A solid cop novel form a former N.Y.C. policeman: first- novelist Grant spaces some chilly murders with gutsy shoptalk and some scattershot sleuthing in between as a few men from the NYPD begin to suspect that one of their own is a monster. Two men, identifying themselves as cops, enter the stale apartment of a major Harlem drug-dealer who's never afraid of cops''predictable as the sunrise...He died believing that.'' Before long, detective veteran Brian Shannon and Alex Rose from Internal Affairs (sent, to Shannon's anger and disgust, to partner him) will track through a nightmare to an unthinkable target: a bad cop. There are more neat murdersa crooked lawyer and an art dealerand will there be a fourth? Yes, but not the one plannedthis one's of a state senator on the mayor's tail for laxity in pushing drug-busts. As Shannon and Rose guess, worry computer tallies, interview, check out and stake out, political and hierarchical vibrations begin in the Department and City Hall. In the center is a shiny, polished villainthe seemingly invincible, much-honored head of an elite narcotics unit. Shannon and Rose work in harness (there's the obligatory booze/bonding scene and confessions about lousing up their personal lives for the work they love), and even before the final deadly chase, it all adds up. But with the hot potato bouncing up the steps of City Hall, who pays the tab? Grant has a quick eye for catchy detail (police-shy apartment dwellers close their doors like ``fiddler crabs disappearing into sand holes''); the action is tough and efficient; and the talk and ambiance have a sterling authenticity. A debut that weighs in with promise.
Pub Date: June 14, 1991
ISBN: 0-385-41967-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
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
BOOK REVIEW
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