Not especially distinctive or memorable in its style or point of view, but, still, consistently engaging and enjoyable.
A skillfully plotted and atmospheric thriller set in Russia in 1917, as the currents of revolution swirl about St. Petersburg.
Second-novelist Bradby (Master of Rain, 2002), the royal correspondent for a British TV network, opens with what appears to be a simple police procedural when Sandro Ruzsky, chief investigator of the St. Petersburg police, finds a man and woman brutally stabbed on the frozen Neva. Ruzsky initially puzzles over some crime scene footprints that can’t be explained away. Then, as the investigation ensues, he uncovers matters no less complex than the very revolution that’s about to erupt in the streets (capably described by Bradby). Ruzsky links the female stabbing victim to the royal family, who dismissed her for reasons Ruzsky can’t fully apprehend. The other victim was an American, whose motives for being in Russia remain unclear. The matter makes St. Petersburg’s secret police nervous, and when they take the case out of Ruzsky’s hands, he becomes suspicious of their intentions and probes on. He’s tough and, like his cohorts in this genre, a man with tender wounds: guilt over his brother’s drowning, estrangement from his wife and son, an uneasy rapport with his father and with a surviving brother. As well, Ruzsky loves the beautiful ballerina Maria Popova, who, as is revealed in a couple of strong Hitchcock moments, may have betrayed him in matters of love and politics, in the latter case as a militant member of the proletariat plotting to overthrow the Romanovs. Bradby connects what’s happening on the streets, in Ruzsky’s home, and in the halls of the royal family’s country palace in surprising and credible ways, sustaining interest literally down to the last line: this one really isn’t over till it’s over, not till Bradby types The End.
Not especially distinctive or memorable in its style or point of view, but, still, consistently engaging and enjoyable.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-50840-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
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SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Though all the surface elements are in place, Picoult falters in her exploration of what turns a quiet kid into a murderer.
Picoult’s 14th novel (after The Tenth Circle, 2006, etc.) of a school shooting begins with high-voltage excitement, then slows by the middle, never regaining its initial pace or appeal.
Peter Houghton, 17, has been the victim of bullying since his first day of kindergarten, made all the more difficult by two factors: In small-town Sterling, N.H., Peter is in high school with the kids who’ve tormented him all his life; and his all-American older brother eggs the bullies on. Peter retreats into a world of video games and computer programming, but he’s never able to attain the safety of invisibility. And then one day he walks into Sterling High with a knapsack full of guns, kills ten students and wounds many others. Peter is caught and thrown in jail, but with over a thousand witnesses and video tape of the day, it will be hard work for the defense to clear him. His attorney, Jordan McAfee, hits on the only approach that might save the unlikable kid—a variation of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by bullying. Thrown into the story is Judge Alex Cormier, and her daughter Josie, who used to be best friends with Peter until the popular crowd forced the limits of her loyalty. Also found dead was her boyfriend Matt, but Josie claims she can’t remember anything from that day. Picoult mixes McAfee’s attempt to build a defense with the mending relationship of Alex and Josie, but what proves a more intriguing premise is the response of Peter’s parents to the tragedy. How do you keep loving your son when he becomes a mass murderer? Unfortunately, this question, and others, remain, as the novel relies on repetition (the countless flashbacks of Peter’s victimization) rather than fresh insight. Peter fits the profile, but is never fully fleshed out beyond stereotype. Usually so adept at shaping the big stories with nuance, Picoult here takes a tragically familiar event, pads it with plot, but leaves out the subtleties of character.
Though all the surface elements are in place, Picoult falters in her exploration of what turns a quiet kid into a murderer.Pub Date: March 6, 2007
ISBN: 0-7434-9672-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
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