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
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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