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Peacemaking

Name: Peacemaking
Author: Lance LoRusso
ISBN: 978-1-61005-688-5

by Lance LoRusso ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2015

A navel-gazing but forthright and entertaining spiritual novel.

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A veteran cop questions Jesus Christ about the darkness and human suffering he’s seen during his 30 years on the job in LoRusso’s (The World Class Rainmaker, 2012, etc.) novel.

Deputy chief of police Scotty Painter suddenly finds himself in a world of near-perfect serenity, featuring clean air, lush fields, and endless beaches, where he’s finally able to relax the constant vigilance that comes with being a cop. Jesus Christ—here, a wry, loving, reassuring agent of a merciful God—joins him as he struggles with the horrors he’s witnessed in his long career in law enforcement, as well as the fact that he had to take lives in the line of duty. Scotty questions whether he’s done enough with his life; he’s a man who feels his failures more deeply than his successes, fearing that his greatest achievements—such as stopping an abusive husband, training and supporting his fellow officers, and establishing a special counseling program—weren’t enough. LoRusso wrote extensively about officer-involved shootings in his 2013 book When Cops Kill, and in his first work of fiction, he couples that real-world knowledge with a spiritual focus. He presents Scotty as an unimpeachable officer who still wrestles morally with using lethal force. The book’s conversation-with-God approach feels pat. However, the author has a knack for action scenes, keeping them exciting but never exploitative; even in flashbacks, the danger feels very real. Scotty experiences bouts of sudden sleep and pain throughout the narrative, which provides a clue to why he has an audience with Jesus and offers a nice metaphor for life itself. There are some underused story elements, such as the death of Scotty’s father when he was a child, the recent loss of his wife, and his relationship with their daughter, Celina, which take a back seat to tales of his work as a cop.

A navel-gazing but forthright and entertaining spiritual novel.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-61005-688-5

Page Count: 140

Publisher: BookLogix

Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.