Set during the Cuban missile crisis, this coming-of-age story follows a likable young boy as he tries to solve a mystery and find a young girl while dealing with the difficulties of adolescence.
Dewey “Doc” Ruggles doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. Looking down on his bookish son, Doc’s father prefers the concrete world of numbers and science: “You live in books. You daydream like a girl. You think everything rhymes with moon, spoon, and June. Well, it doesn’t.” A polio survivor, Doc walks with a slight limp that, when combined with his glasses, doesn’t make him the most desirable guy in school. Still, the affable teen daydreams and thinks about his great-grandfather Rudyard Kipling, and when not in class, he spends time with his troubled friend Jimmy, scheming ways in which to get a girl to talk to them. “Skyfishing”— cutting loose a kite in hopes it lands near a girl, with whom a conversation can be started—is one of their preferred tactics. However, on Doc’s turn, he meets a young, unconventional nun after the kite lands on top of a Catholic church. She helps him reach the kite, though while he’s retrieving it, he sees something shocking in the church: a teenage girl, naked with a young priest. So begins part of the mystery: Sensing love at first sight, Doc must find the girl. Blended with the more serious attempt at solving the murder of Jimmy’s sister, the plot takes off as Doc traverses the pitfalls of being a high school student while trying to determine if he’s going crazy or becoming a bona fide detective. There are some legitimately funny parts—Doc’s Western civilization teacher offers some unintentionally hilarious lines regarding communists and supposed sympathizers, such as Arthur Miller—yet a few of the comedic notes miss their marks. At times, the novel can feel overpopulated with barely defined characters, which can lead to confusion while readers try to keep the characters straight. Still, there’s undeniable charm in Twombly’s work, as he mixes nostalgia for a slowly ending age of innocence with an engaging mystery that has hints of the supernatural.
An enjoyable, unconventional work for teenagers and adults alike.
Pub Date: July 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499215861
Page Count: 438
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.
Devastated by her mother’s death, Brett Bohlinger consumes a bottle of outrageously expensive Champagne and trips down the stairs at the funeral luncheon. Add embarrassed to devastated. Could things get any worse? Of course they can, and they do—at the reading of the will.
Instead of inheriting the position of CEO at the family’s cosmetics firm—a position she has been groomed for—she’s given a life list she wrote when she was 14 and an ultimatum: Complete the goals, or lose her inheritance. Luckily, her mother, Elizabeth, has crossed off some of the more whimsical goals, including running with the bulls—too risky! Having a child, buying a horse, building a relationship with her (dead) father, however, all remain. Brad, the handsome attorney charged with making sure Brett achieves her goals, doles out a letter from her mother with each success. Warmly comforting, Elizabeth’s letters uncannily—and quite humorously—predict Brett’s side of the conversations. Brett grudgingly begins by performing at a local comedy club, an experience that proves both humiliating and instructive: Perfection is overrated, and taking risks is exhilarating. Becoming an awesome teacher, however, seems impossible given her utter lack of classroom management skills. Teaching homebound children offers surprising rewards, though. Along Brett’s journey, many of the friends (and family) she thought would support her instead betray her. Luckily, Brett’s new life is populated with quirky, sharply drawn characters, including a pregnant high school student living in a homeless shelter, a psychiatrist with plenty of time to chat about troubled children, and one of her mother’s dearest, most secret companions. A 10-step program for the grief-stricken, Brett’s quest brings her back to love, the best inheritance of all.
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.Pub Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-54087-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
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