A print debut for Colombo, the perpetually rumpled TV detective, who, here, catches a clutch of murderers and clears up the mysteries of John Kennedy's assassination. Harrington is also the author of Virus (1991), among many others. What starts out as a reasonably slick L.A. police thriller with the murder of a thoroughly believable TV talk show host, is suddenly jarred by the appearance of a long-since-canceled TV police detective, Lt. Columbo. The murder victim is Paul Drury, a typically intense and abrasive small-screen tyrant whose popularity is largely based on his intense interest in the loose ends that keep the Lee Harvey Oswald case unsettled. We know who killed Drury right off. It's his ex-wife Alicia, a good-looking blond still on his program staff. What we don't know is why. Why is answered by Lt. Columbo, who still has the French sedan, battered cigar, and rumpled raincoat that distinguished him from Rock Hudson and Dennis Weaver on Sunday nights years ago and who still closes every investigatory interview with a cute, niggling, little, last-minute question that is always of critical importance. Those cute questions quickly lead him to dispose of the fake alibis and red herrings scattered by Alicia and her wealthy boyfriend and co- conspirator Tim Bell. While Columbo busies himself following a string of clues that take him to Las Vegas and the penthouse suite of an old-line, New York mafia capo, Tim and Alicia fret and stew about the location of the late Paul Drury's safe-deposit box. Columbo, without a bit of trouble, turns up gigabytes of computer evidence that bring him to a conclusion right on schedule. His only real problem seems to be qualifying with his police pistol. The appearance of the intensely familiar character, complete with accurate speech patterns, throws a blanket on the proceedings for all but the most devoted Falk fans. Who wants to read with the TV blasting in your ear?
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-85536-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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