Gritty street talk carefully rendered. But the story? Just plain over the top.
Ex-con gets revenge in a first from Moore, a social worker and former gang member.
Jonathan “JC” Collins stashed his share from the big ho-house robbery before his so-called friends betrayed him to save theyselfs. Now, ten years later, he out the joint and lookin’ for vengeance. Thugs, pimps, and ho’s bettah scurry when they see him comin’ and thass a fack. Fortunately (and somewhat improbably), no one touched the huge heap of money he hid under the floor of his mother’s unlocked garage. Seems like some niggah mighta thunk about where it was, but no. His betrayers have gone on to bigger and better things: Richie Kidman is a pimp among pimps, with twelve ho’s workin’ for him; Zo Johnson is a bigtime dealer; and Lil G, a con artist, makes a fortune cheatin’ fools out they money. In short, no one will miss any of these fine citizens, and JC has done ten years in prison on account of they big mouths. Yes, it’s payback time. Paying cash money for a shiny new Jaguar and a pimpadelic penthouse condo ain’t enough for JC. He needs the love of a good woman, and who should volunteer but Champagne, a former exotic dancer who turned a pretty penny blackmailing a few upstanding Republicans with a yen for kinky sex. She fine, real fine. An’ her love is true. Thirsting for battle and armed to the teeth, JC looks up prison pal Rat and his lady, Shaunna. The fearless foursome find that the three betrayers have fallen on hard times: Richie addicted to heroin; Zo in the clutches of psycho Cuban drug lords and facing competition from rival dealers; and Lil G arrested by the Feds. Just in case these gangstas aren’t enough, a strange new villain appears. It’s Peanut, your basic inner-city nightmare: psychopathic-sadist-rapist-necrophiliac-killer, with home-o-sexual tendencies. But he useful to the plot. Just don’t take away his peanut butter.
Gritty street talk carefully rendered. But the story? Just plain over the top.Pub Date: March 18, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-76066-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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