In Fox's second novel (Black Fire, 1992), investigative reporter Doyle Mulligan returns for another convoluted romp in an exotic locale. This time Mulligan is cracking jokes and murder mysteries in a racially divided Australia. Sent to cover a controversial art exhibit turned inferno, Mulligan is unwittingly embroiled in the arson plot along with two rival journalists, two Ularu natives, and Maggie McDowel, a reporter of Mulligan's ``favorite sex.'' Mulligan chases one of the Ularu suspects out of the exhibit and ends up on a train bound for the outback along with Maggie, both Ularus, and an unidentified six-legged monster. There is some romantic tension between Mulligan and Maggie when they find themselves alone in a sleeper car for two; Maggie seems ready to ditch her fiancÇ because he holds his breath when he kisses—this idiosyncrasy becomes one of the novel's many unfunny running jokes—but nothing comes of it. Instead, Mulligan and Maggie are thrown off the train and they meet up with Jim Jim, the Ularu they have been chasing. Jim Jim leads them safely back to Sydney, where both Mulligan and Jim Jim are arrested for arson, there is another fire, and Jim Jim takes his first shower. They all eventually end up in the Ularu sacred tribal lands, the center of Australia's racial disharmony because a man named Killian has bought large tracts of it. Killian—the link connecting all the various characters and plotlines—plans to develop the area into...well, something. The development is not, however, nearly as interesting as Mulligan thinks it is. An occasionally witty book peopled with caricatures. Fox relies heavily on deus ex machina maneuverings to make up for an ultimately unmanageable plot.
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-85366-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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