Will leave readers eagerly anticipating a sequel and wondering about the fates of its characters.
Redfield’s debut work of historical fiction is a compelling journey into New Mexico’s early history.
The year is 1821, and 17-year-old Joshua Kincaid is on a perilous adventure. Leaving behind his childhood in Missouri, he joins a trading expedition, led by the seasoned Lerocque, which travels across the western United States into the contested region of New Mexico. The territory is potentially ripe for trading, as Spanish authority has come to an end and New Mexico is now under Mexican rule. But in the unforgiving desert, the money may not be worth it, because Kincaid is in jeopardy on multiple fronts, including the constant threat of Indian attack as well as the hostile men within the trading party itself. After a vicious run-in with Lerocque’s son, he courts more danger when he strikes out on his own. Kincaid finds a tenuous home thanks to help from an unexpected ally, Manuel, a buffalo hunter from New Mexico. He falls in love with Manuel’s daughter, Maria, and begins to plan a future that involves leading his own trading trip into the territory, which cries out for goods from back East. Kincaid’s moral principles are challenged when he comes face to face with a culture that condones the capture of Indian children as slaves. Yet Kincaid’s participation in this practice will help save Manuel’s family—including Maria—from being sold into servitude and is encouraged by the church. He struggles to understand the concept of cultural relativism as he embarks on both a tangible and metaphorical journey. The likable, sympathetic protagonist travels miles across the United States, though his passage from boy to man is arguably a more difficult and painful expedition. Redfield explores themes of race and religion and their influences on the settlement of New Mexico through the eyes of Kincaid, Manuel, and Kincaid’s African-American friend Joe. In the first book of his Rio Grande series, Redfield challenges his audience with difficult historical facts and tangled relationships, inviting reflection on our nation’s occasionally sordid history. Vivid descriptions of the wide-open American West—especially the view from the back of a good horse—beautifully set the stage.
Will leave readers eagerly anticipating a sequel and wondering about the fates of its characters.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1491005958
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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
BOOK REVIEW
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