The first book in the Cassie Cruise series.
Cassie Cruise is a private investigator trying to reinvent herself after being publicly humiliated on her PI reality show. Now the reluctant owner of a tattoo parlor, The Big Prick, Cassie is having a difficult time letting past habits rest—especially when she finds her car in flames and a dead body in the trunk. After being cleared as a suspect, she is warned to stay out of the investigation, but she won’t let it go—particularly after noticing her neighbor Lane’s boyfriend, Del, has the very same car, leading her to believe that the killer made a mistake. In an effort to gather intel, Cassie attempts to befriend Lane—and is even hired to find Lane’s long-lost father. As she digs deeper into her neighbor’s life, Cassie finds that Lane and Del are embroiled in a rather unpleasant, volatile situation with Del’s former assistant Crystal. Things take an even stranger turn when she learns that her own fiance, Vince, and Del’s mother are somehow wrapped up in all of it. When Cassie finally pulls on the right thread, things unravel in a way she never expected. Ellis’ debut novel introduces Cassie Cruise and her 70-something best friend, Janice, a tattoo artist with a secret. While Cassie comes across as flawed but likable, the few periphery characters—shop intern RJ, Detective Brick Winslow and Vince—don’t seem to do much more than hover over the page. Cassie’s new title of tattoo shop owner is more of an albatross than an outlet, which only causes her to pine that much harder for her investigative days. Despite valiant attempts to tie in the shop, it never finds much relevance within the story except to serve as a catalyst due to its silly, double-entendre moniker. However, in addition to having a female private eye, Ellis shows further creative flare in making the main protagonist’s sidekick an artistic, ethnic, active, septuagenarian, who will hopefully be taking a larger role in the next book.
A captivating introduction to a cozy female PI series with potential for wide appeal.
Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1626942141
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Black Opal Books
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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