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PURGATORY

Double-crossed, robbed, and left for dead by enterprising drug middleman Tommy Delorme, bagman Danny Castellano plots, fights, and lies his way from tiny Jerome, Arizona, to Alaska, Louisiana, and Mexico—all in his quest for a piece of Tommy and the $350,000 he took. There's never a dull moment for Danny. While he's lying in a hospital waiting to be transferred to the Scottsdale prison, he sees Hector Lupino, his boss Luis Manzanaro's top errand boy, in the corridor carrying a bouquet, and takes off, together with rotten DEA apple Charlie Cadeaux, one step ahead of both cops and robbers. But when Hector catches up with them again, he and Charlie kill each other, leaving Danny with only one last hope to turn the tables on Tommy and Luis: Carl Dupree, a snitch the feds once planted in Tommy's cell, now living on the Alaska coast. No sooner has Danny gotten the lowdown from Carl when the DEA grabs him and squeezes—and his deal to buy into the Witness Protection Program falls through when he inadvertently tips off Luis to a forthcoming raid and the feds hang him out to dry. Still to come: Danny's unlikely romance with Indigo, an Alaskan New Age spiritual counselor who thinks Danny is psychic (``You either reconcile your lifestyle with your ability or die''); his stepping into the middle of another double-cross south of the border; his joining forces with Carl and Indigo for a grand kidnapping scheme; and a final, now-you-see-it grab for the money before Danny goes straight, more or less. Newcomer Mickelson knows just to how to keep this motley crew afloat until the last page. Fasten your seat belt.

Pub Date: March 22, 1993

ISBN: 0-312-08877-9

Page Count: 288

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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