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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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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.