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IN HARM'S WAY

Name: IN HARM'S WAY
Author: Paul A. Breeze
ISBN: 0-312-13094-5

by Paul A. Breeze ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1995

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Realistic first novel by a British chemist and bio-researcher now turned to suspense fiction, specifically a medical detective thriller. One night Tony Marchbank, a medical researcher, gets a call from his boss, Steven Hamble, who suddenly needs to see him. But as Tony drives to Hamble's house on the outskirts of London, Hamble is presumably committing suicide by driving a car filled with gasoline into the brick wall of an old barn. But was it really murder, Tony wonders? Two weeks later, the late Hamble is replaced by a new director, the nonentity Oliver Earnshaw, who tells Tony to wrap up Hamble's leftover Roughburn project quickly. The more he looks into Roughburn, however, the more Tony sees that a terrible devastation of the town's children by an epidemic of cancer in the early '50s is being covered upwith newspapers disappearing and a virus introduced into his computer wiping out three years' worth of data after Tony has gone public in the newspapers. And not only is his data lost, but an attempt on his life nearly burns him alive and he's the victim of character assassination by an old colleague. Meanwhile, Tony hopes to retain the affection of his ever-chillier wife, Margaret, a rising force in her male-dominated insurance firm. As Tony at last finds out when she abruptly leaves him, Margaret has fallen into a lesbian passion for his own research assistant, Christine Lambeth. But he and Chris push on, and they are joined by reporter Lois Love, who finds Tony's original story falling to pieces for lack of evidence. Then they discover that it was government scientists who caused the cancer epidemic and are now attacking Tony.... The lesbian subplot is as gripping as the tale's medical spine. Breeze's clichÇ-free style promises even richer harvests ahead.

Pub Date: July 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-312-13094-5

Page Count: 240

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.