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THE BANK MANAGER

An unassuming detective story, but one that offers a vibrant array of characters.

Awards & Accolades

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An Australian police detective investigates a bank manager’s disappearance in Monk’s (The Bank Inspector, 2014, etc.) thriller sequel.

When the South Australian Police decide to station a detective in the Yorke Peninsula, they transfer promising young DS Brian Shaw. He hasn’t even settled in when Great Southern Bank manager Frank Andersen goes missing; he left the office to tend to customers and never returned. Shaw soon uncovers two significant clues: Andersen’s abandoned car is parked on his property and contains the bank money that he brought with him but not his revolver; and a witness says that he spotted Andersen driving with a passenger, which is against bank policy while conducting business. Andersen himself is nowhere to be found, and Shaw soon surmises foul play. While “chasing alibis,” he finds some suspects to be less than cooperative, and the mystery deepens after the allegedly accidental death of someone with ties to the bank, which Shaw thinks is murder. Fortunately, he soon gets help from an unlikely source. Monk deftly captures the dynamic of a city detective adjusting to life in a country town; for example, Shaw receives seemingly endless invitations to people’s homes for dinner, including one that may be an attempt to set him up with someone’s daughter. Similarly, the unhurried narrative concentrates mainly on Shaw’s conversations and interrogations; some are innocuous, as when Shaw explains the procedure for upgrading a disappearance to a murder, but they serve to make other moments more shocking. A few supporting characters stand out—most notably Andersen’s wife, Kath, and South Australian Police Sgt. Arny Milhouse, who bumps heads with the newly arrived Shaw. A romantic interest for the detective, though, is introduced a bit too late and distracts from the unraveling mystery.

An unassuming detective story, but one that offers a vibrant array of characters.

Pub Date: April 16, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-922238-57-3

Page Count: -

Publisher: Horizon Publishing Group

Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017

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MAGIC HOUR

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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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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