Thoughtful and exciting—another fine mystery from Horn.
In this second outing of a strong mystery series, a nursing home murder sparks an investigation into the past of a former circus wrestler and Olympian.
Eight years after the events in The Pumpkin Eater (2013), it’s 2007, and Sam Dawson is still photographing old cemeteries for coffee-table books, this time focusing on Deep Lake, Minnesota. When he arrives with his vintage Airstream, he decides to take his dog to visit the Whispering Pines Care Center and perhaps snap some photos of residents (he’s getting bored with cemeteries). But Aimee Pond, the nursing supervisor, is thornily unfriendly, and the local sheriff is more so, particularly after an old woman is found murdered at the nursing home, putting Sam under suspicion. Interspersed with the 2007 story are flashbacks jumping back and forth through the memories of Whispering Pines resident Hans Gottlieb, who’s nearly 100 years old. Hans’ son Will knows almost nothing of his father’s life except that he worked on the railroad. But Hans has many secrets, including having been a champion athlete and masked carnival wrestler. His curiosity piqued by the mysteries swirling around Deep Lake, and for his own sake, Sam must find answers while also settling the question of what to do next professionally. Horn, in his third novel, again demonstrates the intelligence and complexity of the first Sam Dawson mystery, elevating the story beyond the usual detective business of clues, evidence, hidden connections, and suspects. Many pieces do fall into place at last but more for the reader than for Sam. An intriguing theme pervades the novel: the impossibility of truly reconstructing the pasts of those who become lost to us through time or dementia. Even our own parents are essentially opaque: “At best, we only see glimpses of who they really were,” Aimee says. Added to this is our desire to be deceived, which the carnival scenes colorfully illuminate. Horn’s characterization goes deep, and he paces events well, saving some surprising revelations for the end.
Thoughtful and exciting—another fine mystery from Horn.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9835894-5-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: Granite Peak Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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