by Robert E. Ferguson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2010
An entertaining, if somewhat overwhelming, adventure tale.
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A swashbuckling adventure novel, the first in a planned trilogy, that tells the story of modern-day pirate Bobby McAllister.
Novelist Granger Lawton suffers from a lack of material for his second book. His publisher insists that he leave the comforts of his Arizona ranch to interview a 20th-century pirate and Southern gentleman named Bobby McAllister, in order to write a book based on McAllister’s life. Lawton feels that he doesn’t have a choice but to go and hear what the man has to say, but he finds McAllister’s tall tales of adventure and treasure hunting in the Caribbean difficult to believe. McAllister tells him a story of how, after fleeing law enforcement officials in Georgia, he became mixed up with an eclectic group of treasure hunters looking to find and recover the Hacha, a 17th-century Spanish ship. His path to eventual success included sexy, mysterious women; crooked, vengeful cops; a talking parrot; and, unfortunately, the deaths of close friends. He then tells Lawton that his life’s true calling has been to find a different, more elusive treasure, and he enlists the reluctant writer in his quest to find a legendary ship known as the Prize. The novel jumps back and forth in time quite a bit, and, as a result, the plot grows somewhat confusing, and it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of all of the colorful characters. Readers probably won’t mind terribly much, however, as they’re likely to get swept up by the charismatic McAllister’s enthusiasm. Debut author Ferguson based McAllister’s story on his own life experiences salvaging treasure from sunken ships, and he blended fact with fiction and fantasy to create a posthumously published trilogy. As readers try to guess what’s true and what’s invented, they’re likely to find the novel enjoyable on a whole other level.
An entertaining, if somewhat overwhelming, adventure tale.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-1770671485
Page Count: 480
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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