An often engaging cop tale that sometimes gets a bit too close to its subjects to maintain its moral grays.
Malone’s debut crime thriller looks at cops giving in to the temptation to step outside the law.
The novel’s ostensible protagonist is Jim Murphy, a new recruit to the police force in the city of Justice. Leaving behind a job managing a local auto shop, Murphy doesn’t know exactly what to expect, but he’s certain that he wants to be a part of the force more than anything. Unfortunately, this desire may not resonate with readers, due to awkward, overly explanatory prose: “He was excited about starting his new career, but apprehensive about the newness and challenging nature of it.” However, the story also uses several other cops as point-of-view characters, and their perspectives keep the novel fresh and interesting. Lowell, for example, is a capable, sardonic veteran; Nielsen has money problems that make corruption an attractive option; and Rhodes is a woman trying to break into the boys’ club. Each officer’s story serves as a reminder that the everyday reality of being a cop isn’t always easy to explain. Soon, a rising wave of gang and drug crime pushes some of the cops over the edge to take the law into their own hands. One of their own is shot and another ends up dead; add to that the yoke of excessive-force complaints and the frustration of watching gang members escape jail time, and it’s easy for readers to see why these characters choose to fight back. Throughout, the unspoken rule that cops protect their own gives the story a genuine moral complexity, as the power of the badge leads to constant temptation. Malone shows an honest reverence for both classic crime fiction and police life, and he remains admirably objective for much of the novel, neither condemning nor condoning his characters’ actions. That said, the story is perhaps too sympathetic when officers assault and even murder in the pursuit of payback: “Can I live with that? thought Murphy. Sure—no problem.”
An often engaging cop tale that sometimes gets a bit too close to its subjects to maintain its moral grays.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2011
ISBN: 978-1451596908
Page Count: 376
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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