Rickman, a thinking reader’s Elizabeth George, continues his traversal of Welsh superstitions, Church of England conundrums,...
Myths, legends, a large black hound, and spiritual proof of a visitation from Conan Doyle occupy the country folk of Ledwardine.
Former TV personality Ben Foley has sunk his last shilling into Stanner Hall. Although the Baker Street League has declined to hold its next conference at the Victorian mansion, The White Company, a group determined to contact Conan Doyle psychically to prove his Hound of the Baskervilles was based on local legend, has booked rooms. Independent TV producer Anthony Largo, whom Ben has talked into filming the proceedings, seems especially keen on the project once he meets the lovely hotel manager, Natalie, now sharing digs with reticent farmer Jeremy Berrows. Also keeping secrets is teenaged chambermaid/gofer Jane Watkins, who knows her mum, Rev. Merrily Watkins, Deliverance Consultant for the Church of England, will find the proceedings hogwash. Meantime, local squire Sebbie Dacre, a bad-tempered alcoholic with madness in his family tree, is hiring gunmen and shooting up Jeremy’s farm, which used to belong to Sebbie’s family. Snow falls. Ectoplasm unfurls (maybe). And there are sightings of an enormous hound that, according to local legend, is a fatal portent that can be traced 500 years back to the death of Thomas Vaughn.
Rickman, a thinking reader’s Elizabeth George, continues his traversal of Welsh superstitions, Church of England conundrums, and true-crime touchstones (The Lamp of the Wicked, 2003, etc.) with an added bonus for Sherlockians: an explanation of that Hound’s genesis.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2004
ISBN: 0-333-90806-6
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Pan UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2004
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Though all the surface elements are in place, Picoult falters in her exploration of what turns a quiet kid into a murderer.
Picoult’s 14th novel (after The Tenth Circle, 2006, etc.) of a school shooting begins with high-voltage excitement, then slows by the middle, never regaining its initial pace or appeal.
Peter Houghton, 17, has been the victim of bullying since his first day of kindergarten, made all the more difficult by two factors: In small-town Sterling, N.H., Peter is in high school with the kids who’ve tormented him all his life; and his all-American older brother eggs the bullies on. Peter retreats into a world of video games and computer programming, but he’s never able to attain the safety of invisibility. And then one day he walks into Sterling High with a knapsack full of guns, kills ten students and wounds many others. Peter is caught and thrown in jail, but with over a thousand witnesses and video tape of the day, it will be hard work for the defense to clear him. His attorney, Jordan McAfee, hits on the only approach that might save the unlikable kid—a variation of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by bullying. Thrown into the story is Judge Alex Cormier, and her daughter Josie, who used to be best friends with Peter until the popular crowd forced the limits of her loyalty. Also found dead was her boyfriend Matt, but Josie claims she can’t remember anything from that day. Picoult mixes McAfee’s attempt to build a defense with the mending relationship of Alex and Josie, but what proves a more intriguing premise is the response of Peter’s parents to the tragedy. How do you keep loving your son when he becomes a mass murderer? Unfortunately, this question, and others, remain, as the novel relies on repetition (the countless flashbacks of Peter’s victimization) rather than fresh insight. Peter fits the profile, but is never fully fleshed out beyond stereotype. Usually so adept at shaping the big stories with nuance, Picoult here takes a tragically familiar event, pads it with plot, but leaves out the subtleties of character.
Though all the surface elements are in place, Picoult falters in her exploration of what turns a quiet kid into a murderer.Pub Date: March 6, 2007
ISBN: 0-7434-9672-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
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