A superb thriller with enough action and suspense to keep readers well-satisfied.
The second installment of Winther’s (The Jaguar Dances, 2010) thriller series sees an African vacation take a dangerous turn for an American couple trying to restore their marriage.
An African safari might be just the ticket to get Allison Warner’s life back on track. She’s struggling to recover from the death of her teenage son a year ago, as her husband Burke grows increasingly distant, finding solace in his law practice. The couple embark on an exciting safari along with a rather diverse and bizarre group of tourists; one in particular, handsome Englishman Jeremy Hoskins, makes Allison feel a way she has no business feeling as a married woman. She throws herself recklessly into the safari, soaking in breathtaking landscapes and exotic animals. But it soon becomes apparent that fellow tourists the Kirkpatricks are engaged in something more sinister than sightseeing. Allison and Burke, along with a ragtag gang of travelers, turn amateur detectives as they investigate the Kirkpatricks’ suspicious suitcases, bizarre midnight meetings and erratic behavior. While traveling through the Serengeti en route to their next destination, the unthinkable happens: The tour van is hijacked and the group is kidnapped. Now they must fight for their survival. Winther certainly knows how to keep the pace moving; there’s no shortage of tension as Allison and friends land in one dangerous spot after another. Winther’s well-done descriptions of Africa create a lush, vibrant setting. But the abrupt change in point of view halfway through the novel—from Allison to Burke—is jarring; it would have been better to incorporate both points of view throughout the entire work. Some parts of this story ring strikingly untrue, especially those concerning 10-year-old Trish, who behaves more like a mature teenager and is included in the group’s dangerous sleuthing activities despite her young age. Still, it’s Allison’s metamorphosis from sheltered housewife to courageous woman that truly centers this tale. Her desire to save her marriage, coupled with the lure of the forbidden, will resonate with readers and keep them cheering for her to the novel’s end.
A superb thriller with enough action and suspense to keep readers well-satisfied.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463584900
Page Count: 212
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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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