A fast, fun Paris adventure with a strong heroine and series potential.
In this debut novel, a young spy must thwart an international art theft while saving the family business.
Twelve-year-old Simone LaFray lives in Paris with her father, sister, and (often absent) mother. Simone’s mom is the top agent for France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Simone is following in her footsteps, but she also helps her dad in the kitchen of LaFray’s Patisserie—the family business established by her great-great-great-grandfather. Simone is a quiet child; she reads a lot and dislikes attention. Even her best (and only) friend, “The V,” proves too much company for her except in small doses. Simone is obsessively punctual and compulsively observant. Mature for her age, she is at once a rather dour big sister, a dutiful and responsible daughter, and a preternaturally talented analyst. With her mom out of the country, Simone is tasked with her first field assignment: tracking down world-renowned thief la Volpe Rossa (the Red Fox) before he can steal a valuable painting from the Musée d’Orsay. The Fox is a master of concealment, identifiable only by his bright red hair. He should be as unknown to Simone as she is to him. Is it a coincidence, then, that she spies a red-haired stranger staking out the patisserie? When the precious family recipe books are stolen, Simone must use all of her intellect—and overcome some of her inhibitions—to put things right. O’Farrell has crafted a bright, breezy middle-grade romp, light on the mystery element but uplifted by its Paris setting and a splendid cast of characters. Some of these are larger than life—The V and Simone’s sister, for instance—but not too much so. Simone’s dad is an authentic parental figure (while still every bit the hapless but brilliant chocolatier), and she is a protagonist whom young readers will take to heart. Her everyday positive qualities are manifest, as are her differences, and the author has her succeed because of who she is, not in spite of it. Narrated in the first person, the story bubbles along with Simone’s inner thoughts, juxtaposing her true self with what she shows to the outside world. Though more down-to-earth, this novel exhibits shades of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books.
A fast, fun Paris adventure with a strong heroine and series potential.Pub Date: May 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947860-34-6
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Brandylane Publishers, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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