A thrilling mystery with an unlikely yet endearing heroine.
A gruesome murder is no match for a vodka-swilling Russian medium in Fortis’ debut mystery novel.
“Chainsaw” Jane Dzhugashvili is a character in every sense of the word. “Small and wrinkled like a Russian bad seed,” Jane lives in the small town of Noliar, Pa., and has a proclivity for good Russian vodka, strong curse words and tarot cards. Despite her unconventional appearance and personality traits, Jane is also a medium who works with the NYPD. When New York City bookstore owner Dorothea Sishy goes missing, the police (led by Jane’s friend Julie) show up on Jane’s doorstep asking for help. Though Jane is distracted by the recent disappearance of her best friend, Cruz, she agrees to use her skills as a medium to deduce what happened to Dorothea. According to Jane and the cards, Dorothea has been the victim of a grisly murder, most likely at the hands of one of her many lovers. The cops also realize that something may link the murder and Cruz’s disappearance, meaning Cruz and even Jane are in serious danger. Julie enlists the help of her old friend Zoe, and the two manage to pack up Jane and move her to New York City, where Jane continues to pursue the murder case in hopes of saving Cruz. The investigation carries on in both Noliar and New York City, leading to several suspenseful moments as Jane closes in on the killer. Fortis has a marvelous character in Chainsaw Jane, a complicated woman with a cryptic past. Jane’s voice, the result of countless cigarettes and an occasionally thick Russian accent, comes through loud and clear thanks to Fortis’ snappy, smart dialogue. Zoe, Julie and the various personalities of Noliar are a solid supporting cast who accept Jane, despite her eccentricities. The psychic’s abilities and her involvement in the crimes intrigue, and Fortis presents a mystery with elements of suspense, horror and humor. A simmering romantic interest who returns from Zoe’s past offers a nice secondary plotline.
A thrilling mystery with an unlikely yet endearing heroine.Pub Date: March 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615715957
Page Count: 304
Publisher: LIBURU PRESS
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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