Writing that’s spare and strong, and characters who tattoo themselves onto the reader’s mind. Not to mention a trial that...
A gripping first legal suspenser by Shapiro (The Search for Justice, 1996, not reviewed) and Becker (the Crichtonesque Link, 1998).
Middle-aging, purehearted, respected Dr. Daniel Wyatt, father of three and husband to the ever-jealous Ellen, is nominated for the post of Surgeon-General and must go for a workover by the Senate. One senator, opposing him, has the FBI rake through Wyatt’s past on the lookout for smut. Wyatt is a partner of Claire Davis, herself a lawyer and the head of Women’s Advocacy Group, a pro-choice spearhead against the conservative Louisiana legal and medical establishments. While away in Baton Rouge, Wyatt has one night in bed with Sarah Corbett, his patient from Lafayette, and a month later Sarah phones that she’s pregnant. The authors have a fine time nailing down every tiny shred of Wyatt’s guilt. In the meantime, Wyatt asks his friend Dr. Magley to abort Sarah. But Sarah fails to show up for the procedure. The fetus acts like dope and fixates her on Wyatt, who now feels his life slipping down an oiled incline. Then Claire Davis intuits the situation, gives Wyatt a box of French abortion pills, tells him to take Sarah to a beach house for a calm weekend and have her take the pills. Sarah returns home without Wyatt but bleeding profusely, having a bad reaction to prostglandin. The D.A., who wants to run for senator, hears of this, knows that self-abortion is a crime in Louisiana, but even worse—well, the doctor has murdered a fetus. So the D.A. skillfully gets Sarah to implicate Wyatt, then arrests him for murder. Rise, Claire Davis, for the defense. Meanwhile, in a subplot, a serial terrorist who has murdered many doctors sets his sights on Dr. Magley and plans to blow up the courthouse should Wyatt be found innocent.
Writing that’s spare and strong, and characters who tattoo themselves onto the reader’s mind. Not to mention a trial that threatens Roe v. Wade.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17685-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
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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