An entertaining mystery romp.
Hard-boiled ex-cop Candace “CW” McCoy tries to keep her cool as she solves a case of embezzlement, kidnapping, and murder in the Florida heat.
Widmer (The Spirit of Swiftwater, 1998) makes his first foray into fiction with this introduction of CW McCoy. A former cop, CW—don’t call her Candy—left the force after a disastrous shooting gone awry and the end of her marriage. She moved to the beach town of Spanish Point, Florida, and has started a second career as a realtor. However, her attempts at a quieter life are shaken up by the appearance of Bobby Lee Darby, a fugitive hedge fund manager who has faked his own death after bilking his investors out of millions. Darby claims his innocence and asks CW to help him prove it, but when she balks, he kidnaps her ailing grandfather and forces her hand. Now, she must face her worst fears and dive back into the investigative business, relying on old friends to help her find her grandfather and solve the case as it grows more and more complicated—and deadly. Widmer has a great sense of place; he easily brings the town of Spanish Point and its colorful cast of characters to life. CW is a great character—a noir detective trying to outrun her own past, suffering no fools along the way. She also has a few potential love interests that pop up, men who truly seem to admire her impulsive toughness. Some of the dialogue is a little contrived, though, as CW says too many lines like “My Nana used to tell me I had a mouth” that seem straight out of a Bogart movie. Also, at the novel’s end, a few too many loose ends of CW’s personal story remain untied, though that leaves room for more volumes in the series. Hopefully there’s a bit more resolution in store.
An entertaining mystery romp.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9964987-0-8
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Allusion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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