A Dallas prosecutor finds herself on the other side of the aisle when she's arrested for the arson murder of her parents—in Rosenberg's latest lawyer-in-distress scenario. Sixteen years ago, Stella Cataloni's Houston house was burned down with her parents inside; she herself was scarred and traumatized in the course of rescuing her kid brother, Mario. Now, Stella, who often wondered what her old boyfriend, Tom Randall, knew about the blaze, is delighted when Tom, long a fugitive, surfaces in Houston. But Tom accuses Stella of setting the fire, and just when it seems Stella's called in every marker to keep from getting indicted, Tom provides the strongest argument in favor of her arrest by getting murdered. Hounded by Holly Oppenheimer, a resentful former colleague from the Dallas DA's office who's now taken root in Houston, and abandoned by her estranged husband Brad Emerson (who tries to bail Stella out of jail by offering her peanuts on her alimony petition), our suspect can't count on anybody except Dallas County investigator Brenda Anderson, who doesn't see why she shouldn't fill her days trying to exonerate her boss, and Sam Weinstein, the divorce attorney who offers solace of a more intimate kind. Bolstered by her stalwart buddies and the typical Rosenberg heroine's unfaltering self-righteousness, Stella links the fire to the earlier collapse of a shoddily constructed day-care center and a kickback scam that just may have been run by her uncle Clem, a Dallas cop who's always hated her. When Clem, like everybody else in Dallas, turns against her, she's left at the mercy of ``the most contemptible human being who ever lived.'' Better than her recent California Angel (1995), but not up to Rosenberg's best potboilers: The ramshackle plot unreels with more intensity than logic, as the characters mug and dash from one set-piece to the next with all the conviction of politicians at a smoker. (First printing of 125,000; Literary Guild selection; Mystery Guild main selection)
Pub Date: Jan. 8, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-93767-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
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
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
