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THE HOUSE ON BLOODHOUND LANE

Name: THE HOUSE ON BLOODHOUND LANE
Author: Virginia Lanier
ISBN: 0-06-101088-X

by Virginia Lanier ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1996

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As if turning 30 isn't traumatic enough, feisty Jo Beth Sidden of Basla City, Georgia, has invested the $70,000 she inherited from her father into the business of putting 57 bloodhounds through six months of rigorous training. Six of those well-prepared hounds will go to work for law-enforcement masters. Meanwhile, Jo Beth has enough on her plate for a veritable smorgasbord during the nine eventful days of this serial-like novel. First and worst, her brutal wife-beating ex-husband Bubba has been released from prison. She was in the hospital for six months after his last rampage, which is why Jo Beth has security gates around her compound. Next, she helps her friend Sheri find a buried treasure of $100,000, left by Sheri's would-be father-in-law. And in between the pieces of Jo Beth's tell-all first-person narration there's the story of a man who's been kidnapped by his three sons and stuffed into a large container. You can figure that Jo Beth and her very talented if blind hound Bobby Lee will sniff out that man. She'll also rescue Mary Ann, a young woman who's been kidnapped by religious nutcase Preston Little; persuade a deputy not to grow and sell marijuana; and meet up with Chief Jonathan Webber of the Eppley Police Department, who takes a real shine to Jo Beth—and vice versa. A meandering, episodic second from Lanier (Death in Bloodhound Red, not reviewed), with an amiable Brett Butlerlike narrator and a cliffhanger of an ending.

Pub Date: July 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-06-101088-X

Page Count: 352

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
A BLOODHOUND TO DIE FOR
by Virginia Lanier

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN LITTLE BLOODHOUNDS
by Virginia Lanier

- BOOK REVIEW
BLIND BLOODHOUND JUSTICE
by Virginia Lanier

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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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.