A promising start to a good-humored mystery series worth following.
The promising kickoff to Pawlish’s comic mystery series, starring far-from-perfect PI Reed Ferguson.
The story starts on a somewhat rough note, with the oft-parodied moment in any noir detective story when a beautiful woman walks into the office and tells a suspicious story about why she needs help—she thinks her husband’s dead and wants to find him. From the beginning, Pawlish works hard to establish the comic tone in Ferguson’s first-person voice, which, in addition to the disingenuous ingénue, Amanda Ghering, keeps the opening scene from becoming too familiar. Fortunately, Pawlish’s light touch for comedy doesn’t get in the way of the mystery. It turns out that Ferguson, a trust-fund kid trying to establish his independence, has never worked a case. He’s a big fan of noir films, though, and references them constantly. Pawlish relies on those references too much at first, but once the story gets rolling and Ferguson is fleshed out, they become a natural part of his thought process, illustrating his novice status in an entertaining way. Pawlish also earns high marks for plot construction, with twists and turns naturally unfolding as Ferguson, inexperienced but not incapable, feels his way through the case. There’s one notable exception in the climax, however, when a character suddenly appears out of the blue, though it doesn’t sink the story. Pawlish has a good eye for the smaller details, and she’s built a fantastic cast of supporting characters—including Ferguson’s goofy neighbors and especially his computer expert friend Cal—that’ll give readers something to look forward to in future installments of the series. In a nifty bit of worldbuilding, the characters, who never feel tacked on, each help reveal some aspect of Ferguson’s personality while filling out the story. Even the regular phone calls from his mother don’t interrupt the story’s flow.
A promising start to a good-humored mystery series worth following.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2011
ISBN: 978-0982705612
Page Count: 226
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is the sort of book that stirs one so deeply that it is almost impossible to attempt to convey the impression it leaves. It is the story of today's Exodus, of America's great trek, as the hordes of dispossessed tenant farmers from the dust bowl turn their hopes to the promised land of California's fertile valleys. The story of one family, with the "hangers-on" that the great heart of extreme poverty sometimes collects, but in that story is symbolized the saga of a movement in which society is before the bar. What an indictment of a system — what an indictment of want and poverty in the land of plenty! There is flash after flash of unforgettable pictures, sharply etched with that restraint and power of pen that singles Steinbeck out from all his contemporaries. There is anger here, but it is a deep and disciplined passion, of a man who speaks out of the mind and heart of his knowledge of a people. One feels in reading that so they must think and feel and speak and live. It is an unresolved picture, a record of history still in the making. Not a book for casual reading. Not a book for unregenerate conservative. But a book for everyone whose social conscience is astir — or who is willing to face facts about a segment of American life which is and which must be recognized. Steinbeck is coming into his own. A new and full length novel from his pen is news. Publishers backing with advertising, promotion aids, posters, etc. Sure to be one of the big books of the Spring. First edition limited to half of advance as of March 1st. One half of dealer's orders to be filled with firsts.
Pub Date: April 14, 1939
ISBN: 0143039431
Page Count: 532
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1939
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.
Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
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