by Marcus Cootsona ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
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A funny, exuberantly plotted tennis and conspiracy novel from Cootsona.
This sequel to Slammin’ (2014, etc.) centers on Wally Wilson, a 59-year-old tennis teaching pro who won the 2011 U.S. Open due to some unusual circumstances, including an unbeatable serve, some international intrigue, and a disqualification. The story begins in 2013 with him and his wife, Danielle, on their way to a college tour for their son, Deuce, who would rather be a professional magician than go to school. Their van breaks down on the highway, which unexpectedly leads to Wally playing in an exhibition tournament. He eventually gets a spot on the U.S. team for the Davis Cup international team-tennis competition. Wally owes his spot on the team to Ashley Margincall, a 19-year-old billionaire who bought and revamped the Davis Cup competition and built a sports complex in Nebraska for Cup competitions in other sports, as well, including soccer, golf, and horse racing. If that wasn’t offbeat enough, it gets stranger: a set of shady characters are breaking into homes and meticulously cleaning and organizing them as they search for a lost Breughel painting that’s been forged tons of times. The plot, involving tennis and art fakes, is reminiscent of David Foster Wallace’s or William Gaddis’ work, but its biggest homage is to Thomas Pynchon: there are oddly named characters, such as Deeplee Arqane and S. Carrom Ouche; wacky locales, such as the Uncertainty of Causation Bar, full of Scottish philosophy buffs; conspiracies that may or may not exist; and puns galore, with much being made of the Davis Cup being called the “D-Cup.” Cootsona’s writing is dialogue-heavy and full of pop-culture references, from celebrities to sports. However, the shtick sometimes wears thin, as almost all of the analogies and metaphors are based on such references. But although the plot and characters follow the mold of Pynchon and Wallace, Cootsona’s sentences rarely dazzle as theirs do—though that’s a tall task for anyone—and the work lacks the emotional depth that belies the zaniness of the best postmodern fiction. That being said, this book is still a fun, whip-smart tennis read.
An oddball but ultimately rewarding comedy.
Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 213
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Robinne Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2017
A fascinating, thought-provoking, genre-bending romantic read.
When Solène Marchand takes her 12-year-old daughter to a concert by the hottest boy band on the planet, she doesn't expect to fall in love with one of the singers.
Middle-aged art gallery owner Solène hasn’t dated since her divorce, but when her ex-husband buys their daughter and a group of her friends tickets to Vegas and a backstage concert experience, then backs out at the last minute, she steps in as escort. The five guys in the wildly popular English boy band August Moon appeal to women of all ages, but Hayes, the brains behind the group’s success, flirts with Solène at the concert meet and greet, invites them to a party after the show, then pursues her once she gets back to Los Angeles. He’s only 20 and he’s incredibly famous; his attention is flattering and heady. The two fall into an affair that’s supposed to be light and easy, but before long they can’t ignore their intense emotional attachment. Solène is hesitant to tell her daughter, but when she procrastinates, Isabelle learns about it through an online tabloid, which damages their relationship and leaves Solène open to censure from her ex. Then, once the affair goes viral, she experiences the darker side of Hayes’ fan base. What started out as a jaunty adventure turns into an emotionally fraught journey, and Solène must decide what she’s willing to risk for her happiness and what she won’t risk for her daughter’s. Actress Lee, who appeared in Fifty Shades Darker, debuts with a beautifully written novel that explores sex, love, romance, and fantasy in moving, insightful ways while also examining a woman’s struggle with aging and sexism, with a nod at the tension between celebrity and privacy.
A fascinating, thought-provoking, genre-bending romantic read.Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-12590-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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