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THE RETURN

From the pseudonymous de Mers (author of ``fifteen previous novels, several of which were bought for Hollywood''): a gripping, sometimes thoughtful hardcover debut about the Second Coming, though not one to make Catholics happy. De Mers makes the disheartening choice to cross a seemingly serious work like, say, Lloyd C. Douglas's The Robe with Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate. Here, in Tennessee backcountry, a huge cloud and lightning transfigure the sky as perhaps a hundred fieldworkers and others witness the slowly floating descent of Jesus from heaven. Soon Jehsu, simply dressed, cures a sick horse, heals a lame man, walks out of a locked jail cell, fills an empty shrimp boat with an overflowing catch, and begins his second ministry with two shrimp fishermen and a streetcorner Bible thumper good for drawing crowds. Then he raises the dead daughter of vastly respected televangelist Don Bagley. Bagley sees that he has been chosen to reveal Jesus to the multitudes, which he does at a tremendous outdoor rally where Jehsu preaches against the Latin bureaucracy that has usurped his name. In Rome, the Vatican is under fire as American Catholics leave the church in droves to join with Jehsu down among the southern fundamentalists. A Sicilian priest is dispatched to assemble a hit team to end this false miracle worker's crusade. Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, Father Brian Sheridan, a priest of wavering faith who's been given a year off to find himself again, joins with beautiful freelance journalist Marie Olivier to track down the heavies promoting the ``fake Jesus.'' The reader, however, is not certain that Jehsu isn't who he says he is, since he sure spins a golden message, aside from his anticlericalism. The heart faints, though, as the story shades into car-chase action and loony Pulp Fiction hit men. A bag of pearls for a thriller audience. But Hollywood should let this cup pass.

Pub Date: March 11, 1996

ISBN: 0-525-94097-9

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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