A murder mystery fueled by melodrama and a vibrant cast of characters.
In Blake’s debut thriller, an art teacher is suspected of murder as she tries to avoid becoming the real killer’s next victim.
Brookefield College professor Bianca James’ quiet night alone in her classroom comes to a startling conclusion when she finds a dead body in the storage area. She didn’t know the victim—fill-in custodian Lisette Divac, dead from a gunshot—but Riley’s Peak, Pennsylvania, police chief Carmichael thinks that she might have pulled the trigger. It is a bit odd that Bianca, who unsuccessfully tried to revive Lisette, later threw out her own bloody clothes. But Carmichael’s suspicion could also have political motives, as quickly wrapping up the case could help garner him a senate seat; it could also be more personal, due to his anger over Bianca’s association with an ex-cop—her ex-boyfriend, Dylan Tierny. Complicating matters is Finn, Dylan’s brother, who’s also the detective working the murder case. He and Bianca share a mutual attraction, which doesn’t slip past the envious, frequently drunk Dylan. Meanwhile, Bianca and her math professor friend, Maris Romero, compile their own suspect list, which includes psychiatrist Jewel Glasser, Dylan’s girlfriend, who clearly dislikes Bianca. Finn, however, has a theory that Bianca, not Lisette, may have been the killer’s intended target. This is seemingly validated when someone leaves a threat in her freezer: a paintbrush with “U R NEXT” written on the handle. The author provides a stable foundation for her story by filling in the characters’ backgrounds. Finn, for example, had serious trouble back at his old Pittsburgh job, and Bianca’s distrust of police stems in part from the insensitive way an officer handled her late mother’s personal effects years ago. The romance between Bianca and Finn has a steady, rewarding build, and also seems true to life; the stubborn woman and overprotective man even have the occasional tiff, with Bianca hanging up the phone on him more than once. Blake wisely allows the drama between the players to take precedence over the standard mystery elements. The prose, rather appropriately, is often colorful, as when Bianca sees Jewel “creeping toward her, hatred burning in her gold-flecked, green eyes.”
A murder mystery fueled by melodrama and a vibrant cast of characters.Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5333-5686-4
Page Count: 316
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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