Given a mystery that's unmysterious, unsuspenseful, and inconclusive, the only possible interest here is in the continuing...
Just when you thought his romantic problems had been resolved for good (Worst Fears Realized, 1999), Stone Barrington is snatched from the brink of holy matrimony by still another well-timed homicide.
Does anyone see any reason why the hunky lawyer and Mafia princess Dolce Bianchi, already married by the mayor of Venice in a civil ceremony the day before, shouldn't be joined indissolubly together by the influential Cardinal Bellini in a Mass "at St. Mark's, on the square of the same name"? Yes, indeed. Glamourpuss journalist Arrington Calder, the love of Stone's life, has called weakly for him from the bed of the Beverly Hills mental hospital where she's been taken in amnesiac collapse following the convenient murder of the movie-star husband, Vance Calder, she'd thrown Stone over for several volumes back. Even Dolce's father, suave Sicilian don Eduardo Bianchi, agrees that no gentleman could turn a deaf ear to the damsel's plea. It's a tough job, of course, but somebody's got to take on the accommodating servants, fawning admirers, and willing women who dot the landscape whenever Stone's in town. And somebody's got to track down the size 12 Nike that left a footprint at the murder scene when the police decline. Stone, who wonders, "Why were women always walking around naked in front of him just when he was trying to be good?" manfully fights off all comers till chapter 33. But since the most determined of the ladies is Dolce, who's turned up in L.A. stalking him, calling herself Mrs. Barrington, and abusing him to her fearsome father, it's lucky for him that this ludicrous case is a walk in the park.
Given a mystery that's unmysterious, unsuspenseful, and inconclusive, the only possible interest here is in the continuing saga of Stone's amours, which, like the case itself, are still unresolved at the fadeout.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2000
ISBN: 0-399-14664-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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