Arthurian-revival yarn from the authors of High Priest (1989), with dismally unpromising ingredients. Arthur is reincarnated as a ten-year-old Chicago boy; his protector, Galahad, is drunk ex-FBI man Hal Woczniak. The Grail, a magic cup-shaped meteorite that heals at a touch, confers immortality on whoever holds it. For reasons beyond conjecture, this holder turns out to be Saladin (yes, he of Crusades fame). Merlin returns to life, never mind how, having spent centuries as a ghost in vanished Camelot, the latter located, for reasons equally baffling, in Dorset. And most of the action occurs in a present-day England, about which the authors clearly know next to nothing. Millennia ago, escaped slave boy Saladin acquired the magic cup by murdering its kindly Neanderthal keeper, and thus became immortal. Occasionally he loses the cup, so his life is dedicated to keeping it secret. In post-Roman times, Saladin wandered to England, where he became involved in Arthur's experiments with social democracy and accidentally healed the old wizard Merlin of fatal heart failure. Later, when Arthur lay dying of wounds, Saladin not only refused to heal him with the cup but attempted to finish the king off, so Merlin took by force of magic, saved Arthur, then offered him the cup; Arthur refused the cup's awesome power. Later, Saladin recovered the cup and went on to further exploits, while Arthur died and Merlin faded away. Now, in the present, Arthur and Galahad are reunited with Merlin. Saladin, having served time in a mental institution for a series of grotesque murders, breaks out and goes forth to reclaim his cup, which, seemingly by chance, Arthur has acquired along with title to the ruins of Camelot. Given the ingredients, it's no surprise that the doings- -``plot'' is too definite a term—make no sense at all. Neither do the characters offer much appeal. In sum: unmitigated drivel—but it will probably find an audience.
Pub Date: July 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-85227-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1992
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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