In this (for Whitney) overly talky and cluttered mystery/suspense novel, set in a scenic area of western North Carolina, a young widow from California sets out to discover the true story of two deaths decades apart. Lauren Castle's late husband, filmmaker Jim, has been accidentally killed while working on a documentary concerning the career of fabled actor Roger Brandt, who still lives on beautiful Lake Lure. In 1938, the movie idol had made a film—as well as a child—with his lover, the lovely Victoria Fraser. The child was raised elsewhere, and Victoria, presumably distraught that Roger would stay forever with his wife, Camilla, committed suicide. Or did she? Lauren, meanwhile, has told no one except former boyfriend Gordon (now a forest ranger) that she is the granddaughter of Victoria and Roger. Now in North Carolina to sleuth, Lauren pinballs here and there, picking up bits of info and chatting with: blunt but chummy Gretchen Fraser, Victoria's sister; Gordon's mother Finella, who's heavily into making products from the kudzu vine; Natalie Brandt, Roger's daughter, an artist who has painted a spooky picture of a UFO-like object landing on the local mountain peak; Camilla, who introduces Lauren to Victoria's old dresser, Betty; and hirsute Ty, Gretchen's brother, who is mighty strange and beats drums in the wild. At the close, when all's made plain, there's a climb to what might be a sky-high grave. This time the story seems crowded, and Whitney has not allowed her mob of suspects space and time; readers may feel overwhelmed by the plethora of chat and surfeit of chatterers. But even the best of the pros can lob one into the underbrush—not that Whitney's following will care. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for Fall)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-517-59499-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
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
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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