A serpentine whodunit with amateur sleuthing, plenty of satisfying suspense, and more adventures ahead.
A teenager and his uncle investigate a Maryland murder with dangerous implications.
Dedicated to “victims of corporate greed and environmental destruction,” author and licensed acupuncturist Allen’s (The Yeti Quotient, 2011) novel incorporates elements of corruption, deception, avarice, and heroism, beginning with the at-gunpoint kidnapping of ecological engineer Andrew “Andy” Harrington. Months later, a Halloween hayride chaperone for Maryland’s historic Ellicott City school sports program discovers the bones of a young girl long entombed in the foundation of the Patapsco Female Institute, an abandoned facility previously used to house young women over a century ago. Thirteen-year-old, redheaded Jack Tasker and his uncle/caretaker Ben, a snoopy local news reporter, become curious about the discovery, especially when a more recently buried body is uncovered near the institute, which ratchets up the enigma twofold. Meanwhile, burned-out local politician Eugene Clark receives a shifty offer to form a “symbiotic relationship” with an unscrupulous multinational natural gas company to allow hydro-fracking near several key waterways like the Chesapeake Bay in exchange for his guaranteed re-election as a county executive. Clark is bullied into signing the agreement just as reports emerge that the newly excavated body is that of a young man who’d been shot to death. Believing the institute is haunted, Jack and Ben go on a clandestine fact-finding mission. This further solidifies their relationship as uncle and nephew, but also as inquisitive, if neophyte, detectives in a tale that—because of its innocuous detailing and climactic plotting—should have safe appeal for both YA and adult mystery fans. The compelling story continues to unravel with an otherworldly aspect when the two encounter an apparition and a backpack ditched in the hollow of a tree trunk. A telltale diary leads to long-held secrets that place Jack and Ben in the cross hairs of despicable corporate henchmen banking on the success of a nefarious corruption scheme. The tale is smoothly written in clipped chapters with lots of homespun tidbits, informational asides on the semantics of hydraulic fracturing, and vivid, politically charged backlash and environmental intrigue. Though the two protagonists remain charismatic and remarkably engaging throughout, both deserve more than a few pages of back story. Hopefully, readers will get to know more about the dynamic duo in future installments of Allen’s series.
A serpentine whodunit with amateur sleuthing, plenty of satisfying suspense, and more adventures ahead.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-935083-47-4
Page Count: 340
Publisher: CyPress Publications
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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