Shakespearean Western, a top-of-the-line melodrama by the author of the High Noon story and worthy to be set beside the best of Louis L'Amour and Richard Clarke. Set in 1911, this is Cunningham's first novel in 30 years—and he's been away too long. The basic plot and some key incidents echo The Maltese Falcon, giving the story a nice warmth, since by now the story of the jewel-encrusted black bird of the Knights Templar can only be called beloved. This time it's a fabulously jewel- encrusted gold monstrance, worth $600,000, stolen from a church altar in Guaymas, Mexico, and being sought for the $60,000 reward that's been offered for its return. Well, why wouldn't Jacko O'Donohue, the L.A. private investigator hired by the marvelously well-spoken but untrustworthy Mexican Counsul Palafox (ah, Caspar Gutman!), just scoot off with the monstrance once he recovers it and sell it abroad for $600 grand? Because Jacko's an honest investigator. But he's saddled with a dumb sidekick, thick-headed, somewhat psychotic Mike Horton, who wants to run off with Jacko's wife May—a bit of backspin on Sam Spade's adultery with Miles Archer's wife Iva. Mike not only plots against Jacko and steals the monstrance but also dumps his own tart-tongued feminist wife Becky on Jacko while taking along May as his brains for getting him through revolution-riddled Mexico to Guaymas. Jacko and Becky follow, with Becky intent on murdering Mike or something close to it. All four find themselves wading through blood in Mexico as rival armies sweep through the night and leave corpses everywhere. That's the story, and the climax is the familiar Falcon/Treasure of the Sierra Madre sendup of human greed. What's great is the pacing, masterful (if at times overrich) dialogue, Cunningham's superb eye and ear for description and cadence, and his thorough rounding out of the main characters. May the gods of Hollywood recycle this and paste its name in the stars.
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-85163-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1992
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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