Maxine Revere has dedicated her life to investigating murders that the police have long since given up any hope of solving. A nationally renowned investigative reporter with her own TV show and a tough-as-nails reputation, Max tackles cold cases from across the country and every walk of life. But the one unsolved murder that still haunts her is a case from her own past.When Max was a high school senior, one of her best friends was strangled and another, Kevin O’Neal, accused of the crime. To the disgrace of her wealthy family, Max stood by her friend, until she found out he lied about his alibi. Though his guilt was never proven, their relationship crumbled from the strain of too many secrets.Now Max is home for Kevin’s funeral—after years of drug abuse, he committed suicide. She’s finally prepared to come to terms with the loss of his friendship, but she’s not prepared for Kevin’s sister to stubbornly insist that he didn’t kill himself. Or for an elderly couple to accost her at the airport, begging her to look into another murder at Max’s old high school. Max is more interested in the cold case at her alma mater than in digging around Kevin’s troubled life, but she agrees to do both. As Max uncovers dark secrets, she finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies that hit far too close to home. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that someone will do whatever it takes to make sure the truth stays buried. Views: 55
From Publishers WeeklyIn the 35th novel to be set in the tiny British villages of Thrush Green and Fairacre, the characters and settings are as familiar and comfortable as old shoes. The pseudonymous Read has created an orderly universe in which people are kind and conscientious and cherish virtues and manners now considered antiquated elsewhere. But unwelcome changes are making themselves felt in the villages. Miss Read inherits Dolly Clare's little cottage at Thrush Green, her grief at the death of her old friend and mentor somewhat assuaged by the security of home ownership; the declining enrollment at Fairacre School, where Miss Read teaches, may lead to its closing. Improved highways, higher salaries and the ubiquity of the automobile have enabled many Fairacre inhabitants to shop in distant cities and educate their children at larger schools miles away. Bucolic life has given way to those of the busy, two-income commuter families who have scarcely enough time to plant a few flowers in their gardens. The novel's slight plot sometimes gets in the way of Read's wonderful descriptive abilities, but her characters, as always, fairly leap off the pages; the cantankerous, Cassandra-like Mrs. Pringle; her feekless daughter, Minnie; the crusty old factotum, Mr. Willet; and the young Joseph Coggs-are all completely believable. Read writes with deep affection about what she knows and never succumbs to the temptation of clich6s. An occasional visit to Fairacre offers a restful change from the frenetic pace of the contemporary world. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsA 35th appearance for the author, who, here, takes leave of Friends of Thrush Green (1991) to chronicle neighborly doings in the English village of Fairacre and changes in the career of schoolmistress Miss Read, who narrates. The changes'' of the title are those inevitably experienced by people attuned to the millstream pace of a rural community where change comes with a creep as well as a bang. But change does come. Now in the village, farm workers are few and cottages are being bought bytinkers'' (young couples with two incomes, no kids); the quiet streets of neighboring towns are choked with traffic; and shawls and ponchos are favored over the essential country cardigan. But, worst of all, the number of village children in Miss Read's school has dwindled to the point where closure is threatened. Some things, however, never change: Miss Read's stout housekeeper, Mrs. Pringle, continues her tirades; the harvest fair and fˆte remain cherished events; Miss Read mentally corrects, as ever, double negatives uttered by the yeomanry; and seasonal galas like daffodils and other spring beauties lift the heart. As to new events: Miss Read's dear old friend dies, and Miss Read takes leave of her old house; friend Amy, with whom she takes a welcome holiday, has a problem with a most unwelcome guest; and there are some rampagings of nature--a snowstorm and a hurricane. For the devoted following: a soothing oasis of tidy living for the frazzled reader weary of an untidy world. As always, there are the line drawings by John S. Goodall. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Views: 55
