Tyson’s third look at the joys and perils of small-town life features enough engaging characters to offset the transparent...
A chance encounter involves an organic farmer in a case of murder.
On the way home from a trip to sell winter greens to Philadelphia chefs, former lawyer Megan Sawyer picks up Becca Fox, whose car has died on her way to Winsome, Pennsylvania. Becca, a chemist, is on her way to visit her aunt Merry, who's offered to let her set up a display of modern love potions in her store. But Becca feels no love for her estranged father, Paul, a psychologist-turned–investment adviser whom Merry’s invited to the town they’d lived in years ago hoping that he and Becca will reconcile. That seems unlikely, since Becca’s convinced that Paul murdered her mother. Megan, who runs an organic farm with her grandmother Bibi and has a romantic relationship with local veterinarian “Denver” Finn, knows what a difficult family situation can be like because her own mother walked out on her when she was a child. When Paul is found dead, killed by phosgene gas, Becca, who hated her father and had the knowledge to create the phosgene, is the obvious suspect. Megan’s assisted the police before (Bitter Harvest, 2017), and police chief Bobby King is only too glad to get her help again. Megan soon learns what a sleazy person Paul was. His first wife died in an accident, and he cheated on Becca’s mother. He once worked with Denver’s aunt, a physician who got rid of him when she realized he was harming his patients. He also had a strange relationship with Megan's aunt Sarah, a famous mystery writer whose novels may have provided a template for the murder.
Tyson’s third look at the joys and perils of small-town life features enough engaging characters to offset the transparent mystery.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63511-278-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henery Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
