by W. Neil Gallagher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2013
The array of storylines almost turns the novel into a soap opera, but a decisively good one, and the presence of alligators...
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In Gallagher’s (The Money Doctor’s Guide to Taking Care of Yourself When No One Else Will, 2005, etc.) thriller, an ex–volunteer sheriff and former head of a business school searches for an animal hunting community members but finds himself the target of an escaped convict.
When a severed hand is found in Harmony Lakes, Texas, volunteer fire department Chief Mark Hunter deduces that the victim is his friend Billy. Both Mark and law enforcement suspect an accident or an animal attack—alligator, python, maybe even Big Foot—but soon realize that there could be a human killer on the loose. In particular, prison escapee Leroy Payne, who was serving a 25-year stint for murdering his abusive father, blames Mark for his incarceration. Gallagher’s novel has an unmistakable religious theme: Mark, a devout believer, often reads biblical passages; there are a few snake attacks; the giant gator, which readers find out early on is the killer, is more than once referred to as a “demon”; and Mark even performs an impromptu exorcism on someone apparently possessed. Fortunately, the religious bent is aptly integrated without engulfing the story; most noticeably, Mark and his equally religious wife, Reggie, are burdened with human flaws. Reggie, it seems, is jealous of any woman who has contact with Mark, and her husband, upon hearing of the man who tried to force himself on Reggie, threatens to castrate and kill the aggressor. Numerous subplots run throughout the narrative, and Gallagher excels at giving them solid coverage—perhaps too well, since the two main plots sit on the sidelines during a funeral, Mark’s counseling a rich widow whose husband was a pal, an attempt to blackmail a community mogul, and, for good measure, an affair and suicide. The treatment of female characters is a bit antiquated, too: Reggie is a housewife who always has dinner ready; a professional woman, Dr. Candace Thompson, brought in for her expertise in reptiles, does little more than turn men’s heads and incite Reggie’s envy; and Rodé, given a fascinating background as a bareback rider and the first female rodeo announcer in Texas, is now merely Mark’s secretary. It’s difficult not to cringe when Mark mockingly praises her with a pat on the head, even if it’s in jest.
The array of storylines almost turns the novel into a soap opera, but a decisively good one, and the presence of alligators and angry killers will satisfy genre fans.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988724129
Page Count: 356
Publisher: InCahoots Film Entertainment LLC.
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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