Unhappy news for the many fans of Harvey’s Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick (Still Waters, etc.). This is the tenth and presumably the last of his appearances. Crime in Nottingham has escalated since the early days—drug dealing and all that goes with it are major plagues now—but at the moment the police forces are absorbed by the escape from custody of Michael Preston. Serving a life sentence for the killing of his father, Preston had been allowed, handcuffed and under heavy guard, to attend the funeral of his mother. Guard or not, though, after the rites he escaped, further agitating his sister Lorraine, her husband Derek, and their two teenaged children. Meanwhile, Resnick’s division, headed by Helen Siddons of Serious Crimes Department, is struggling to find the on-the-take traitor in their midst while a quiet war ensues between big-time drug dealers Drew Valentine and others. There are robberies, stabbings, shootings—all more or less routine while Resnick tries to sort out his feelings for old love Lynn Kellogg (presently in great need of comfort since her father is dying of cancer) and teacher Hannah Campbell, a newer but not stronger attachment. It all becomes background to the last desperate efforts of Michael Preston to make good his escape, gathering a fortune, getting even with old enemies, and, most urgent of all, taking with him the only thing he ever really wanted. Harvey’s characters live; his plotting is many-layered but never impedes a solidly escalating suspense: Charlie Resnick—all too human in the noblest way—will be sorely missed.
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-4150-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2000
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
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