An unhurried tale that makes its enthralling characters the biggest mystery of all.
A small-town journalist digs into an old assault case, in which the mayor’s improper conduct may prove detrimental to her gubernatorial run, in this third installment of a series.
Reporter/editor Nathan Hawke may have something juicy for the Weekly Clarion, the Vermont newspaper he manages. An anonymous caller tells him that nine years ago Mayor Martha Bennett convinced two witnesses not to testify against an assailant in custody. The attacker was (allegedly) Garth Egan, whom cops recently arrested for rape and murder. As the source won’t even tell Nathan the victim’s name from the older case, the reporter turns to Egan’s defense lawyer back then: the journalist’s now-retired father, Jonas. But Jonas maintains his vow of confidentiality, which includes not disclosing the identities of the victim or her brother, the witness who stopped the attack. Nathan wants something more substantial before confronting Bennett, whose bid for governor and the upcoming election will likely keep her mum. As Nathan searches for the siblings, Jonas’ uncertainty over helping his son is compounded by the fact that an attorney from his old firm is representing Egan in the murder trial. Nathan knows his potential story could affect the election’s outcome—and also hurt a few people along the way. Though a reporter investigating political deceit has all the makings of a mystery, Willen (Hawke’s Return, 2017, etc.) zeros in on the characters. Melodrama reigns: Jonas and his friend Mary Louise, a live-in cook/former prostitute, care for young Max while the boy’s father, Dylan Walker, works as Bennett’s press secretary. Relationships are complicated and some characters are flawed; Jonas, who lost his wife and a son, has battled alcoholism. But even if Nathan’s investigation spawns few surprises, characters traverse a dense and intriguing morally gray area. Nathan, for example, tries changing the mind of someone who doesn’t want the case dredged up again. Nevertheless, characters sharing so many qualities results in some redundancies: pregnancies, widowers whose wives succumbed to cancer, and quite a number of extramarital affairs.
An unhurried tale that makes its enthralling characters the biggest mystery of all.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68313-162-5
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Pen-L Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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