An accessible, engaging novel with likable main characters that readers will feel good about cheering on.
Another military thriller from Scott (The Embassy Guards, 2013, etc.) featuring a compelling female lead.
In Scott’s latest stand-alone thriller, Jenna Robinson is forced to take a new role as a police officer near Salt Lake City after her time in the Army Reserves. However, her alcoholism and undiagnosed PTSD soon create issues in her new professional life. By fate, Jenna becomes partner to Morgan North, a deputy on the force, with whom Jenna had felt a connection one night at a club. Morgan and his dog prove to be a stabilizing force for Jenna as she adjusts to a new role under the supervision of her uncle Ted. Meanwhile, Jenna assists Morgan with his ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the area. More significantly, Jenna is recruited to help investigate a man’s disappearance, a case that ultimately leads to the person responsible for acts of domestic terrorist activities. Also on Jenna’s radar is her narcissistic mother, who threatens to destroy Jenna’s credibility and reputation. One feels a near-instant connection with Jenna and Morgan, both of whom are likable and down-to-earth, not to mention well-suited to each other. The romance between them feels natural and logical, and their chemistry is apparent. Jenna realizes she wants to live a healthy life, and readers will want the same for her. Scott’s depiction of law enforcement and military culture is accessible and not overshadowed by excessive jargon, and under her skilled hand, the plot hums along nicely as action pushes the narrative forward. Unfortunately, with the dual focus on the drug trafficking and missing person storylines, it is hard to tell which matters more. Even the final pages don’t reveal a point or message. Hopefully, the novel will be expanded further or kick off a new series.
An accessible, engaging novel with likable main characters that readers will feel good about cheering on.Pub Date: July 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500700249
Page Count: 286
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2014
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
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
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