Ferrigno's smoldering The Horse Latitudes was one of the most striking thriller debuts of 1990. His second novel—a splintery tale of murder among California powerbrokers—isn't nearly as good. The author still has a knack, however, for dreaming up robust characters. Quinn—no last name—is a nicely nuanced hero, a reporter for the ``snide, trendy monthly'' SLAP who, despite his aversion to violence, gets tangled up, along with his pretty photographer/sidekick Jen, in a homicidal coverup. But even before the first killing, the plotline veers erratically as Ferrigno devotes pages to Quinn and Jen's covering of a rally of iron- pumping Christians: It's a lively chapter, but one having nothing to do with the rest of the story. This sort of incident-packing plotting—though never again so blatant—marks the narrative as Quinn and Jen butt up against two vigorous villains: sly, seductive Sissy Mizell, a sort of white Oprah, hostess of Straight Talk with Sissy!; and Roy Liston, a hulking ex-pro-footballer who adores Sissy so much that he'll kill to retrieve the mysterious photographs that Sissy's assistant is blackmailing her with. An old pal of Quinn's, a fence of stolen goods, happens upon the murder- -and after the fence is killed in turn by Liston (in a scene of unusual poignancy), Quinn investigates, tracing a crooked trail that leads to the photos and their damning implications for Sissy and her husband, a gubernatorial hopeful. And always one step behind is the strangely sympathetic Liston, a mad yet faithful dog who only wants to do right by his mistress—right up to the double- surprise climax. Lots of action but not much suspense, and Ferrigno's depiction of venal upper-crust California is nothing new; it's mostly when he writes of lowlifes that his words spring to vitality. All in all, then, despite patches of hot prose: an oddly enervated thriller.
Pub Date: Feb. 18, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-10314-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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