Publicized as the first in a series of mysteries featuring Bianca Balducci, 15-year-old high-school sleuth, this effort from first-time novelist Sternberg should satisfy mystery lovers, though it will likely annoy forward-thinking young women. High-school sophomore Bianca confines most of her attention to attracting Doug, whom she hopes will become her first official boyfriend, until Sadie Sinclair suddenly arrives in her school. Sadie exudes mystery. She dresses like an extrovert, yet appears to be shy, and is pitifully happy when Bianca and the other girls accept her as a friend. She’s supposed to be only 15, yet she drives a car. Consumed with curiosity about Sadie and with hero-worship of her older sister Connie, a private detective, Bianca decides to investigate the strange new girl. What she discovers puts herself and Sadie into serious trouble, as well as continually interfering with Bianca and Doug’s romantic progress. While Sternberg emphasizes mystery and action elements, she doesn’t ignore deeper issues. She portrays Bianca as someone who genuinely cares about Sadie even while digging into Sadie’s past, rationalizing her actions with the idea the she’s really helping the girl. Too much moralizing at the end helps to tidy up Bianca’s growth experience, but the emphasis remains on mystery and suspense. It’s an extra entertainment for mystery fans, one for those who want a puzzle without a ghost or a murder and who don’t mind the retro girl stuff. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-890862-23-1
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A wry sequel to The Silent Treatment (1988): here, summer jobs put high-school seniors Ricky and Nate through a mystery from the past, as well as through some timeless rites of passage. Having to clean toilets and listen to gloomy, sex-obsessed Norman the Foreman seems like a fair exchange for a free stay at Quiver Lake resort, especially with all the college women around; Nate moves into hot (and eventually successful) pursuit of a Berkeley student, but Ricky is more inclined to watch from a distance. Meanwhile, what appear to be new but genuine artifacts of the long-integrated Miwok tribe begin to turn up, and Ricky almost loses his life in a primitive deer trap. Is there still a Miwok alive in the wild? Or, as someone suggests, is it the spirit of a young Miwok who never completed his manhood ritual and is unable to find the Aimah, an anthropomorphic rock formation? Carkeet's characters are portrayed sympathetically but broadly enough to keep the story light. The climax is big and dramatic: Ricky wakes one morning to find that the whole lake has suddenly drained away, exposing not only a field of slick mud but the Aimah, with piles of warm ashes at its crotch and armpits. There's no ghost to be seen, but readers can draw their own conclusions. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-022453-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
Characterizing Ellington as ``perhaps the most important figure in American music of the 20th century,'' the author looks at the composer's personality and career, focusing especially on his musical strengths and weaknesses. Collier, who has written several books on the history of jazzincluding a longer one on the Dukeclaims that Ellington didn't have the discipline to study either his instrument or music theory and that consequently he never became a brilliant pianist, while his longer compositions lacked cohesive structure. He did have a gifted ear, however, and, in working out musical ideas with his band (his preferred method of composition), he developed a fresh, unique, instantly recognizable sound that led to a long string of hits and standards. Collier succumbs occasionally to Jazz Historians' Diseasetedious recitation of names and personnel changesbut he makes clear what most of the musicians who played with Ellington contributed in the way of special techniques or abilities, while his musical analyses are easy to follow. Brief bibliography and discography. Index not seen. (Biography. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-02-722985-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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