In his 10th outing, a steadfast gumshoe proves he can handle anything, even a story with a leisurely pace.
In this thriller, a dying man hires private investigator Bertrand McAbee to find the whereabouts of his brother, missing for nearly 30 years.
ALS–stricken Patrick McNulty, with a mere month to live, needs help. The wealthy Fort Lauderdale, Florida, man contacts his former professor McAbee, now a private eye in Davenport, Iowa. McNulty wants to know what happened to his long-lost brother, Francis. Three years before his 1987 disappearance, Francis publicly “went over” at a Rotary Club meeting, humiliating his affluent father, Liam, by renouncing the material world. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, he devoted his life to assisting those in need before suddenly vanishing. An anonymous package containing a plush wolf (an apparent reference to St. Francis) convinces Patrick his brother’s alive, but the consensus among friends and associates is quite the opposite. McAbee and colleagues at his agency, including hacker Barry Fisk and ex-cop Augusta Satin, scour Francis’ history for clues. They may catch a break when they notice a possible link to the kidnapping/murder of young Bobby White, occurring around the same time that Francis disappeared. McAbee’s search takes him to Italy for just a sign of Francis, dead or alive, so that the detective can hopefully bring solace to a man on the verge of death. The story is dense with information, with McAbee and Augusta interviewing a plethora of characters, most of whom offer little insight into Francis’ fate. McAbee acknowledges the occasional repetitiveness: “I’ve heard many stories like this about him,” he relates, following a lengthy discussion about Francis. Pertinent evidence, however, does eventually accumulate, like some who are sure Francis had money stashed somewhere, leading to a worthy wrap-up. McCaffrey (A Case of Silver, 2013, etc.) keeps his mystery simple and, despite parallelism between McAbee the skeptic and Francis the believer, doesn’t saturate the story with religious allegory. Back in Davenport, meanwhile, there’s drama––Barry seems to hate everyone, most particularly McAbee’s secretary, Pat Trump, (a mutual animosity)––as well as humor, like Augusta designating this case as decidedly less dangerous than usual.
In his 10th outing, a steadfast gumshoe proves he can handle anything, even a story with a leisurely pace.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5049-7546-9
Page Count: 342
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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