by Nick Vasile ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1993
The galley of Vasile's first novel flashes blurbs (from Jack Anderson, Robert Moss, Adam Hall, Loren D. Estleman, et al.) the way one of the author's fictional mobsters might flash gold chains- -but all the good words don't make this story of betrayal within a mafia family much more than a tidy packet of Cosa Nostra clichÇs. Like his hero, Paul Dante, Vasile is a cop-turned-p.i., and so the crime-color here rings true—though the mafia detail is no sharper than that in most nonfiction mob books; moreover, Vasile has a way of squandering its impact, as when he compresses into only a few flat lines the ancient ceremony by which his villain, Genaro Orsini, becomes a ``made'' man. The author has come up with a nice premise—that 30 years ago, Don Vincent Benedetti, a ``man of honor,'' arranged with J. Edgar Hoover to keep mob crime out of D.C. and to avoid pushing drugs, in exchange for FBI tolerance of nondrug mob activities elsewhere. But now the feds are out to get the aging Benedetti—and their secret weapon is man-of-dishonor Orsini, a sadistic operator whom they're squeezing as an informant: a swift move, since he's about to wed the daughter of Benedetti's brother/underboss, Santo. Meanwhile, Dante, who grew up with Santo, romances a non-Italian dance teacher and tries to make ends meet with his p.i. work and the seedy bar he owns. He smells a rat in Orsini but can't persuade others of his suspicions until after the feds chase Benedetti into hiding, then arrest him, and Orsini tosses a mistress who would blackmail him off a 12-story balcony— an act answered in kind by Benedetti in an airplane flying above the cold Atlantic. The name is Benedetti, not Corleone, but it's still cold Puzo pasta—and Vasile has no new spice to add to the sauce.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-85349-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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