Mega-selling Pilcher's very, very long WW II soap: the hardships of the Duration are never far from a restoring cup of China tea and a silver tray of iced cakes. It's 1936 when Pilcher's (September, 1990, etc.) sensible, selfless heroine Judith Dunbara true English roseis separated from her family: Her mother and sister go off to Ceylon to join her father, and Judith, 14, is sent to St. Ursula's girls' school in Cornwall. There, she befriends the rich, madcap Loveday Carey-Lewis and is quickly adopted by her glamorous, likable family. Though Judith is supposed to spend her holidays with her golf-playing Aunt Louise, she quickly finds a happier home at Nancherrow, the Carey- Lewises' luxurious estate on the Cornish coast. Cushioned by cashmere and fine Shetland, befriended by Nettlebed the butler and Mrs. Nettlebed the cook, advised by the Carey Lewises' wise nanny Mary Millywaya veritable Disney film of charming support staffJudith copes with growing up ``alone.'' When Aunt Louise dies in a car crash, though, Judith comes into a considerable fortune of her ownone that enables her to buy the home she, too, has always craved. Finally, after a lot of long walks and Cornish cream teas, WW II begins, and the beautiful young men who decorated the lawns of Nancherrow are wounded, taken prisoner, or killed. Judith, mourning the death of Edward Carey-Lewis, joins the Wrens, the Women's Royal Navy Service. In the service, she has a passionate one-nighter with a Cornish doctor who's not only sensible but knows how to cook a good steak. Though the letter in which he'll later declare his lifelong devotion never reaches Judith, a typical wartime happy ending is ensured. Homily-laden escapist fare with drama that's never as good as the gardening. Flowers are everywhere, even decorating the pages, in Pilcher's sylvan valentine to prewar Cornwall. (First printing of 850,000; $800,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection)
Pub Date: Sept. 5, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13451-7
Page Count: 736
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
Perfect for readers who wish To Kill a Mockingbird had been presented from a slightly older, male point of view.
Eskens’ latest novel is a warmhearted story of a white teenager's awakening to the racial tensions that run through his Missouri town in 1976.
Years before he’ll become a successful attorney (The Shadows We Hide, 2018, etc.), Boady Sanden struggles to navigate all the usual high school ordeals in small-town Jessup, including boring subjects and bullying by the likes of all-state wrestler and prom king Jarvis Halcomb. In Boady’s case, these everyday problems are aggravated by his outsider status as a non-Catholic freshman at St. Ignatius High School, his home life with his widowed, introverted mother, Emma, and, most recently, the arrival of some new neighbors, the Elgins. Charles Elgin is definitely an improvement on indolent Cecil Halcomb, Jarvis' father, whom he replaces as manager of the local manufacturing plant after bookkeeper Lida Poe disappears with more than $100,000 of the plant’s money. Jenna Elgin is excellent company for Emma Sanden, whom she helps draw out of her shell. And after a comically unfortunate first encounter, Boady quickly takes to their son, Thomas, who’s exactly his age. But the Elgins, like Lida Poe, are African American, and the combination of an unsolved embezzlement, good old boy Cecil’s displacement by an outsider, and the town’s incipient racism works slowly but inexorably to put Boady, recruited by the Crusaders of Racial Purity and Strength, under pressure to betray his new friendship. Declining to join the racists but repeatedly running away rather than refusing their demands point blank, Boady must navigate a perilous route to supporting his community and claiming his own adult identity.
Perfect for readers who wish To Kill a Mockingbird had been presented from a slightly older, male point of view.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-50972-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
What starts off as Easter eggs ends up as one big, shapeless omelet in Lucy’s feckless 21st.
A holiday tradition turns lethal in small-town Maine.
The residents of Tinker’s Cove have always dressed their toddlers in their Sunday best for the annual Easter egg hunt at Vivian Van Vorst’s beautiful mansion. But this year, Pine Point is looking a bit seedy. The lawn is unkempt, no one is directing traffic, and VV is nowhere to be seen. Worst of all, her grandson, Van Vorst Duff, dressed in a bunny suit, drops dead at the gates of the estate before he can hide a single egg. Lucy Stone (Chocolate Covered Murder, 2011, etc.), ace reporter for the Tinker’s Cove Pennysaver, takes time off from covering the town council meeting to help her colleague Phyllis’ niece Elfrida cater Van’s funeral—giving her plenty of opportunity to snoop. She discovers that VV is being confined to her room and fed nothing but canned nutritional supplement while her granddaughter Vicky Allen and Vicky’s husband, Henry, aided by unscrupulous lawyer George Weatherby, sell off her priceless art treasures. When the Allens give VV’s faithful butler Willis the sack, they have a fight on their hands. Thanks to local attorney Bob Goodman, the trio is brought to trial on charges of elder abuse. Reporters from all over the country choke the streets of Gilead, the county seat. Famous defense attorney Howard Zuzick, representing the Allens, looks as if he might have some tricks up his sleeve. But surprise! Meier drops that plot and instead packs Lucy off on a mission to hunt down VV’s long-lost daughter for former librarian Miss Julia Tilley.
What starts off as Easter eggs ends up as one big, shapeless omelet in Lucy’s feckless 21st.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-2935-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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