A sprawling yet intimate kidnapping tale with a strong mix of action and character development.
A woman becomes torn between her husband and a man from her past as she uncovers a dangerous scheme in this third installment of a series.
After a tumultuous adolescence, Dina Youngblood, a striking Seminole/Cherokee beauty, is married to evangelist Aaron Burning Rain. They reside in the Bitterroot Confederacy of Indians, coexisting with colorful neighbors (“A male alligator—halpatee, in what Uncle Donnie called ‘Seminole talk’—sounded his love song from a nearby waterway”). Aaron is devoted to Dina and planned to raise the son fathered by her former lover, Marty Osceola, as his own; but the child, whom they named Aaron Jr., was stillborn. While running errands, she meets a stranger who gives her an unsettling gift—a set of receiving blankets. Following a series of bizarre encounters with the figure, she learns that her son was kidnapped at birth by a criminal network and is still alive. While she searches for the truth, her husband reconnects with a former prayer partner named Nate Bush who has a mentoring program called Trail to the Stars that he wants Aaron and Dina to endorse. Dina is skeptical and soon realizes her son’s abduction is connected to the program. When Marty suddenly returns, Dina discovers that he may ultimately be the key to locating her child. In clear, engaging prose, Schaller (100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World, 2014, etc.) brings to life Dina and her quest to find out what happened to her son. One of the novel’s major strengths is its detailed setting and depiction of life on the Bitterroot reservation. The author offers an incisive and compassionate view of Bitterroot and the hopes and dreams of the people who call it home. The well-developed central characters include Dina and her great-grandmother Mama Hat. The mystery surrounding Dina’s son leads to a complex web of intrigue that’s suspenseful and deftly plotted. Schaller’s subplots are equally well-crafted. One of the most poignant comes in the form of Mama Hat’s journal entries about a young woman named Noccalula. Although this is the third novel in the series, the author provides enough back story to help newcomers understand the characters and their intricate relationships.
A sprawling yet intimate kidnapping tale with a strong mix of action and character development.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4809-4105-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
