by Sara Cameron ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 1993
An American reporter attaches himself to the testy Kenyan policeman working to solve a gory murder discovered by the journalist. In Cameron's clever first novel, everything has to do with ivory and greed. Sam Hawthorne's trip through a game park on his way to cover a rising Kenyan insurgency ends abruptly when he stops to help stranded motorists and finds them all either dead or dying. The travelers were Game Department official David Kariuki, his wife, and his driver. Sam frantically transports the fading Mrs. Kariuki to the nearest camp, but he's too late. He's also charged with murder. It is Hawthorne's bad luck that the first representative of the government on the scene is one of the most cynical of a thoroughly corrupt lot; it is his good luck that the official wrap-up gets handed to senior detective James Wangai, who is not only competent but, mirabile dictu, incorruptible. Wangai, who likes Hawthorne not at all, can't ignore Hawthorne's carefully annotated account of the discovery of the corpses and finds it thoroughly improbable that Hawthorne would have gone out of his way to announce the discovery of the bodies if he were the villain he's made out to be. Wangai begins to call in debts all around the city of Mombasa and discovers rather quickly that the murders have something to do with the growing trade in ivory, which, although banned by the Western World, is still very much in demand in Asia. It is giving nothing away to say that the murderer is a rather nervous Chinese woman, and it is a pleasure to say that Hawthorne's estranged lady friend, a stunning Masai elephant scientist, helps solve everything without ever getting too preachy about her fascinating experiments. Nicely done eco-thriller in a fascinating African setting.
Pub Date: April 22, 1993
ISBN: 1-878685-37-6
Page Count: 264
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1993
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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SEEN & HEARD
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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