A good combination of romantic entanglement and shrewd investigation.
In Gibson’s debut thriller, a young woman tries to prove that her friend’s suicide was murder and stumbles onto a conspiracy.
College student Mattie Harper and her mother, Nora, must abandon their beloved house after Nora’s heart attack forces her to leave her high-stress job. They both find work fielding after-hours calls at Mackenzie Funeral Home, and they rent an apartment just above its viewing room. It’s a momentous change for Mattie, but it doesn’t seem quite so bad after she meets the handsome, blue-eyed Garrett Mackenzie, the funeral home’s owner. Unfortunately, bad news soon follows: her college roommate, Chloe Ellis, is found dead, an apparent suicide. Mattie and Chloe had a falling out after Chloe refused to leave her abusive boyfriend, Tab; more recently, the two women had planned on meeting to discuss one of Chloe’s legal cases. Mattie is convinced that Chloe didn’t kill herself, and she gets support from Garrett, who spots possible signs of murder on Chloe’s body, which should have been caught by the pathologist (Garrett’s ex-girlfirend Tess). Mattie and Garrett smell a cover-up, and they’re evidently on the right track, as thugs keep threatening Mattie over the phone and in person. With help from Garrett’s cop pal, Calvin Bateman, the two look into Chloe’s case involving a land deal, which may lead them to a murderer. Gibson’s novel is equal parts mystery and romance. The muscular Garrett is charming, considerate, and perhaps a little too flawless to be believed. But his developing relationship with Mattie is engrossing and filled with obstacles. Mattie’s sleuthing, though, relies primarily on other people giving her key information, such as Chloe’s co-worker Tom Clark, who shows up at Chloe’s funeral to give Mattie both intel and a key. Mattie’s dedication, however, makes her a laudable protagonist, and although military-trained Garrett gives her a couple of Krav Maga lessons, she’s a practical fighter; at one point, for example, she uses an umbrella to fend off an assailant. Gibson also adds an impressive number of villains to the story, so that the ending isn’t so easy to piece together.
A good combination of romantic entanglement and shrewd investigation.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9909058-0-6
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2016
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 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.
