Intense police melodrama, circa 1957, as Solomita takes his hulking cop-hero Stanley Moodrow (Bad to the Bone, 1991, etc.) back to his early, troubled days on the job. It may be set 25 years ago, but the elements that have made Solomita's modern-day crime thrillers so invigorating are in place: There's 6'6'' Moodrow, of course, just five years on the force but already relentless—as shown in the brutally exciting near-opening scene in which the young cop, face ravaged and nose broken, batters his way to victory in the Inter-Service Boxing Championships. There's Moodrow's beloved human ant-heap of a Lower East Side and its usual complement of skin-crawling villains, this time led by ruthlessly ambitious Jewish gangster Jake Leibowitz. And there's strong—if relatively clichÇd—human drama, sparked when an old family friend asks Moodrow to look into the slaying of a Hispanic neighbor that other cops are ignoring. Moodrow agrees but treads softly, not wanting to further alienate his future father-in-law, powerful Inspector Pat Cohan, who's just given Moodrow a gold shield but who's angered because Moodrow is balking at his new post as assistant to the precinct bagman. Moodrow's a pit bull for justice, though, and when he learns that the dead Hispanic was an innocent slain by Liebowitz's crew during a shakedown, and that Cohan (who Moodrow doesn't yet know is in the mob's pocket) has quelled the investigation, he swears to take Liebowitz down. Meanwhile, Leibowitz cuts a savage swath through the Lower East Side and the Italian bosses who have forsaken him, and Cohan swears to crush the insubordinate Moodrow, who prepares to fight back—but won't that mean losing the love of Cohan's daughter, the sweet and succulent Kate? Series fans already will know that Moodrow wins this battle, but Solomita's energetic evocation of the bad old days of New York's finest will keep them nailed to the page right up to the foregone conclusion.
Pub Date: July 17, 1992
ISBN: 0-399-13730-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
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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