Not quite Gone; a thriller that works best as a legal exercise.
After a woman is attacked in her own home, she struggles to return to her “before” life in this cathartic and empowering suspense thriller.
On a night her husband is away on a business trip, Laura Holland, an Atlanta-based freelance journalist, fends off a home intruder, who threatens to return. Traumatized and haunted by recurring nightmares, she reluctantly undergoes therapy and is later compelled to buy a gun and write a story about women, self-defense, and the legal system. “I’m wondering if I could have legally shot him as he fled,” she tells Thomas Bennett, a defense attorney. “I would have considered it self-defense, but if the law says it wasn’t, I want to understand why.” As the two collaborate on a proposed magazine story, Laura’s paranoia escalates. She begins to suspect that Thomas may actually be her attacker. Loosely based on the author’s personal experience, Lazarus’ debut novel is reminiscent of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but it’s much less twisted. The book primarily spans July through December, with each chapter covering a specific day. Laura is the primary narrator, but on a mere three occasions, chapters are devoted to the third-person perspectives of, respectively, Barbara Cole, her therapist; Chris, her husband; and Thomas. Facsimiles of Laura’s therapist’s session notes, a relevant business card, a Miranda rights card, and a reprint of the poem “Desiderata” add a docudrama gravitas to the story. False scares and misdirection keep readers off guard, but suspense isn’t the primary draw here. The book, instead, is more interesting and educational as a hypothetical courtroom drama as Thomas meticulously lays out myriad case scenarios had Laura shot her attacker. There is plenty of fodder for discussion about gun ownership, the right to protect oneself, and the judicial system. The book also delves into the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapeutic techniques. Lazarus writes with authority in these sections that deal with the emotional and psychological wounds wrought by attempted violence against women.
Not quite Gone; a thriller that works best as a legal exercise.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9909374-0-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Mitchell Cove Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
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
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