Thoughtful and introspective, with a pulse-quickening conclusion.
In Shook’s debut novel, a mother uncovers secrets about her estranged daughter’s mysterious life.
Kate LaRue’s peaceful, independent routine as a boutique owner in Cape Cod is shockingly interrupted when she receives a phone call about her daughter, Ally. It’s been 10 years since Ally turned 18 and ran away from home, cutting off all contact with both of her parents. Now she’s dying in a hospital bed of sepsis from a ruptured appendix. Kate races to San Francisco just in time to see her daughter before she passes away, and she learns that Ally had a daughter of her own. Four-year-old Glory is an unusually grave, almost nonverbal child, which her doctors say could indicate a disability or the effects of a traumatic experience. With little but a birth certificate and a few photos found in Ally’s apartment, Kate sets out to discover what happened to her daughter during the time she was missing—to find closure for herself and to discover any information that could help her grandchild. Shook captures the rhythms of life in Cape Cod with rigorous detail, from the tourism and traffic patterns to the beauty of the oceanfront and unpredictability of the elements. She takes time to appreciate the scenery: “The Nantucket Sound, sparkling blue and green in the sunlight, rolled in on soft waves that broke over wet sand turned brown from the lapping water, and then retreated just as quickly.” Kate’s methodical pursuit of answers is the greatest source of intrigue, building to a suspenseful, hair-raising conclusion. However, Shook also develops more commonplace but equally well-constructed subplots as Kate runs her business, navigates her relationships with family and friends, bonds with Glory, and comes to terms with her daughter’s death. Kate’s love for her home, her shop, and her newly found granddaughter make her an endearing character. Furthermore, the author’s professional background as a psychologist gives the work depth and credibility.
Thoughtful and introspective, with a pulse-quickening conclusion.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4787-9204-8
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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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