This down-and-dirty roman noir lays on the nastiness thick- -those who aren't legally guilty of anything may as well be, since no one survives this L.A. intrigue unscathed, and everyone pays sooner or later. The narrator, Nick Gardner, a successful ad photographer with a house in Malibu and a Lamborghini, is a man with a past. Years ago, under the name Nicholas Bracken, he worked as a ``shooter,'' a cameraman for porno films. Inadvertently, he lensed a snuff film, with a victim whose identity now comes to haunt him. Cynical about advertising, women, and everything else, Nick wakes up one night after a serious bout of sex and drugs with a drop-dead gorgeous ``classic coke whore'' to discover that her decapitated body's been found in the dumpster by his house. Quickly booked, and abandoned by most of his so-called friends, Nick decides to investigate for himself, which means dredging up a past he'd rather forget. His quest takes him back into the adult film world, no longer underground now but a big business out in the Valley, where his old partner, David Rink, runs a huge operation and still holds a grudge against Nick for fleeing to Europe after their involvement in the fatal film. Things take a gruesome turn when a videotape of the murder of Nick's crackhead gal-pal arrives at his house; her executioner, it turns out, does bear a resemblance to Nick. Everything is part of an (improbably) elaborate plan to avenge Nick's involvement in that long-ago video, and when the cops re- arrest him, Nick figures that it's only right he should be punished. There's no redemption here, but just an acknowledgment that life stinks. It should come as no surprise that this trendy bit of hard-core nihilism has already been sold to the movies. (Film rights to Tri-Star)
Pub Date: Feb. 24, 1997
ISBN: 0-312-86272-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1996
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
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
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