An entertaining adventure novel flooded with manic action.
Kestrel’s debut historical novel follows young Finn from his Scandinavian homeland to the ranks of the Rangers in the new America.
When brash young reporter Henry Raymond travels upstate from New York City to a remote Catskills resort to seek out the elusive and legendary Mr. Morton, Morton recounts for him in epic detail the story of Finn, a young Scandinavian. Born into a small, rustic village in the Finnish countryside, Finn longs for the life of a warrior and hunter, but he’s held back from his ambitions by his mother who does not want him to inherit the deadly fate of his warrior-father, which she has painstakingly withheld from Finn. Fate proves to have an ironic twist, however, as Finn’s village is sacked by invading Russians and Hessian mercenaries. Finn’s instincts enable him to survive the onslaught while most of his fellow villagers are killed, including his mother and his young love. While being chased out of Finland by Johan Kopf and his men, Finn takes to a life at sea until he lands in Britain. Once again proving his bravery on the battlefield, Finn loses hope of becoming an officer in the British army when he is pressed into the navy on a slave ship bound for America. Finn’s encounters in America include meeting George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, but when he becomes an Army Ranger at Fort Edward in upstate New York, the pace falters. The novel, set in the late 18th century, is stylistically more like medieval romances of King Arthur’s court. Events and time move quickly; little time is spent on setting or emotional state (though there is plenty of explicitly detailed violence), and characters often appear suddenly, without context or introduction. While this keeps the adventure and action moving, the convenient manifestations of Finn’s enemies appear contrived. The frame around the story eventually reveals an interesting narrative twist. One cannot help but admire Finn’s resilience, despite his melancholic musings.
An entertaining adventure novel flooded with manic action.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615730080
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Timothy Kestrel Arts & Media
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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