Short but pleasantly enthusiastic, as a newbie works out his investigative kinks.
An Arizona reporter tries moving past his wife’s murder a year ago by becoming an amateur gumshoe and probing another killing in this debut mystery.
Eli Quinn took a lot of time off from his gig at the Arizona Republic to track down his wife Jess’ killer. With the murderer caught and convicted, Quinn likely won’t return to the job but isn’t sure what to do next. Former co-worker Samantha Marcos believes he has the resolve to make a laudable private eye and even suggests his first client. Delores Bernstein readily agrees to hire Quinn to find whomever murdered her retired husband, Tinker. There’d been a break-in at the Bernsteins’ home three days prior to someone shooting Tinker, but only a few items, like a PC and television, were missing. Valuable art, meanwhile, was inexplicably left behind. The sheriff suspects Delores, who doesn’t have an alibi, but Quinn looks into everything, including the possibility that a burglar wanted something from the computer. The just-out-of-the-box private detective gets help from Sam, cop pal Jack “Beach” Beachum, and his trusty German shepherd sidekick, Solo, formerly of the K-9 unit. Quinn’s investigation puts him in proximity to a few dubious individuals, and when one of them thinks he’s getting too nosy, he may have no choice but to put his taekwondo skills to use. Britt aptly utilizes his novella’s short length, launching Quinn’s murder case almost immediately. There’s a good amount of references to the protagonist’s layman status, like Beach recommending he file for a private eye license as soon as possible. At the same time, Quinn’s narrative often sports the hardened cynicism of a seasoned veteran: “Delores Bernstein didn’t kill her husband. I didn’t think. Can’t rule that out.” Solo nearly steals the story; he can intimidate with a single bark and a follow-up growl. But Sam’s a worthy supporting character, and romance between her and Quinn is nicely understated (and the year since Jess’ death is an appropriate waiting time for the private investigator). A small number of suspects unfortunately makes the murderer’s eventual unmasking somewhat predictable. Regardless, watching Quinn try to stop a killer is no less fun.
Short but pleasantly enthusiastic, as a newbie works out his investigative kinks.Pub Date: July 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9977614-1-2
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Ink Spot Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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