A clean, readable Christian mystery with an unsurprising outcome.
Stewart’s novel is a classic murder mystery with a Christian bent set in an upstate New York town that is no stranger to corruption.
Heroine Kate Feeney finds herself at the center of that corruption when she stands up to the school board to protest a proposed sex education program and gets thrown in jail. It’s only the beginning of Kate’s adventures. After the president of the school board is murdered, Kate begins working with police Detective Mike Roberts, formerly of the NYPD, to track down the killer. Suspects include a wealthy sheik from the fictional country of South Arabyia, police officers who have a blackmailing operation and a local family of moonshiners. Before she can do much, though, Kate is unfairly arrested again, this time after an altercation at an abortion clinic protest. While being transported in the back of a police cruiser after her arraignment, Kate manages to avoid being raped by a corrupt cop. She flees to the woods when she hears shots fired, only to come out and find the cop dead. Although she saw nothing, she heard the killer’s voice, and this makes her a target for the unknown murderer who tries more than once to bring down the gutsy woman. A number of twists and turns produce an action-packed story, and thanks to the relationship between Kate and Mike, there’s a hint of romance. Though Kate and Mike are baffled, regular mystery readers will likely deduce the killer’s ID thanks to a few subtle hints. The story is marred by clunky dialogue that is asked to carry too much of the back story, such as this comment made by Mike: “Because my mother’s suicide was caused by mental instability, your childhood abuse makes me afraid you might become mentally unstable. I’m worried that your risk-taking is a suicidal impulse.” Nonbelievers may wonder if Kate’s prayers are falling on deaf ears when they see she must fight off a rapist, gets kidnapped by a sheik and both her aunt and her dog get shot, but Christians will likely admire her steadfast faith.
A clean, readable Christian mystery with an unsurprising outcome.Pub Date: June 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477429365
Page Count: 328
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A not-very-illuminating updating of Chaucer’s Tales.
Continuing his apparent mission to refract the whole of English culture and history through his personal lens, Ackroyd (Thames: The Biography, 2008, etc.) offers an all-prose rendering of Chaucer’s mixed-media masterpiece.
While Burton Raffel’s modern English version of The Canterbury Tales (2008) was unabridged, Ackroyd omits both “The Tale of Melibee” and “The Parson’s Tale” on the undoubtedly correct assumption that these “standard narratives of pious exposition” hold little interest for contemporary readers. Dialing down the piety, the author dials up the raunch, freely tossing about the F-bomb and Anglo-Saxon words for various body parts that Chaucer prudently described in Latin. Since “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Miller’s Tale,” for example, are both decidedly earthy in Middle English, the interpolated obscenities seem unnecessary as well as jarringly anachronistic. And it’s anyone’s guess why Ackroyd feels obliged redundantly to include the original titles (“Here bigynneth the Squieres Tales,” etc.) directly underneath the new ones (“The Squires Tale,” etc.); these one-line blasts of antique spelling and diction remind us what we’re missing without adding anything in the way of comprehension. The author’s other peculiar choice is to occasionally interject first-person comments by the narrator where none exist in the original, such as, “He asked me about myself then—where I had come from, where I had been—but I quickly turned the conversation to another course.” There seems to be no reason for these arbitrary elaborations, which muffle the impact of those rare times in the original when Chaucer directly addresses the reader. Such quibbles would perhaps be unfair if Ackroyd were retelling some obscure gem of Old English, but they loom larger with Chaucer because there are many modern versions of The Canterbury Tales. Raffel’s rendering captured a lot more of the poetry, while doing as good a job as Ackroyd with the vigorous prose.
A not-very-illuminating updating of Chaucer’s Tales.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-670-02122-2
Page Count: 436
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
PERSPECTIVES
An insightful and playful journey with some uneventful detours.
Merullo delivers a spirituality-themed road novel set in modern-day America.
Retired Otto Ringling has just sold his home in Bronxville, New York. He’s flush with cash and has plans to move back to his home state of North Dakota. The property Otto grew up on has been turned into a meditation center through his sister’s efforts. Otto looks forward to living there in its supportive environment, even if he hopes to spend his winters elsewhere. But what should he do with the proceeds from the sale of his home? Otto’s wife is long deceased, his kids are able to support themselves, and, as his sister points out, Otto doesn’t exactly need the funds. He’s persuaded to give the money to others, no strings attached, in an endeavor he calls his Giving Project. In pursuit of this goal, he travels with his brother-in-law, Volya Rinpoche. Rinpoche is a “sort-of Buddhist monk” who originally hails from Siberia. Rinpoche has attracted a following through his books and meditation centers, and his demeanor is always friendly and humble. The duo drive along the Eastern Seaboard as Rinpoche gives scheduled talks and Otto gives away money, overtipping a waitress, donating to a charity, and leaving substantial gratuities for hotel cleaning staff. The good economic vibes are his to spread, but the journey isn’t all sunshine and open roads; Rinpoche’s views on reincarnation and careful driving habits rankle, and then there are Otto’s doubts—is he really doing the right thing? What will his future hold?
It is difficult to dislike Rinpoche. Whether conversing in charmingly flawed English (“Want we to bring you back the breakfast?” he asks one character) or speaking patiently to a hostile crowd at a conservative university, he proves a thoroughly pleasant companion for both Otto and the reader. Otto, while not quite as fun, is nevertheless engaging as he shares his relatable feelings of guilt and concern: Did he raise his son right? What of those who would mock his Giving Project? Not even the enlightened Rinpoche has answers for all such concerns. As the highway stretches out before Otto and Rinpoche, they never know what might lie ahead. Often, what comes their way is not all that challenging: At one point the two go to an Ethiopian restaurant only to find that it is too crowded before deciding to eat elsewhere. Even for a work that is contemplative and not plot-driven, the choice between two restaurants makes for very low stakes. At another junction they eat a bad meal in North Carolina. While the experience does provoke an unexpected curse word from Rinpoche, the entire scene does not add much of consequence. Nor does the description of how the brisket in question “tasted like it had been sitting on the counter since lunch the week before and had been hastily heated up” make for engrossing prose. Still, the two travelers are real enough to make their trip captivating.
An insightful and playful journey with some uneventful detours.Pub Date: May 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798986626642
Page Count: 282
Publisher: PFP Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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