More of that gritty schmaltz about another new centurion — #4207, the honest if homely old kisser of Bumper Morgan, the "finest cop money can buy" (not really cash — a few cigars here, a little yogurt there). If you were to visualize this heart of gold under the badge of bronze proudly worn by the big, shambling man who's been on the L.A.P.D. force for twenty years, he might look a little like Victor McLaglen once did — or Jack Carson. He runs to fat and sweat. Bumper had been in the army for years and he's still a soldier — but on his own. He'll shut a mailbox lid hard on the hand of the snitch whose arm he's going to twist to get information; he'll show his softer side toward a youngster with a handful of bennies. And during this last week before he plans to retire and marry Cassie who calls him her Blue Knight, he's seen here and there — making a fool of himself with some young activists, testifying in court, saying goodbye to his old friend Cruz, etc. etc. until. . . . This once again has both the virtues and the weaknesses of the earlier book — the explicatory didacticism, the true true-blue dedication, the commanding detail and vernacular — and who's to guess whether it will have an equivalent readership over the same gun barrel.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1972
ISBN: 0316921467
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1971
A touching family drama that effectively explores the negative impact of stress on fragile relationships.
A middle-aged woman returns to her childhood home to care for her ailing father, confronting many painful secrets from her past.
When Mallory Aldiss gets a call from a long-ago boyfriend telling her that her elderly father has been gallivanting around town with a gun in his hand, Mallory decides it’s time to return to the small Rhode Island town that she’s been avoiding for more than a decade. Mallory’s precocious 13-year-old daughter, Joy, is thrilled that she'll get to meet her grandfather at long last, and an aunt, too, and she'll finally see the place where her mother grew up. When they arrive in Bay Bluff, it’s barely a few hours before Mallory bumps into her old flame, Jack, the only man she’s ever really loved. Gone is the rebellious young person she remembers, and in his place stands a compassionate, accomplished adult. As they try to reconnect, Mallory realizes that the same obstacle that pushed them apart decades earlier is still standing in their way: Jack blames Mallory’s father for his mother’s death. No one knows exactly how Jack’s mother died, but Jack thinks a love affair between her and Mallory’s father had something to do with it. As Jack and Mallory chase down answers, Mallory also tries to repair her rocky relationships with her two sisters and determine why her father has always been so hard on her. Told entirely from Mallory’s perspective, the novel has a haunting, nostalgic quality. Despite the complex and overlapping layers to the history of Bay Bluff and its inhabitants, the book at times trudges too slowly through Mallory’s meanderings down Memory Lane. Even so, Delinsky sometimes manages to pick up the pace, and in those moments the beauty and nuance of this complicated family tale shine through. Readers who don’t mind skimming past details that do little to advance the plot may find that the juicier nuggets and realistically rendered human connections are worth the effort.
A touching family drama that effectively explores the negative impact of stress on fragile relationships.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-11951-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
A heartwarming story that reminds us of the pure joy of believing in love.
When 54-year-old doctor Georgia Young learns that her college crush Raymond Strawberry has died unexpectedly, she decides to hunt up all the men she's loved in her life and tell them what they meant to her.
Georgia’s plan quickly becomes bigger than lost love: along the way she decides to quit her job as a successful optometrist, sell her house, and travel Canada by train to try to discover just what it is she's always wanted to do with her life. For Georgia, the trip will be "a long, meditative prayer” that “will help me not to worry about the end of my life but encourage me.” But the world is not always respectful of our dreams; and Georgia’s children and business partner—not to mention new and old loves—crash-land in her life with turmoil and drama of their own, forcing Georgia’s best laid plans to go awry. "We all take a path we thought we wanted to take, and then we find out there are other paths we can still explore," one of Georgia’s long-lost former lovers tells her toward the end of the novel. For Georgia, this means coming full circle to recognize what she has overlooked and realize the extent of her present happiness and talents. While some readers may stumble over Georgia’s attitude toward her children and grandchildren—ambivalence verging on coolness—as well as some key plot gaps and a somewhat uneven narrative that meanders as much as Georgia’s uncertain quest for something different, fans of McMillan (Who Asked You, 2013, etc.) will welcome this new addition to her oeuvre. Here is McMillan’s trademark style in full, feisty effect: strong, complicated female characters, energetic prose, and an entertaining, seductive narrative.
A heartwarming story that reminds us of the pure joy of believing in love.Pub Date: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90257-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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