by Lin Wilder ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2014
A promising storyline that falls victim to disappointing writing and editing.
In Wilder’s debut novel, a respected Houston cardiologist is convicted of killing her mother with an unapproved drug, but some begin to question whether she’s actually guilty of the crime.
Dr. Lindsey McCall successfully modifies a digitalis drug that she hopes will save the lives of patients with heart failure, including her own mother. But when Ann McCall dies, Houston police receive an anonymous tip claiming that Lindsey used the drug to kill her. Officials exhume the body, find the unapproved medication in her system, and try Lindsey for murder. She’s convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. The story draws the attention of newspaper reporter Kate Townsend, who plans an investigative series titled “Murder in the Texas Medical Center.” During her research, she’s disturbed to learn that Lindsey’s older sister, a nurse named Paula Livingston, testified against her and is pleased that Lindsey’s in Huntsville Prison. The new chief warden, Rich Jansen, also finds himself interested in Lindsey’s case—and in her. The author offers a solid premise and a fair amount of suspense, and some of her characters—particularly Jansen and Lindsey’s friend Julie—are quite well-drawn. Unfortunately, these good points are overshadowed by the fact that many sentences are awkward and amateurish, such as, “His curiosity had been piqued by these last remarks of Lindsey about her family.” The author’s use of stiff, academic language is another weakness; for example, Lindsey is said to have “persuaded her chemistry and biology teachers to support her determination to alter the digitalis molecule in ways that would optimize its inotropic or strengthening effects on the heart.” The reporter’s subplot seems particularly outlandish, as her poorly written articles win not one, but three Pulitzer Prizes. The novel could also have used a stronger copy edit to catch spelling errors (“tenants” instead of “tenets,” “coy” instead of “koi”).
A promising storyline that falls victim to disappointing writing and editing.Pub Date: July 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-163063261
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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