REQUIEM FOR ROSCO

Name: REQUIEM FOR ROSCO
Author: Peter Gallagher
ISBN: 978-1467545303

by Peter Gallagher ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 7, 2014

To paraphrase one of Gallagher’s own character descriptions, this is a novel with high expectations for itself—a book with...

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In this debut crime thriller, a disgraced former Chicago Gangs Unit cop seeks vindication and redemption while investigating a series of grisly murders.

One year after accidentally shooting and killing an 11-year-old boy in a Chicago housing project, Detective “Tow Truck” Miller is offered a transfer to Homicide. At the same time, a serial killer starts terrorizing the city, seemingly exacting revenge for the murders of two call girls. As Miller races against time to catch the killer, he also searches for a witness who might be able to clear him in the previous, tragic shooting. Gallagher efficiently juggles concurrent subplots that propel the novel forward as they introduce a disparate gallery of characters, including trader Richard Landon, whose run of bad luck includes a devastating financial loss at the hands of Rosco Mink, the serial killer’s latest victim; Landon’s sexually voracious, high-maintenance lover, Vicki; his former fiancée, Katie O’Connor, whose mother, Madeline, oversees the police board that will decide Miller’s fate; and 12-year-old Ben Foster and his new friend, Spider, whose impoverished families have been devastated by gang violence. This is an ambitious police procedural, murder mystery and social-issues novel in the vein of Richard Price, the author of Clockers (1992). Gallagher vividly renders Chicago’s tony Gold Coast, whose denizens have “real money…[a]nd power,” as well as gang-infested projects and insulated suburbs that hide their own secrets. However, he lacks Price’s mastery of plotting and his pitch-perfect ear for dialogue; Spider’s patois is particularly ham-handed (“Ain’t no polices comin’. Po-lices doan bother with no fire crackers”). More, too, could have been made of Miller’s reputation for strong-arm “Gang Crimes tactics,” with his new, more politically sensitive beat. Gallagher is better at conveying how the city works for rich, white people, and how it doesn’t work for struggling African-Americans. For example, during the media circus surrounding the serial murders, Ben notes how, when his father was shot, “there were no headlines for him.” The pieces of the puzzle ultimately fit together, albeit not all seamlessly, but the twist ending packs a lingering wallop.

To paraphrase one of Gallagher’s own character descriptions, this is a novel with high expectations for itself—a book with depth that, despite its shortcomings, is endlessly interesting.

Pub Date: July 7, 2014

ISBN: 978-1467545303

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Ampersand Inc.

Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.