Another time and place made real; a pleasure for some, excessive for others.
After her nonfiction fashion books, All that Glitters and A Stylish History (not reviewed), Shields debuts with a novel about
murder, superstition, and bourgeois sexual intrigue all set, somewhat self-consciously, in 1911 Vienna. When a well-off young woman named Dora is found strangled and brutalized in the Volksgarten, more mysteries than just that of her murder are set in motion: Why was human excrement placed nearby, what did it mean that the victim (as her stomach contents) had eaten figs shortly before her death, and—later—why was the body dug up, a thumb severed, stolen, and hidden? The police, of course, try assiduously to answer these and other questions by whatever means they can, including photography, a dangerous art thanks to the explosive powders it uses. While the official investigation goes on, led by the central but unnamed character known as "the Inspector," a parallel investigation also goes forward, this one secretly undertaken by the Inspector's wife—Ersz‚bet, of Hungarian background—and her young friend Wally, an Englishwoman working as a governess. The Inspector and the women discover much that's the same: a cross-entanglement, between Dora's family and that of the imperious Herr Zellenka, of affairs, sex, syphilis, and terrible physical scarring of women. Is there a key to it all that can explain Dora's murder? Ersz‚bet's eastern European background has made her familiar with superstition, spells, and the occult as these were known among the gypsies, and increasingly (tarot cards play a role) she leans toward the conviction of the killer's being a monster or "wolfman" (a csord sfarkus)—an idea proven "true" in the end. All this is set in its place and time with the most fastidious detail and remarkable authorial knowledge, though one feels often less swept up by intrigue than badgered by a relentless tour director ("You know, there's a legend about Emperor Franz Josef visiting the markt here . . . ").
Another time and place made real; a pleasure for some, excessive for others.Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-316-78564-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
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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