A lusty, tragic tale for readers who are willing to work for its satisfying moments of connection.
Coomer’s (Dove Creek, 2010, etc.) second novel tracks the impact of an Australian lothario on two families, one Australian and the other American.
The story begins in the Australian Outback in the 1950s, where Edmonds Tuor and his wife, Cherise Marie, operate a caravan camp. Next door are Russell and Jeanne McMurtrey, Americans who’ve brought their two children to caravan through Australia on an educational journey. With the McCurtreys is a local hire, Rich Hand, a “road assistant and tour guide.” Rich has “Hair black like an oyster” and “Cobalt eyes,” which is evidently an irresistible combination, as both Cherise and Jeanne are separately swept away by his animal magnetism. The affairs result in both women getting pregnant. The McMurtreys return home to San Diego, where their new son, Dale, is born, and Cherise gives birth to Martin, her third child, in Australia. Martin eventually moves to America, and the second half of the novel follows him to Idaho, where he’s an on-again, off-again mental health patient. Much like his older brother, Piotr, who has “night terrors,” Martin suffers from “seizures” and hallucinations, which are depicted in harrowing detail. Coomer has woven an intriguing, complicated tale filled with so many characters that readers will need a score card to keep them all straight. Almost everyone has ties to everyone else in one way or another, in locations from Australia to America and through the decades of the second half of the 20th century. A few more signposts would have been useful; instead, readers will have to ferret out the revolving time frames from scant clues. Although the narrative is heavily character-driven, it’s also defined by its attention to local vernacular, its vivid imagery of the unforgivingly arid Outback, and its focus on the challenges faced by a unique assortment of people who have chosen to call it home. Overall, it’s a frustrating yet engrossing read that leaves readers pondering where the story might go next.
A lusty, tragic tale for readers who are willing to work for its satisfying moments of connection.Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-945419-02-7
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Fawkes Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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