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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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