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
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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