Sometimes awkward but a satisfying synthesis of mystery, history, and emotion.
Thomson (Summon the Tiger, 2016) taps into the powerful emotional satisfaction that comes with solving a puzzle in this cozy mystery.
Maggie Fraser’s status as a fish out of water has served her well. After getting her business degree in Scotland, she moves to New York—far from her home and her well-meaning but overprotective family. She initially finds Manhattan inhospitable, but she meets and falls in love with Ben, a genuine, caring student who changes her outlook. Stilted dialogue somewhat undercuts the building chemistry and romance, but the warmth of the characters’ emotions nevertheless shines through: “I have always been interested in amazing structural designs, especially of ancient buildings. The arches with keystones. Flying buttresses and the strength seen in old, old structures that have allowed them to remain for hundreds, even thousands of years.” Despite concerns over where their respective careers might take them, they marry and find themselves in Italy, where Maggie is the happiest she’s ever been. Maggie’s life takes a harsh, strange turn when tragedy occurs, and she subsequently discovers a strange amulet. Investigating the relic’s origins takes her across the world and embroils her in a web of international intrigue that involves her family, friends, and confidants. It’s in these murky waters that Maggie begins to find herself, and in the unexpected sleuthing, she finds she’s not alone. Thomson’s prose is generally solid, but it sometimes resorts to telling rather than showing, even at the story’s most emotional moments: “She yanked her hands free and, crying uncontrollably, ran towards the stairs, towards her room. She was stopped by another policeman, who took her into his arms and hugged her strongly.” Nevertheless, the pacing is quick, and the element of travel provides rich backdrops and description. Readers will find the unfolding story charming and ultimately affirming.
Sometimes awkward but a satisfying synthesis of mystery, history, and emotion.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73284-891-7
Page Count: 299
Publisher: Quitt and Quinn
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
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
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