The dilemma is so authentic that it’s sad to see how cheaply and easily Liebman lets his two heroes off the hook....
The two bottom-feeding South Jersey lawyers from Death by Rodrigo (2007) are at it again, their goal not so much to excel in court as to survive outside it.
You don’t want to mess with Slippery (nee Avon) Williams, whether you’re dealing drugs on the fair streets of Camden under his watchful eye or running a parallel organization in Atlantic City, which Chink (nee Reginald Shawn) Dupree was doing from prison until Slippery got him transferred into the Camden County Jail and iced. But now, it seems, Sami Khan, South Jersey’s premier electronics dealer, is doing just that. As if fencing stolen property and evading taxes weren’t enough for his family business, Sami has been laundering money for Slippery’s outfit—which would be fine if Camden County DA Robert Cahill weren’t leaning on Sami to flip. The situation is even trickier for Sami’s lawyers, Mickie Mezzonatti and Junne Salerno, whose youse-guys narration guides innocent readers through this jungle. Having accepted $50,000 from Slippery to join upscale Philadelphia attorney Gerald Rubino at Sami’s defense table, they realize too late that the service they’re being paid for is to tip Slippery off to any hint that Sami’s about to roll over on him. Of course, if they betray a client’s confidence, they’ll be disbarred. But disbarring sounds pretty good compared to getting whacked by Slippery, especially once Arty Bernstein, the landlord of their bucket shop, indicates that he’s perfectly willing to sell them out to Slippery the minute they make a wrong move, or even before.
The dilemma is so authentic that it’s sad to see how cheaply and easily Liebman lets his two heroes off the hook. Fuhgeddaboudit, but be sure to check back next time.Pub Date: June 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4165-6977-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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