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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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