A thriller for those who want more thrills than realism.
The lives of several families violently collide in this crime thriller.
There are so many skeletons in the closets of Churchill’s (The 7th Victim, 2012) characters that the town of Bullhead City, Arizona, could be a boneyard. In any case, the Pennington sisters—FBI agent Amanda, cop Rachael, and Meg (“I’m a pistol, and going easy isn’t my style”)—certainly need to do a better job of vetting their friends and associates: Meg’s roommate tries to poison her, Rachael’s boyfriend’s partner chokes her unconscious, and Amanda is kidnapped by someone who turns out to be the brother of the killer who kidnapped and tortured Meg in Churchill’s previous novel. The killer’s sister—yet another bad seed—opines that she and her siblings went wrong due to a “[w]impy mother, mad father, no money. Throw in a little incest and a lot of physical abuse, and you’ve got it.” The Penningtons’ upbringing was relatively normal; however, their mother, Grace, has several shocking family secrets, as well as a tracking device implanted behind her ear. Over the course of the novel, the multiple storylines intersect and culminate in the discovery of a sex trafficking operation. The killer’s plan involves a mini-sub, a luxury super yacht, and 10 international billionaire playboys bidding on bikini-clad young women. Churchill shows that she can write action scenes well. However, they can sometimes become cartoonish, such as when a sister’s boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend drugs and kidnaps him; she gives him Viagra and has her way with him like “a bareback rider hanging on for the full eight seconds.” Indeed, the book’s violence never lets up, progressing from the alarming to the absurd. The author also uses kidnappings too often, and her characters seem to shake off physical trauma and emotional pain unreasonably fast. Still, it can be a joy ride at times to hang with these spunky, gun-toting Pennington gals—as well as those billionaire playboys.
A thriller for those who want more thrills than realism.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0990903000
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Raging River Press
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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