A crime story that’s hard to put down but may not be for all tastes.
Gun lust, misogyny, and murder are among the ingredients in Robertson’s debut novel.
Sam Robbins hates his boss, his “over-rouged” co-worker, and his job involving dull “numbers connected to dull accounts and even duller people.” He’s also annoyed by his mother and harbors a grudge against his ex-wife. When not at work, Sam likes to takes multiple daily showers in his small, half-furnished apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, which features a “dowdy brown stuffed chair” and a “short stack of videotapes.” Lackluster Sam cooks up a plan to go from boring to ballistic, and the recipe calls for murder. He hides an issue of Guns magazine at work the way a preteen boy might harbor a copy of Playboy under his bedclothes, so he can barely contain himself when he overhears a co-worker, Bill Jackson, accepting an assignment to kill mobster Sal Lastretto. Sam wants in on the deal—“The hit, not the money”—so he befriends Bill. However, Sam has mixed feelings about Bill’s “inviting smile” and casual touches; Bill also invites him to dinner and a play about “two star-crossed lovers, both male.” Sam works to keep the seduction in check as he proceeds with his plan to take over the killing assignment. Along the way, he bargain-shops for guns and tries new disguises. This tale of a malcontent’s evil exploits seems preposterous, and Sam’s excitement over his AK-47 and shotgun (“he noted the ease of operating the pump as he pondered the words, ‘hit anything in the room’ ”) is disturbing. But although this book may not be for everyone, there are enough twists and intrigue here to satisfy many readers. It also provides a unique character in sad, shy Bill. Overall, Robertson manages to generate considerable tension in this thriller, which could potentially be the first in a series of dark adventures for Sam.
A crime story that’s hard to put down but may not be for all tastes.Pub Date: June 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-938749-27-8
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Enchanted Indie Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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