Newcomer Alderson develops a complex plot with real skill, though his laconic style removes the juiciness of a true...
Tough-talking lawyer investigates the disappearance of millions from a corporate account—and finds out what happened to her missing father.
Rosalind Wilcox is general counsel to a Washington, D.C., financial group, but she’s not exactly a typical attorney. Her take-no-prisoners style has earned her the respect of her male colleagues and the awe of her boss, Marshall Waverly, a southern gentleman who confesses his favorite kink to Rosalind one boozy night: he wants to be dominated by her. She’s only too happy to crack the whip, thus doing pretty much as she pleases at Rigel Associates and finding life not too boring among the suits. And the pay is good: “Sure, people lived and died, loved, hated, sought the Great Spirit, climbed mountains, wrote novels, structured leasebacks under Delaware law, accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, held AK-47’s aloft in the name of Allah—but only one thing really mattered: capital flow.” That’s something Rosalind learned from her father when he disappeared after being indicted for his involvement in financial scams and shady deals. Before that, she and her four sisters had led a charmed life in sleepy Zanesville, Ohio, although tomboy Rosalind raised a lot of hell when no one was looking and still yearns secretly for Drew Gillespie, the working-class sex god who taught her how to handle a gun and, uh, other things. Rosalind’s investigation reveals that her family’s past is about to catch up with her: years back, a Rigel partner got the firm’s start-up capital from her father, and it’s possible that pére is mixed up in their latest project, a pipeline in Colombia to be financed by a group of investors that includes a Schwarzeneggeresque heavy named Van Zyk. Rosalind calls on Drew to help her out, but—practical as always—beds him before the shooting starts.
Newcomer Alderson develops a complex plot with real skill, though his laconic style removes the juiciness of a true thriller. And the heroine’s matter-of-fact amorality and cynicism fall flat.Pub Date: March 6, 2001
ISBN: 0-7679-0657-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Broadway
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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