While some parts will strain readers’ credulity, this engaging and unpredictable mystery delivers strong characters.
Set in 1950s Massachusetts, a debut novel reminds readers, as Faulkner did, that the past is never dead.
Ellen Von Der Hyde, the story’s heroine and narrator, is just recovering from her parents’ tragic deaths and dealing with her jerk of an ex-husband when her older brother, Eric, dies back home in Springton. He left mysterious, hush-hush orders for his burial and other final matters, including a letter entrusted to his childhood friend Julian Baker. This situation is entirely odd, and Ellen, a journalist, is determined to get to the bottom of it all. Nick Stanton is Ellen’s co-worker, who will acquit himself well while, early on, readers will get bad vibes about Julian. Other important characters are Ellen’s sister, Meg; Edwin Lake, the bad-tempered, alcoholic Springton police chief; Harvey Poston, a retired lawyer; and a strange, skittish woman named Theresa. The Pomarium, once a monastery and now an old folks’ home, also figures prominently in the tale. And readers mustn’t forget a certain star-shaped dimple, a clear hereditary marker. Questions driving the plot involve what secrets Eric may have taken to the grave, the strange disposition of Ellen’s parents’ estate, and the enigmatic Theresa, who runs off when Ellen startles her at Eric’s gravesite. Suffice it to say that readers will soon learn why Lake is carrying all that anger and hear about another death.
The theme of evil working its way through generations is not a new concept, but it’s still a good idea for a novel. While comparing this tale with the House of Atreus would be quite a stretch, closer to home one thinks of, say, Ross Macdonald’s Underground Man. Kelly has created a vivid cast of characters. Ellen is a believable protagonist; readers will like her and root for her. And Julian is deftly handled. Like Ellen, readers will sense there is something off about him, a cruelty lurking just under the suave surface. This makes Meg’s regard for him frustrating, but it also tells the audience a lot about her innocent and charitable nature. Still, what really motivates him comes as a surprise yet is psychologically sophisticated. And the story wouldn’t be complete without a death-defying climax, which the author dutifully supplies. The final twist certainly is stunning, and it is balanced between “superingenious—didn’t see that coming” and “c’mon, really?” And what happens to one character is really shocking but almost mercifully fitting. On the other hand, many readers will consider a subplot concerning Jake, a jockey, and some counterfeiters rather hokey. It does not advance the main plot, and the idea that Ellen dramatically saves his life is a bit too much. In addition, a man’s deus ex machina rescue of a child also belongs in a bin labeled “Too Fortuitous by Half.” But overall, the book comes to a very satisfying conclusion, with the mystery solved and the slate cleaned.
While some parts will strain readers’ credulity, this engaging and unpredictable mystery delivers strong characters.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-946300-77-5
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Stillwater River Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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