Mike Hammer's in bad shape, and no wonder—it's nearly 50 years since his historic debut in I, the Jury, and seven years since his last outing, The Killing Man. This time Mike's exchanged shots with mob scion Azi Ponti, son of Lorenzo Ponti, last of the old dons. And Mike's not the only one who's feeling his age. His old army buddy Marcos Dooley, shot by Azi's surviving brother Ugo, is dying—but before he goes out, he sets Mike on the trail of $89 billion the old don hid away from his sons, and Dooley hid away from everybody. The pointy-heads in Washington want the money; so does Lorenzo; so does Ugo, probably. All Hammer wants is to avenge Dooley and get married to his monumentally patient girl Friday Velda. The treasure hunt could've been tossed off by anybody, but only Spillane would have his hero, who's determined to wait for holy matrimony to consummate his nuptials, call his sweetie ``doll'' and ``kitten'' and have her tell him, ``Up yours,'' or people his cast with computer nerds and cops retired from the Prohibition detail and old G.I.s who talk about WW II as if it had ended last week. In fact, trying to figure out where Dooley stashed that cash is much less entertaining than trying to figure out just when this adventure takes place, and how old ageless Hammer and lush Velda, who's still a looker, are. Longtime fans (the only conceivable audience) will find Hammer's quaintly dated narration, compounded equally of sadism and sexual prudery, an archeological treasure worth far more than that measly $89 billion. (Mystery Guild selection)
Pub Date: Nov. 12, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-94229-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
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
SEEN & HEARD
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