A first suspenser, southern California-set, that subscribes to the Los Angeles gestalt of spiritual destiny, car phones, and cheesecake containing three grams of fat per slice. Investigative reporter and TV producer Ariel Gold wakes up one morning not only feeling dreadful but having no idea who she is. With a huge lump on her head, a German shepherd named Jessie, a gun, and a bloody shirt, ``Ariel'' then begins to live the adage that ``Today is the first day of the rest of your life.'' A stranger to herself, she's also repulsed by the body she finds herself in. Who is this fat, ugly woman with the bad perm? Nor does Ariel seem the same to her boss, Henry Heller, a thrice-divorced and seasoned TV news reporter, or to any of her other colleagues and quirkily charming neighbors. Then, suddenly, Ariel begins to quote famous authors; she's acquired wit and grace and charm; and she loves to garden and cook low-calorie meals. In fact, more and more—first emotionally, then physically—she begins to resemble Jane Macaulay, the likable model and heiress murdered in a Santa Monica car bombing that was intended for Ariel. As she begins to investigate her own mysterious case, she meets Jane's father, who takes immediately to her, as does Jane's cute dog and her psychic yoga teacher. But even with hypnotherapy, Ariel can't bring herself back to her former life. And yet she must, because with a wrecked apartment, a burglar she kills in self-defense, and assorted unmarked vehicles following her, Ariel knows she's in mortal danger. Who did the crime is never in doubt; the real mystery is how two 30-ish women in identical red Thunderbirds found themselves at the same Italian restaurant on the same fateful Sunday.... A pleasantly engrossing, gentle beach read—and a promising start for Mercer. (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-89960-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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