As addictive as a soap opera; a fun beach read—with a killer ending.
A grisly, senseless murder in a city on the Hawaiian island of Maui becomes the catalyst for new friendships in this debut novel.
Paia, the windsurfing capital of the world, is a quiet little piece of paradise on Maui until an unknown psychopath slits the throats of Mr. and Mrs. Okamoto, an elderly couple who run a small grocery store. The bodies are discovered early in the morning by Annie Boone, just as a hurricane is about to strike the island. Annie and her husband, George, are a spirited, retired couple, and their house serves as a collection point for the diverse characters who are brought together by the brutal slayings. There is Dewey McMaster, who was asleep in the rain across the street from the store when the murders were committed. As it turns out, Dewey has a secret—he is a lot more than the genial windsurfer locals have come to know over the last six months. And there are Layla and Kyle Richfield, who just arrived on Maui. Layla, an independently wealthy socialite, is still recovering from the traumatic still-birth of their first baby eight months earlier. Kyle and his partner, Kim Okamoto (yes, the son of the murdered couple), were in Hawaii to be honored at a pharmaceutical convention. Add into the mix Ned and Fiona Keller (he a local, semi-retired real estate agent, she a feisty Italian decorator) and the delightful, elderly Mr. Soo. This is less a murder mystery and more a vibrant narrative about new relationships (including a love interest) that is enhanced by copious amounts of shopping, decorating, and eating. In fact, the pace is so leisurely and the focus so thoroughly on the lives of Callahan’s eclectic ensemble cast that when the murderer strikes again the following year, readers, who by now have been lulled into mild complacency, will likely be left gasping. The unadorned prose provides the details of ordinary moments of daily life but with an enjoyable, glossy overlay that allows readers to indulge vicariously in the perks of an unlimited checkbook.
As addictive as a soap opera; a fun beach read—with a killer ending.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5434-5023-1
Page Count: 649
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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