A profound, harrowing examination of violence in the 21st century.
In this debut novel, a man becomes obsessed with tracking the online identity of a person who may be behind a string of shootings.
When 50-something Jack Warner hears of a tragic shooting at a local Missouri high school, he’s angry. Though the transportation logistics analyst has no kids, the violent event triggers his outrage over such things as corrupt businesses and “soulless” news broadcasts. But he’s even more distraught by what he sees on his 23-year-old nephew Luke’s computer screen. Luke is using EasyChat, the same online group the high school shooters utilized, and it seems the individuals in a particular chat room are championing the boys’ lethal actions. Jack asks his nephew for the chat room’s password and zeroes in on the moderator, who goes by the handle Fonzie. Jack tracks Fonzie on other sites, like Instagram, and is gradually fascinated by the grisly, deviant content of these online discussions. Then there’s a series of shootings, including at a nearby mall, and Jack believes he may already have his eyes on the person responsible. His obsession grows, as he gains illicit access to police records so he can follow the official investigation and purchases a weapon of his own—not a handgun, but a sniper rifle. Jack is on morally shaky ground since he’s not quite sure how connected Luke is to the group. But he may be in physical danger as well, as it’s easy for any of the chat-room regulars, especially the shooter, to pinpoint his IP and home addresses. Epps’ grim novel is an incisive look at people’s responses to violent tragedies. Jack, for one, toys with the notion of vigilantism, which fortunately the story never glorifies. In fact, in an early scene, Jack’s encounter with “thuggish-looking fellas” outside a convenience store fails to take the perilous turn he apparently anticipates. While Jack’s behavior borders on paranoia over gun-toting teens, it’s clear he’s also attempting to understand those disturbed enough to resort to mass murder. That’s why he initially frequents the chat room and makes efforts to reach Luke, whose angst is palpable. At the same time, the author deftly contrasts Jack with Kathy Cray, a teacher he worked with when he was in the same profession. Back then, her method of handling a troubled male student was to treat him as a problem to be discarded rather than getting the boy help. Epps smartly incorporates social media into the plot and criticizes the users more than the sites themselves. For example, Jack’s online presence ultimately strains his relationship with his girlfriend, Penny Grierson, which he rightly blames on his obsession. His chronic despondency carries over to the arresting but bleak prose. In one instance, he stands on his porch listening to “the sounds of the night” before imagining “people out there in the darker shadows, some dragging their feet like the walking dead, some scanning like predators, some cowering like victims.” Though most readers will predict a plot turn in the final act, two other twists are genuinely shocking and only further the narrative’s somberness.
A profound, harrowing examination of violence in the 21st century.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-578-61739-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Mess Hall Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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