In 1934, a French police inspector tries to prove that an arrogant prosecutor wasn’t responsible for the murder of his young mistress.
The spirit of Georges Simenon is alive and well in this novel. Chief Inspector Arthur Gambrelli of the Metropolitan Police is sent from the city to the island of Q, where the murder of a young woman named Annette Cuomo has taken place. The obvious suspect is her lover, an arrogant senior prosecutor at the Justice Ministry, Jean Michel Bertrand, with whom Gambrelli has a combative relationship. Despite this, the detective doesn’t want to see the man railroaded, and he embarks on his own investigation. As he travels back and forth between the island and the city, Gambrelli’s list of suspects widens to include Bertrand’s wife, Adele, who knew that she was about to be thrown over for the younger woman; the victim’s sister, Lisa Cuomo, who goes missing and becomes the subject of an intense police manhunt; a drug smuggler who operates out of a fruit warehouse; and an array of other tough guys. Complicating the investigation is Gambrelli’s superior, Chief Superintendent Wilhelm, who tries to make his life a bureaucratic hell and is not above taking credit where it isn’t due. Although there’s nothing new in this murder mystery, the author nevertheless manages to make it a compelling story, mainly through the vivid cast of characters he assembles. Gambrelli is a wonderful personality, a civilized man doing an uncivilized job as best he can. His interactions with other characters are highly charged, especially with those who are less than forthcoming about their roles in the murder. The mystery itself is cleverly worked out, although there isn’t a lot of urgency in solving it. And rather unnecessarily, occasional newspaper clippings about the rise of fascism in Europe provide a context that is paradoxically missing from the story itself.
Gambrelli and his crew are such a delight that readers will hope the author is diligently at work on a sequel.
Pub Date: March 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-0990926603
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Chateau Noir Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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