A snappy, fast-breaking mystery/suspense in which a daughter and deposed heir to a California food consortium survives a brace of murders, heavy police suspicion, the terror of a stalker, and a final calamitous showdown. Loving her work and always assured that she would run Gallagher's Best, a food megacorp, Lacey Gallagher—divorced from husband Steve Haines and mother of teenaged Erin and J.J.—is astounded by the terms of her late father's will: her brother Scott, a charming, pleasure-loving loafer—who prefers money over running a business—is to inherit and run Gallagher's; Lacey, on the other hand, will get plenty of moolah. The siblings come to a mutually satisfying agreement—in secret—but the next day Scott is found murdered in the bed he shared with third wife Sasha. Among those interviewed by a police duo (one thinks Lacey did it, the other doesn't) are: disagreeable Sasha; bitter Jean Atwill, former executive secretary who spills a devastating secret; and even Mary, Scott's first wife, who has a surprise in store. Meanwhile, Lacey does her own snooping, and ex-hubby Steve comes up from his ranch in Texas to offer comfort before the funeral—and another murder. Lacey, in her frenzied searches and speculations, will outdistance the cops—but they'll be on hand when it counts. Even after she fingers the murderer, there are miles to go as the killer tries underwater homicide, and a brace of baddies blast away in a greenhouse. A chewy enough mystery and a good stalker finish, all paced by a rivulet of businesslike dialogue and classy digs. The people are bland, but who cares? Coscarelli (the sudsy Leading Lady, 1991, etc.) seems to have hit her stride with suspense/action.
Pub Date: July 27, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-09305-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1993
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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