Anagram would have been a more appropriate title for this jumbled mystery-suspenser by the usually reliable Woods (Grass Roots, etc,). As it is, the title refers to a pair of identical twins—and that's a puzzle in itself, since Keir and Hamish Drummond play a relatively minor role in the mixed-up goingson here. At center stage is plucky photographer Liz Barwick, whose entrance proves the story's dramatic highpoint as she staggers into an Atlanta hospital beaten and raped to near-death, a victim of the steroid-fueled rage of her football-star husband Baker Ramsey. While still in the hospital, Liz divorces Ramsey with the help of hotshot lawyer Al Schaefer; when she gets out, she retreats to Georgia's isolated Cumberland Island to begin a book of nature photographs. At this point, the plot forks into a tepid mystery and a thin southern gothic. The mystery, offering no suspense, involves an Atlanta homicide cop slowly deducing the obvious: that Ramsey, who has begun to kill people associated with Liz (attorney Schaefer is the first to go) is indeed a murderer and in fact plans to ice Liz as soon as he tracks her down. The gothic, offering no chills, does feature some curious characters—members of Cumberland Island's reigning Drummond clan, including dashing 91-year-old patriarch Angus and his handsome twin grandsons Keir and Hamish. Flirting with Angus, but falling in love with Keir, Liz wallows in local intrigue—who will inherit Angus's fortune? why do Keir and Hamish never show up together? who will the resident giant gator eat next?—even as Ramsey is bullying his way to the island for a final, corny, hurricane-set confrontation. Nice local color, but meandering and clumsy—and even Lois Lane could have figured out why the twins never appear together. Palindrome? Pap.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1991
ISBN: 06-017911-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
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