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TREACHERY AT TORREY PINES

Name: TREACHERY AT TORREY PINES
Author: John Van Vlear
ISBN: 978-0985737801

A SHANK MACDUFF MYSTERY

by John Van Vlear ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 2012

A solid introduction to a Sherlock of the links that ably sets up a sequel.

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In Van Vlear’s debut mystery, a golf caddy takes a swing at amateur detection after his friend is murdered.

When Buddy Franks is found dead in his hotel room with a golf ball lodged in his throat, all signs point to foul play. Police suspect his wife, Linda, who asks caddy Shank MacDuff to help clear her name. But Shank ends up exposing buried secrets—including Buddy’s gambling woes and a hefty insurance payment. He soon finds himself pursued by more than a few shifty characters who are willing to kill a meddlesome caddy. Shank is an unquestionably intriguing protagonist; he’s completely deaf in his left ear because of an old injury and has a sleep disorder which causes him to get, at best, three hours of sleep a night. He’s so interesting, in fact, that the author sometimes devotes entire chapters to his lead character—referencing such details as Shank’s past FBI training at Quantico, Va., and the story of a lost love. While such chapters are diverting, they often don’t move the plot forward; indeed, they threaten to supersede the mystery story entirely. However, Shank himself keeps the story in check, as he proves to be a creditable detective; he recognizes mistakes almost as soon as he makes them, treats everyone as a suspect—including the woman who hires him—and, at one point, even makes a spreadsheet of what he’s learned. Van Vlear appealingly maintains a cynical, Chandler-esque tone throughout—a gunshot’s “sound was bad, [its] results worse”—and the story’s big reveal is neither obvious nor convoluted.

A solid introduction to a Sherlock of the links that ably sets up a sequel.

Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2012

ISBN: 978-0985737801

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Velvet Room Publishing

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- SEEN & HEARD
Salinger Focus of NYPL Exhibit

- SEEN & HEARD
NYC Mayoral Candidates Name Favorite Gotham Books

- APPRECIATIONS
Holden Caulfield: Forever Young

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JURASSIC PARK

by Michael Crichton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 1990

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Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.