Edgar-nominated Fade the Heat (1990)—his affinity for soapy plotting diminishes them.
From the moment Chris Sinclair, district attorney of San Antonio, Texas, sees the head modeled by a forensic sculptor, his
life is in free-fall. The head is that of a young girl of about 14 whom Chris is certain he knows—though he’s wrong. The girl so vivid in his memory was 19 some16 years ago. Her name was Jean Plymouth, and Chris had been wildly in love with her. Now it turns out that Kristen Lorenz was Jean’s daughter—past tense because Kristen was murdered, her neck broken and her body found half-buried at the side of a little-used country road. Chris is thoroughly shaken. At first he wonders whether the child was his. Impossible, certainly—but then he discovers the existence of Clarissa, Jean’s older daughter, who very well could be his. Reconnecting with Jean opens a whole series of disturbing questions. Prominent among them is why she never reported Kristen missing. It was, she explains, because of the villainous Raleigh Pentrell, who at the time held Clarissa captive, threatening harm to her if Jean went to the police. Pentrell, a drug dealer, a child exploiter, a low-life if ever there was one, gives Jean’s explanation at least surface plausibility. But is it the truth? Well, it is and it isn’t, we learn—though in more detail than really required—during the course of one of Brandon’s patented (read: exhaustive) courtroom battles. As always (Angel of Death, 1998, etc.), Brandon starts with interesting people, but, again as always’since his
Edgar-nominated Fade the Heat (1990)—his affinity for soapy plotting diminishes them.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-86542-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000
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
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