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BLACK DOGS

THE POSSIBLY TRUE STORY OF CLASSIC ROCK’S GREATEST ROBBERY

Casual music fans will enjoy the heck out of this hilarious and gritty tale; rock fanatics will adore it.

Almost Famous meets Reservoir Dogs in Inked editor Buhrmester’s debut novel about a quartet of wannabe young criminals who probably should’ve stayed in school.

Here’s the true story: In 1973, after three sold-out performances at Madison Square Garden, Led Zeppelin had the money for their shows—$203,000—ripped off from a safe-deposit box at the Drake Hotel. Neither the perps nor the money were ever found, and because of the lost revenue, the release of Zep’s concert movie The Song Remains the Same was delayed for three years. Here’s the fake, but highly entertaining resolution from Buhrmester: Nineteen-year-old Baltimorean-turned-New Yorker Patrick Sullivan and his merry band of rock dorks pulled off the heist. Patrick’s Baltimore posse, such as it is, will never be mistaken for the Gambino Family. Hapless Alex should probably find another best pal, considering how Patrick has betrayed him. Smart-ass Frenchy lives for his guitar and little else. And Keith is the dimmest bulb in a chandelier that was pretty dim to start with. Eventually, the boys get mixed up with more musicians-cum-criminals, the whack-job leader of a motorcycle gang called the Holy Ghost Christians and some fanatical Zep followers, all of which leads to a denouement that would bring a smile to Jimmy Page’s face. Buhrmester demonstrates an affection for rock ’n’ roll’s attendant trappings—the camaraderie, the excesses, the lust for both financial success and artistic fulfillment—but never forgets that without the music, the whole thing means nothing. The plot is nothing to write home about, but what’s important here are the quirky characters, the snarky Elmore-Leonard-meets-Lester-Bangs attitude, the goofball atmosphere and, most vitally, a heartfelt affection for all that rocks.

Casual music fans will enjoy the heck out of this hilarious and gritty tale; rock fanatics will adore it.

Pub Date: May 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-307-45181-1

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Three Rivers/Crown

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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