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
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
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
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