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THE DETOUR

Name: THE DETOUR
Author: Travis Pearson
ISBN: 978-1-4834-5565-5

by Travis Pearson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 9, 2016

A mostly solid thriller with an intriguingly subdued superhero.

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A young man uses newfound abilities to go up against corrupt officials in a rural American town in Pearson’s debut thriller.

After losing his job as an executive trainee at a regional bank, Dan Icor decides to take a road trip. While pulling into a gas station in the middle of nowhere he witnesses four armed men violently confront a Native American man named John Strongheart and his wife and daughter. Dan intervenes and gets shot in the process, but he’s rescued by Strongheart, who takes him to his home and gives him “ancient medicinal Indian herbs and tea.” When Dan awakens days later he finds that someone has massacred the Strongheart family. Surprisingly, Strongheart left his estate to Dan, who now has special abilities, such as the power to manipulate his facial muscles to completely disguise his appearance. In town, he meets a woman named Jenifer Taylor and gets a job at the local bank, where her father, John, is chairman of the board. Dan tries to thwart an attempted takeover of the bank, spearheaded by Mayor Clay Carter and his sons, one of whom is the local sheriff. Clay also has a connection to Dan’s uncle Dave Johnson, who financially ruined Dan’s late father, Fred. Dan suspects that the Carters were behind the Stronghearts’ murders, and he hopes to prove it, even if it requires numerous fisticuffs. Pearson beefs up his revenge story with a dynamic protagonist with strong, clear motivations. Despite Dan’s personal reasons for despising the Carters, he primarily seeks vengeance for the Stronghearts. The author also effectively shows how Dan draws on his business expertise as much as his physical prowess; his intricate plan includes stopping the Carters from acquiring the bank’s largest stock position. This begets an abundance of financial jargon, which the author, a banking-industry retiree, simplifies with clear definitions. The descriptions of women’s physical traits, though, are unfortunately excessive, though, with their strong focus on John Taylor’s secretary, Tina, and her large breasts. Dan’s new powers, meanwhile, may be further developed in a proposed sequel.

A mostly solid thriller with an intriguingly subdued superhero.

Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4834-5565-5

Page Count: 190

Publisher: Lulu

Review Posted Online: July 31, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.