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GRAND JURY

Don't be fooled by the legal-intrigue title: Most of this overwrought, overextended suspenser takes place miles from the nearest courtroom—or the nearest editorial pencil. But first, Friedman (Inadmissable Evidence, 1992, etc.) gets his day in court when Chinese-American p.r. flack Susan Linwood, sitting on a New York grand jury, hears a fellow juror cast doubt on the case against Martin and Meiling Eng, arrested for heroin trafficking. The case seems ironclad—the cops who broke in on the Engs found half a pound of heroin and a million dollars in cash—but quiet, persistent juror Mrs. Liu insists that 80-ish Martin Eng, a leader in the Chinese community, would never be involved with heroin, and would never have resisted arrest in the way Det. Mike Pullone testified. Susan agrees to raise Mrs. Liu's reservations officially, but although she persuades David Clark, a computer designer between real jobs, of her misgivings, the jury, after interminable argument, still votes an indictment- -whereupon Susan goes to visit the Engs, agrees to travel with David to Hong Kong to alleviate the fears of the Engs's children and make a few incidental inquiries about her own parents' death in a 1976 earthquake. Even as Susan and David are drawing closer to the Engs and gathering evidence of the high-level corruption they suspect was behind the heroin bust, the D.A.'s office is gathering its own evidence that the Engs are involved in something illegal, something that may well be bigger than the original drug charge. So no sooner do Susan and David, who've been panting for each other ever since they flew to Hong Kong, return from their trip than they're subpoenaed as witnesses before another grand jury—if they aren't kidnapped or bullied into silence first. A cluttered, lumbering, unthrilling thriller that begins as an endless update of 12 Angry Men and ends in shrill, outdated Yellow Peril theatrics. (First printing of 150,000; Literary Guild & Doubleday bookclub selections; $175,000 ad/promo; author tour)

Pub Date: May 1, 1996

ISBN: 1-55611-456-7

Page Count: 660

Publisher: Donald Fine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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MAGIC HOUR

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

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