A blandly plotted attempt to write a character-driven, mean-streets cop drama without the sex and violence demanded by the genre. Betrayal hangs heavily on the rugged broad shoulders of Boston Police Detective Jack Devlin in this third from former Boston Globe editor Kenney (Hammurabi’s Code, 1995, etc.). Currently investigating corrupt cops, Devlin bears a cross for his namesake father, a Boston beat cop who was caught taking payoffs by the FBI and who committed suicide before the facts of the case could become known. Motherless when his father died, the nine-year-old orphan Jack was raised by unfeeling relatives and mentored by kindly Boston PD Superintendent William Kennedy, his father’s former partner. Devlin turns his back on a career in pro-hockey and tosses his Harvard Law degree to follow (literally) in his father’s footsteps when he discovers an old note from the father in which dad professed his innocence and implied he was framed. Years pass—too many for the story to be credible—and Devlin, conveniently single and alienated from everyone but his motormouthed partner Del Rio, falls in love with feisty but beautiful Assistant US Attorney Emily Lawrence, who falls just as fast for Devlin when she glimpses him in church to mourn his father. What she doesn’t see is Devlin manipulating a vast drug investigation, conducted by Lawrence and oafish FBI agent Kevin Duffy. Though Kenney vividly portrays the nasty rivalries that pit cop against cop, his routine, by-the-numbers plotting holds no surprises. Lawrence will too simply trust her heart instead of her handcuffs when she discovers evidence that Devlin’s up to no good, and Devlin’s apparently shady dealings will smoke out the cop who framed his father. A sensitive but dull revenger, solemn and high-minded.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-345-43294-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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