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CHEESECAKE TO DIE FOR

Name: CHEESECAKE TO DIE FOR
Author: Ron Ross
ISBN: 978-0615833156

by Ron Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 2013

Just like a witty friend telling a story; quirky, good-natured and never boring.

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Author Ross returns to 1940s New York (Tales from the Sidewalks of New York, 2012, etc.) with a comedy about Mafioso types and a rather muddled attempt to whack someone.

At the Mermaid Social Athletic Club, mob boss Dwarf and his men meet for their poker games. It’s also where Sonny LoCicero and company must contend with the likes of Louie the Louse, who earned his nickname by claiming some of the Dwarf’s business under the guise of an employee. The Dwarf has a reason for permitting Louie’s misdeeds, but on learning he’s been duped, he wants retaliation—and what better way than to enlist the loathsome Fivel Finnegan, who’s always up for an easy way to make money? One of the most salient traits of Ross’ novel is the narrator, Sonny. Sonny rarely plays an active role in the story, sometimes relaying events secondhand, a funny narrative strategy. His phonetic narration makes all the characters’ dialogue sound the same, using words like “yerself” and disregarding the final letter of -ing words; he admits to conjecture, such as guessing the weather conditions during an encounter between Fivel and Louie on Coney Island; and he’s disposed to going off on tangents but gets himself back on track with an “anyhow.” Sonny reveals little about himself, including any personality, but he’s surrounded by a motley bunch of uproarious characters—Minnie, who sells two-day-old newspapers and whose cataracts require her taxicab passengers to feed her directions; Fats Suozzo, who thinks the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was the holiday’s namesake; and Joey the Clown, who debates inviting his current wife to his wedding. Ross gives many characters recognizable qualities: The Dwarf towers over everyone; Louie always wears a red plaid vest; and Fivel has a refrain of “Five’ll getcha ten” for his unending challenges. A few jokes are predictable—a dog named Spot, a woman telling a roomful of men that she’s a thespian—but they’re eclipsed by the other funny stuff.

Just like a witty friend telling a story; quirky, good-natured and never boring.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2013

ISBN: 978-0615833156

Page Count: 152

Publisher: Bedell Books

Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
Tales From The Sidewalks Of New York
by Ron Ross

- BOOK REVIEW
BUMMY DAVIS VS. MURDER, INC.
by Ron Ross

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.