A whimsical, offbeat ride through a quirky fictional universe that provides some genuine chuckles.
A cozy mystery that’s set in the town of Liberality Hill, in which dogs and cats live in relative harmony—and the chief police inspector is a small Norwich terrier.
Inspector Nubbs—so named because his tail was cropped when he was a puppy—is enjoying a relaxing morning in the park when he receives a call from Deputy Officer Jerry Lee “J.L.” Dempsey, informing him that there’s been a robbery at Sassy’s Boutique. He finishes his dog biscuit, hops on his motorbike, and heads over to contend with the store’s aggravated proprietor, Sassy Marie, a “gray-haired Maine Coon cat, with black stripes extending down both sides of her face.” J.L., a well-meaning but accident-prone chow/rough collie mix, and Officer Shadow, a black Labrador retriever/German shepherd mix, are processing the crime scene. Before long, Nubbs deduces that only one item of importance is missing: a large supply of catnip, which is a controlled substance. Sassy can legally purchase only eight grams per month to make her popular feline perfumes and colognes, but she confesses to recently buying 30 on the black market. The investigation leads Nubbs and his team to Samson LeRoy, a tough feline and former welterweight boxer, and his Doberman sidekick, Sully. Hester (The Obituary Murder, 2019, etc.) takes a break from his human-populated Jonas Lauer mystery series to indulge in a humorous, Disney-esque bit of fancy. The character-driven caper is somewhat light on mystery, although readers will still receive some surprises along the way. Nubbs, the tale’s narrator, is a clever and delightful lead who lives with his adopted mother—Bossy Mae Waddles, an aging feline who rescued him when he was an abandoned pup. The animals may talk, drive cars, and conduct business like human beings, but they also display enough species-specific attributes to make readers smile. For example, when nervous, the felines purr frantically, and canines swish their tails. Overall, Hester’s tale is a generally amusing distraction, and one dangling plot thread leaves open possibilities for a sequel.
A whimsical, offbeat ride through a quirky fictional universe that provides some genuine chuckles.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-69392-903-8
Page Count: 175
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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