Grim first novel, a thriller set on a sunless island on Lake Superior peopled by stunted, duplicitous characters. Chuck left Madeline Island 20 years ago, under a cloud. Had he murdered his wild young wife, when he was a wild young draft- dodger, by driving her out onto the lake ice and letting the car slip through a thin patch? That's bad enough, but it's only part of the cloud over Chuck's head when he brings his new wife, Gretchen, and her smart-talking teenaged daughter, Kara, back to the island for a reading of his dad's will. On the ferry from the mainland to the island, the ferry captain blisteringly berates Chuck for returning to pick over his father's bones. Nobody, it seems, is happy to see Chuck. Meantime, a reading of the will shows that his father, Leo, was in fact the colossal bastard the whole island considered him. Yes, Leo says in his will, the money is gone, gone, gone. What money? Some $60,000 or so that Leo had collected from townsfolk and deposited in a Bahamian bank with promises of large profits for all. But, Leo avers, the bank sank. Sorry. The townspeople don't believe this and quite rightly think that Leo buried the loot. They want to tear his house to pieces. But the old man has left the house to his hard-drinking housekeeper, Mrs. Ford. When she dies, it will revert to Chuck, who can sell it if he wants and start a new life with Gretchen and Kara. Then, of course, the bodies start dropping—including that of Mrs. Ford—and Gretchen and Kara become ever more sure that Chuck is the perp. Should they flee . . . ? A hard, bloody tale, rendered with grisly accuracy. Young Kara, with her drill-boring teenage intelligence, steals the show here. All told, an assured performance that dims any desire to visit Lake Superior.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-385-48430-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1996
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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