—St. Jude Today—designed to draw attention to her remarkably broad and shrill caterwauls of complaint. A local religious leader—Bishop Daniel B. Lamping— dies suddenly of what seems to be natural causes, but his personal physician, Sawyer Paine, suspects that an insect bite on the bishop’s arm was actually caused by a tiny dart allegedly used in CIA assassinations. Paine’s only real evidence for that fantastical conclusion is his recollection of the dart’s discussion during Senate hearings in the 1970s. Meanwhile, a trio of outlaws kidnaps Imogene and her son Connor to extract a significant ransom. Their plan is thwarted by Imogene’s other son, Carl—a police officer—and it turns out one of the perpetrators is responsible for the murder of Bishop Lamping, contracted by an ex-CIA operative. The FBI opens an investigation into the matter. McGrath flashes back to Bishop Lamping’s life to slowly—the pace of the book is akin to a leisurely stroll—furnish insight into why he came to be a target for assassination in the first place. The plot suffers no shortage of action, though it does splinter under the weight of both implausibility and convolution. In addition, the dialogue is halting and leaden. Consider this line delivered by Connor regarding his upcoming vacation with Imogene: “ ‘Mother, I know you well enough to know that our visit to these locations will be worth our time from a purely personal enjoyment standpoint,’ Connor answered while chuckling.” No one talks like that in real life, but everyone does in McGrath’s novelistic cosmos.
An action-packed thriller, marred by a lumbering plot and mechanical prose.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5393-5120-7
Page Count: 370
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2016
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
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