Methodically paced, a story that never lags while engaging readers with unshakable characters.
In Banister’s (My Brother’s Keeper, 2013) drama, a teen suspects that his adoptive father may have kidnapped him when he was a young boy.
Dushan Sava hardly remembers his mother, Marta, who was abducted by a Yugoslav army unit when Dushan was an infant. Foster dad Burt Sandor tells Dushan that his birth father, Dimitri, gave him up for adoption and is presumed dead after his fishing boat was lost at sea. But years ago, Burt had enlisted his cousin Carolyn Markos—already in legal troubles for her “unofficial adoption office in Liverpool”—to find him a son. So Carolyn used a babysitter gig to take 4-year-old Dushan from the Isle of Man to San Francisco. By the time Dushan and stepbrother Dani are in high school, they hope to escape the abusive Burt and track down Dushan’s parents, both of whom he believes are alive. Banister’s linear narrative abandons any pretense of mystery: readers are often ahead of the characters, as with knowing that Marta is indeed still alive. There’s still some suspense, however, particularly with readers’ knowledge of Burt’s shadiness. Banister’s novel features different levels of villainy. Burt, for one, is unquestionably evil, wanting to “replace” his leukemia-stricken son, Markos, before he dies so that monthly payments for his sons’ trust fund (set up by Burt’s mother) aren’t interrupted. Carolyn, meanwhile, is simply desperate, needing cash to pay off thuggish Mr. Aksoy. Dushan speaks to his parents in dreams and has “shared dreams” with Dani, but Banister wisely keeps these scenes vague, never confirming a psychic link. The relationship between the stepbrothers is well-developed and the most convincing element, resonating louder than Dushan’s hope that he’ll one day reunite with the parents he barely knows. When Dushan and Dani break free, at least momentarily, from Burt, the two get separated, resulting in the book’s most dramatic turn of events. Readers will want Dushan to find Dimitri and Marta, but it’s more imperative that the brothers, who together have endured abuse and tragedy, are side by side by book’s end.
Methodically paced, a story that never lags while engaging readers with unshakable characters.Pub Date: March 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-941713-16-7
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Andrew Benzie Books
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
