A light read for fans of female-driven mysteries.
In Kale’s (Harm, 2014, etc.) novel, the first in a series, astrologer Morgan Sterling’s delicately balanced routine gets shaken up when a charming detective solicits her professional help solving a cold kidnapping case.
At 32, Morgan Sterling has just managed to put the pieces of her life back in place after an undisclosed tragic event left her without her baby and husband. Although Morgan lacks the psychic gift bestowed upon the previous three generations of women in her family, she’s a moderately successful astrologer with a practice enriched by graduate-level education in psychology. She spells out how astrology informs her inferences about people: of her neighbor, Morgan thinks, “He had a Pisces Sun and an Aries Moon, a difficult combination. He was sympathetic yet pushy.” Regardless of whether the reader subscribes to astrology, these inferences peppered throughout provide a quick, dynamic picture of each character. Detective Daniel Kane, an astrology skeptic, asks for Morgan’s help at the behest of his sister, who happens to be Morgan’s best friend. Daniel is an on-probation detective with a tumultuous love life to match, seeking to both right a past wrong and gain professional respect by solving a seemingly uncrackable kidnapping. For Morgan, the case offers an opportunity to live up to the success of her esteemed mother. The kidnapping victim in question is the baby of a beautiful former cheerleader and a self-made grocery store chain mogul from Mexico. Other somewhat far-fetched characters in the case include a trainer dubbed “Exercise Barbie” by Morgan, a meathead named Boris, and the nanny’s shady ex-convict brother. Morgan is a well-developed character, though, internally struggling between self-doubt and determination to prove her merit. The mystery gradually fades into the background behind an unlikely romance between the astrologer and skeptical detective, another version of the handsome, winsome man unexpectedly choosing plain Jane. Fortunately, Kale manages to keep the romance, though a bit cliché, from becoming overly saccharine.
A light read for fans of female-driven mysteries.Pub Date: March 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9836866-8-2
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Pollux Press
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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