A lyrical, gritty read with a compelling young protagonist.
Hess (Skyscraper, 2016, etc.) returns with a dark thriller set in late 19th-century St. Louis, where the lives of a teenage boy and a renowned architect intersect.
Fifteen-year-old orphan Calhoun McBride lives by the banks of the Mississippi River, a street-wise river rat surviving by earning a nickel an hour on the night shift at Snopes brewery—and often, through prostitution. When he’s saved enough for train fare, he plans to head west, perhaps to Wyoming. Clement Cartwright, originally from St. Louis but now based in Chicago, arrives in town for the grand opening of a celebrated skyscraper he’s designed. Also in town is the dangerous, deranged Belasco Snopes, the wealthy and powerful owner of the brewery that bears his name, who’s determined to take Clement down. One night, Belasco follows Calhoun to Clement’s hotel room and realizes that he can destroy the architect with what he’s found out about him. On the sidelines is the melancholy, 30-something socialite Dolores Brattridge, who, together with her husband, is to host a high society welcome dinner for Clement. Calhoun, Clement, Belasco, and Dolores take turns narrating the story, and Hess effectively gives each voice a cadence that reflects his or her education, background, and current station in life. Of the four, Dolores is the least developed; she interacts with each of the three other primary characters, but the storyline doesn’t particularly benefit from her narration. From the beginning, it’s apparent that Hess is a skillful wordsmith, capable of strong evocative prose: “At night, the Mississippi River is mean and ain’t quiet,” narrates Calhoun. “Dark waves smack the cobblestone shore and lick my dirty feet.” The melodic phrasing and riveting drama compensate for the fact that the characterization sometimes seems overwrought. The conclusion, if not quite satisfying, feels sadly inevitable.
A lyrical, gritty read with a compelling young protagonist.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59021-712-2
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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