A blithe, goofy, hit-and-miss fantasia.
In this maritime adventure, a castaway meets a ghost and discovers that his spiritual apotheosis involves strafing bad guys from a glitzy yacht.
Ruined in the real estate collapse, 55-year-old British-American ex-cop Jonathan Porter has nothing left except his ability to communicate with spirits. That serves him well when a plane crash deposits him on an uncharted Caribbean island inhabited only by the shade of the Commander, a crusty British naval officer marooned there 100 years before. With plentiful fish, a magic pool of healing rainwater and lots of automatic rifles and ammo gleaned from the drug- and gun-running gangs who occasionally do battle offshore, Jonathan thrives, adopting the motto “How lucky was that!” Alas, his spirit guides insist that he shove off from his island paradise and fulfill his destiny by helping to cast down “the traders and money-makers”—jacked-up credit card rates are a sore point—and usher in world peace. Fortunately, his luck holds when it comes to pursuing that mission. With the Commander’s spectral assistance, Jonathan commandeers a 200-foot, $80 million yacht; acquires diamonds, gold doubloons and a trust fund so immense that he crafts an economic stimulus program for the Bahamas, where he is hailed as a deity; and recruits crew members who look just as good slaughtering pirates with long-range sniper fire as they do sipping champagne in their bikinis. There are many clashing genres of wish-fulfillment here—Crusoe-esque idylls and New Age mysticism colliding with special ops shoot-’em-ups and girls-gone-wild lasciviousness; Capra-style populism bumping against luxury cruising and high-end retail. The story sometimes languishes in the doldrums during extended scenes of shopping sprees and Jacuzzi parties, despite the Commander’s efforts to shake things up by invisibly levitating the drinks. Still, Cross pens some lively, intriguing set pieces, and his commitment to gonzo escapism lends the proceedings a certain charm.
A blithe, goofy, hit-and-miss fantasia.Pub Date: March 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-1460998014
Page Count: 256
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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