Every mother's nightmare comes to life in this Psycho Comix tale of the knife-wielding misfit who gets fatally stuck on a suburban Michigan mother and daughter. Grice is also the author of Suspicion (1992—not reviewed). When Mickey McGee was her student in a sculpture class last year, Shay Wyoming noticed right away how precocious his work was—and how angry. Now Mickey's buzzing his Harley past her house every night, entrancing her budding daughter Kelly (``everyone said Kelly and Shay could be sisters''), who responds by doing a striptease in her bedroom window. Before long, Mickey's gone on to stalking Kelly through the local mall, riding his bike through Shay's studio, and trashing the place while they're off visiting Shay's sister in Connecticut, and even Kelly (``this was the most exciting and scary thing that had ever happened to her'') is ready to write this guy off. Too late: Mickey waits until Shay's off at a party—whose guests include Elmore Leonard, Loren D. Estleman, and fellow mystery writer Ben Lyte, Shay's patient man—and breaks into Shay's house, murdering the superfluous babysitter and dragging off Kelly on a hellbent murder spree as he races to get revenge on everybody in his bad books, from his whiny art teacher to his massively abusive father, before the suicidal confrontation with the police he's been engineering since his childhood. But Shay, engorged with powerful maternal love (``she loved her children so much. She really did'') and determined to set up a kinder, gentler showdown ahead of the planned police bloodbath, dopes out Mickey's most likely destination and waits there with the Tupperware pot of therapeutic clay that will reach the boy's alienated good side. Just about every clichÇ you need for a healthy day's supply of momma pulp.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-09702-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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
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