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A FALLING KNIFE

AN EVAN ADAIR MYSTERY

An enjoyable mystery as sophisticated and energetic as the Wall Street characters it features.

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Former detective Evan Adair sets personal tragedy aside to investigate the unexplained death of financial wizard Scott Nickerson in this mystery from first-time author Deborah.

Nickerson was attending an orchestra concert when he took a tumble that shouldn’t, but ultimately does, kill him. As it turns out, a number of people have motives for Nickerson’s death, including Nickerson himself. Among the suspects is Alan Rubicoff, a successful financier with a hidden agenda behind his attempts to lure Nickerson away to a new fund. There’s also Meredith Calder, one of the most powerful women on Wall Street who stands to lose a bundle if Nickerson leaves her fund. Throw in a discredited research scientist and an unscrupulous drug developer, and Adair has a monumental investigative task. He is soon sucked into a maelstrom of underhanded dealings and criminal motivations, some of which reignite his private grief over his son’s recent death. The story is not told in chronological order, and the shifts in date and time keep readers pleasurably engaged. High-stakes financial dealings, promising biotech developments, corrupt SEC investigations, unanswered paternity questions and a shocking deathbed letter are all part of the fast-paced action. Surprising plot twists accelerate toward an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. Deborah has a fresh, distinctive writing style that is showcased to best effect in her witty dialogue. The title itself is similarly witty; it’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to investment slang describing a security whose value has dropped significantly and precipitously. While it is difficult and dangerous to catch a falling knife, the rewards can be enormous. Deborah’s characters, portrayed with realistic complexity and depth, experience both the perils and the prizes of such a hazardous endeavor.

An enjoyable mystery as sophisticated and energetic as the Wall Street characters it features.

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2011

ISBN: 978-0983985105

Page Count: 412

Publisher: Plimsoll Press

Review Posted Online: March 7, 2012

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PRACTICAL MAGIC

Part of Hoffman's great talent is her wonderful ability to sift some magic into unlikely places, such as a latter-day Levittown (Seventh Heaven, 1990) or a community of divorcÇes in Florida (Turtle Moon, 1992). But in her 11th novel, a tale of love and life in New England, it feels as if the lid flew off the jar of magic—it blinds you with fairy dust. Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned sisters, only 13 months apart, but such opposites in appearance and temperament that they're dubbed ``Day and Night'' by the two old aunts who are raising them. Sally is steady, Gillian is jittery, and each is wary, in her own way, about the frightening pull of love. They've seen the evidence for themselves in the besotted behavior of the women who call on the two aunts for charms and potions to help them with their love lives. The aunts grow herbs, make mysterious brews, and have a houseful of—what else?—black cats. The two girls grow up to flee (in opposite directions) from the aunts, the house, and the Massachusetts town where they've long been shunned by their superstitious schoolmates. What they can't escape is magic, which follows them, sometimes in a particularly malevolent form. And, ultimately, no matter how hard they dodge it, they have to recognize that love always catches up with you. As always, Hoffman's writing has plenty of power. Her best sentences are like incantations—they won't let you get away. But it's just too hard to believe the magic here, maybe because it's not so much practical magic as it is predictable magic, with its crones and bubbling cauldrons and hearts of animals pierced with pins. Sally and Gillian are appealing characters, but, finally, their story seems as murky as one of the aunts' potions—and just as hard to swallow. Too much hocus-pocus, not enough focus. (Book-of-the-Month Club selection)

Pub Date: June 14, 1995

ISBN: 0-399-14055-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995

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HORRORSTÖR

A treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.

A hardy band of big-box retail employees must dig down for their personal courage when ghosts begin stalking them through home furnishings.

You have to give it up for the wave of paranormal novels that have plagued the last decade in literature; at least they’ve made writers up their games when it comes to finding new settings in which to plot their scary moments. That’s the case with this clever little horror story from longtime pop-culture journalist Hendrix (Satan Loves You, 2012, etc.). Set inside a disturbingly familiar Scandinavian furniture superstore in Cleveland called Orsk, the book starts as a Palahniuk-tinged satire about the things we own—the novel is even wrapped in the form of a retail catalog complete with product illustrations. Our main protagonist is Amy, an aimless 24-year-old retail clerk. She and an elderly co-worker, Ruth Anne, are recruited by their anal-retentive boss, Basil (a closet geek), to investigate a series of strange breakages by walking the showroom floor overnight. They quickly uncover two other co-workers, Matt and Trinity, who have stayed in the store to film a reality show called Ghost Bomb in hopes of catching a spirit on tape. It’s cute and quite funny in a Scooby Doo kind of way until they run across Carl, a homeless squatter who's just trying to catch a break. Following an impromptu séance, Carl is possessed by an evil spirit and cuts his own throat. It turns out the Orsk store was built on the remains of a brutal prison called the Cuyahoga Panopticon, and its former warden, Josiah Worth, has returned from the dead to start up operations again. It sounds like an absurd setting for a haunted-house novel, but Hendrix makes it work to the story’s advantage, turning the psychological manipulations and scripted experiences that are inherent to the retail experience into a sinister fight for survival.

A treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-59474-526-3

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Quirk Books

Review Posted Online: July 22, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014

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