Novelist, playwright, composer Holmes has nostalgia down pat—though he’s got some work to do on tension. (CD bound in with...
A big-band musician on the run from the ruins of his happy marriage gets tangled up in Big Events at the 1940 San Francisco World’s Fair.
The Big Events have to do with the coming cataclysm of WWII, but alto saxophonist and talented arranger Ray Sherwood, already badly wounded by his young daughter’s accidental death, seems largely unaware of international tensions. Playing with a touring band at a swell hotel in Oakland, Sherwood has received an invitation to meet and work with ambitious young composer Gail Prentice. The two rendezvous on the San Francisco Bay island created for the Golden Gate World Exposition. Just as he is getting acquainted with the very attractive young composer, who is eking out her college fees with work as a carilloneuse at the fair, Sherwood is an unhappy witness to the apparent suicide of a Frenchwoman who, earlier, had appealed to him to rescue her from deportation. In the small world of pre-boom California (as before—in Where The Truth Lies, 2003—Holmes’s feel for mid-century America is exceptional), it’s easy enough for the reader to accept the many coincidences and connections that tie the dead woman to events surrounding Gail and Ray as they hammer out an orchestration for “Swing,” Gail’s prizewinning piano composition that’s to be played by a Japanese band before the fair closes. One of the coincidental connections has to do with Ray’s nearby ex-wife, Nancy, now business manager for fan dancer and fair attraction Sally Rand. Nancy’s presence takes the edge off Ray’s feelings for Gail, feelings that become an embarrassment after Gail’s gloomy mother suggests that she and Sherwood have a past. Everything comes to a boil when “Swing” finally gets a hearing.
Novelist, playwright, composer Holmes has nostalgia down pat—though he’s got some work to do on tension. (CD bound in with music from the book)Pub Date: March 15, 2005
ISBN: 1-4000-6158-X
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A smoothly written contemporary caper paired with a murder mystery and a little meet-the-Jetsons futurism. No one does...
Written under her real name and her pseudonym, two books in one from megaselling Roberts/Robb.
Book one: Laine Tavish, gorgeous redhead and owner of a small-town antique store, isn’t about to tell the cops that she knew the old man who was hit by a car right outside her shop. Just before he took his dying breath, she recognized Willy Young, partner in crime to Big Jack O’Hara, her father. Their biggest heist: millions of dollars in hot diamonds. Her father went to prison, but not Willy, whose last words were “left it for you.” What did he leave—and where? Enter Max Gannon, insurance investigator and all-around stud, with thick, wavy, run-your-fingers-through-it hair, tawny eyes that remind Laine of a tiger, and a delicious Georgia drawl. He beds Laine pronto, and they solve the case. But some of the diamonds are still missing. . . . Book two: it’s 50 years later, and New York traffic is slower than ever: just try getting a helicab on a rainy day. But Samantha Gannon, author of a bestseller called Hot Rocks based on her grandparents’ experiences in the long-ago case, eventually makes it home from the airport to find her house-sitter Andrea dead, throat cut. Another investigation begins, spearheaded by Eve Dallas, a tough-talking but very appealing New York cop married to Roarke, a rich, eccentric genius who just barely manages to stay on the right side of the law. Is the murderer after the rest of the diamonds? And is he or she related to the master thief who betrayed Samantha’s great-grandfather? There are more burning questions, and Eve wants answers—but, first, get Central on the telelink and program the Autochef for pastrami on rye.
A smoothly written contemporary caper paired with a murder mystery and a little meet-the-Jetsons futurism. No one does Suspense Lite better than Nora.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-399-15106-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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