An entertaining, educational mystery that neatly bridges the gap between fact and fiction.
An illustrious Founding Father adds supersleuth to his resume in McElroy’s (America’s Culture: Its Origins & Enemies, 2016, etc.) well-researched historical novel.
Jacob Maul, a Philadelphia Quaker, has been accused of murder after the body of his housekeeper, Lizzy Coons, was found on his property. An additionally damning complication for Maul—his second wife died under mysterious circumstances several years earlier. Unbeknownst to the Quaker, his greatest hope for acquittal lies with 79-year-old Benjamin Franklin. The beloved public figure, “the greatest man in America after General Washington,” believes in Maul’s innocence. Franklin enlists the assistance of family acquaintance and Revolutionary War veteran James Jamison to investigate Lizzy’s death. Despite his initial reluctance, Jamison is swayed by Franklin’s thoughtful arguments and agrees to take the case. McElroy offers an excellent whodunit, carefully crafting a range of suspects and dolling out numerous red herrings. The Holmes and Watson dynamic is apparent as the elder statesman parses out the clues and lectures on the importance of a method of inquiry. Franklin provides the financial backing and deductive reasoning while the more youthful Jamison spends his days tracking down information and suspects. Jamison is an endearing protagonist and a suitably straight-laced foil for the idiosyncratic Franklin, a Renaissance man with wide-ranging talents and intellect. And while Franklin tends to natter on, McElroy incorporates historical facts without lecturing readers. The depth of McElroy’s research and his background as a scholar is apparent throughout, both in his portrayal of 18th-century Philadelphians and Franklin in particular. McElroy subtly references Franklin’s ingenuity while also illuminating his quirky, appealing personality; for example, Jamison is summoned to a meeting with Franklin while the Founding Father soaks in a bathtub wearing a fur hat.
An entertaining, educational mystery that neatly bridges the gap between fact and fiction.Pub Date: June 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-946409-10-2
Page Count: 299
Publisher: Penmore Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2017
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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