A smart take on a familiar genre that, when it stumbles, stumbles admirably.
A kidnapping forces a husband to reconsider his life in Sylvester’s debut, a cross between a literary novel and a thriller.
Although Andres and Marabela Jimenez live in a house that’s “enclosed by cement walls and locked gates,” horror manages to invade their lives when Marabela is kidnapped and ransomed at a price too steep for her husband, owner of a printing company, to afford. For help, he brings in a kidnapping expert named Guillermo, who recently negotiated the ransom for Elena, Andres’ childhood sweetheart. But Elena was held captive for 37 days and returned home broken, unable to return to her old life; is this fate in store for Marabela, too? Sylvester sets her novel in Peru in 1992, against a backdrop of political violence and guerrilla warfare. The country’s public turmoil echoes the private turmoil of the Jimenezes, no example of marital bliss even before the kidnapping. One of the appealing aspects of the novel is that it isn’t really about the negotiations at all. Rather, it’s about Andres reconnecting with neglected aspects of his life: Elena, his family and even Marabela. He becomes hopeful about what might happen when his wife returns. Will they put their relationship back together? Sylvester’s novel is one of great promise, even if it doesn’t cohere. Two-thirds of the way through, it changes shape dramatically—a twist that wants to gesture toward larger concerns but makes the remainder of the novel feel like an overlong epilogue. Nevertheless, Sylvester is a fine writer with a knack for crafting situations that externalize the characters’ internal struggles. (For instance, Andres and Guillermo have to invade Marabela’s darkroom—her last bastion of privacy—to set up a headquarters to handle the negotiations.) Sometimes Sylvester’s language stretches too far, as when a dial tone “is empty, just like [Andres] is,” but her ambition to reach beyond the traditional kidnapping thriller into something richer is commendable.
A smart take on a familiar genre that, when it stumbles, stumbles admirably.Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-26217-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Amazon Publishing/New Harvest
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Print the bumper sticker—"I'd Rather Be Living in an Elin Hilderbrand Novel."
Back to St. John with the Steele family, whose tragic loss and horrifying discovery have yielded an exciting new life.
In Winter in Paradise (2018), Hilderbrand introduced Midwestern magazine editor Irene Steele and her adult sons, Baker and Cash, then swept them off to the island of St. John after paterfamilias Russell Steele was killed in a helicopter crash with his secret mistress, leaving a preteen love child and a spectacular villa. While the first volume left a lot up in the air about Russell’s dubious business dealings and the manner of his death, this installment fills in many of the blanks. All three Steeles made new friends during their unexpected visit to the island in January, and now that’s resulted in job offers for Irene and Cash and the promise of new love for single dad Baker. Why not move to St. John and into the empty villa? Mother, sons, and grandson do just that. Both the dead mistress’s diary and a cadre of FBI agents begin to provide answers to the questions left dangling in Volume 1, and romantic prospects unfold for all three Steeles. Nevertheless, as a wise person once said, shit happens, combusting the family’s prospects and leading to a cliffhanger ending. On the way, there will be luscious island atmosphere, cute sundresses, frozen drinks, “slender baguette sandwiches with duck, arugula and fig jam,” lemongrass sugar cookies, and numerous bottles of both Krug and Dom Pérignon, the latter served by a wiseass who offers one of his trademark tasting notes: “This storied bubbly has notes of Canadian pennies, your dad’s Members Only jacket, and…‘We Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together.’ ” You'll be counting the days until you can return to the Virgin Islands with these characters in the concluding volume of the trilogy.
Print the bumper sticker—"I'd Rather Be Living in an Elin Hilderbrand Novel."Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-43557-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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