From the author of A Toast to Justice (2013) comes a novel about a would-be football star bent on revenge against his high school classmates.
The tragedy of Long Island–resident Robert McKay began in 1971 during football practice at Hillside High. His future as a possible all-state athlete vanished when fellow player Eric Halls crushed his ankle during a scrimmage. Now, McKay is a plumber, frequently servicing the properties of some of Long Island’s wealthiest residents. When he hears that his graduating class is holding a 40th-anniversary gathering on Long Island, he decides it’s time for revenge. He tracks Eric Halls to a motor lodge and empties his gun into him at point-blank range. Nassau County detectives Henry Gates and Tina Delray quickly begin investigating what appears to be a crime of passion. McKay, however, isn’t finished. He next targets Maureen, his old sweetheart, who drifted away after his injury. At the gathering, she is surprisingly kind to McKay—but his resolve is set. The plumber enlists the help of buddy Tim Hardman, who knows to keep his mouth shut (or else). Crime novelist Tanz provides rich characterization and back story as his detectives close in on McKay. Gates’ assessment of Halls’ murderer is impressively concise: “[I]t was not a professional....[T]he number of shots fired indicated rage and overkill...it was personal.” Tanz also makes it delightfully easy to root against his killer, writing McKay as a boastful dirtbag. Mentions of “American Pie” and other hits from the early 1970s transport readers; unfortunately, too many references to movies and TV shows burst the narrative bubble. At one point, instead of describing a location, Tanz alludes to the set of Hill Street Blues to paint a scene. The tale eventually comes to an exposition-heavy conclusion, not unlike a television drama itself.
A visceral thriller from an author unafraid to reveal his influences.
Pub Date: March 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1497443624
Page Count: 194
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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