Forty-two stories from America's greatest Yiddish newspaper, in English for the first time.The Forward, founded in 1897, is the most renowned Yiddish newspaper in the world. It welcomed generations of immigrants to the United States, brought them news of Europe and the Middle East, and provided them with sundry comforts such as comic strips and noodle kugel recipes.It also published some of the most acclaimed Yiddish fiction writers of all time: Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer on justice slyly being served when the governor of Lublin comes to town; celebrated Forward editor Abraham Cahan on how place and luck can change character; and Roshelle Weprinsky, setting her story in Florida, on the rupture between European parents and American children.Cahan described the newspaper as a "living novel," with good reason. Taken together, these stories reveal the human side of the challenges that faced Jews throughout this time, including immigration,... Views: 55
Issue One of Volume Ten of the reviewofaustralianfiction.com Review of Australian Fiction. This issue contains new short fiction by Marion Halligan and Amanda O'Callaghan. Views: 55
Eight sizzling tales of lesbian lust and love.Harper Bliss takes us from romantic Paris and groovy Berlin all the way to the scorching beaches of Thailand. The stories in this sensual anthology include a threesome, a steamy locker room encounter, a teacher crush and old friends discovering each other in whole new ways.The ladies in this collection just can't get enough. Views: 55
*****An action packed thrill-ride. An epic and interwoven plot, filled with twists and turns. Fans of Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler alike are raving about this series!*****A nation on the brink of war.A conspiracy that threatens the globe.And one military family, caught in the middle, fighting for freedom.From a secretive jungle-covered island in the Pacific, to the sands of the Middle East. From the smog-filled alleyways of China, to the passageways of a US Navy destroyer. The War Planners series follows different members of the military and intelligence community as they uncover a Chinese plot to attack America.Chinese billionaire Cheng Jinshan and his wicked spy, Lena Chou, are moving their pieces on the board. Deception and misinformation are everywhere.Now, in order to save America, the leaders in the CIA and Pentagon have set up a secretive task force. Their mission: to thwart Jinshan's plans, and prevent a global war.Each member of the Manning family has a critical role to... Views: 55
From Library JournalThe characters in these terse, elliptical tales are burdened by the knowledge that something is missing from their lives. Cut off from a usable past and isolated from one another, they flounder about, desperately seeking someone or something with which to connect. In "Just Relax," a young woman leaving the Peace Corps takes a job as a Pilgrim at a Massachusetts theme park. "The Secret Dog" concerns a man who invents an imaginary pet to compensate for an unhappy marriage. While Cameron's stories typically involve young urbanites, some of the best here are set in a small Indiana town. Notable is "The Winter Bazaar," an achingly sad tale in which an old, empty house becomes a symbol of the peace and contentment denied to two lovers. Always stylish and often affecting, Cameron's work belongs in all collections of contemporary fiction.- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsThree stories at the book's end--all concerning the same Indiana family but all of whose characters are given long leash to act independently, non-conformingly, movingly--and the story Not the Point'' (a mother, having lost one teenage son to suicide, is anxious about her remaining teenage son's behavior) give notice that Cameron is able to write with emotional directness when he wants to. But he wants to so rarely here. Three-quarters of the stories are annoyingly flyweight, especially when they try to be hip-funny:Just Relax,'' The Cafe Hysteria,''The Secret Dog,'' The Near Future.'' Three stories try for more seriousness, involving emotional rejection:What?'' and Slowly'' andThe Meeting and Greeting Area''; these are stories, though, that seem so self-conscious about their homosexual protagonists that they labor beneath a smog of transposition and eagerness-to-please, leaving out all the fictional palpability of place and speech. A weak, puppy-ish, unsatisfying collection. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Views: 55
Once again Frank and Joe Hardy accept the challenge of a puzzling case when their famous detective father asks the boys to assist him in tracking down a notorious jewel thief and his accomplices. The trail leads to the outskirts of the Hardy's home town and to a weirdly guarded mansion on the old Perth estate. Views: 55
Issue One of Volume Fourteen of the Review of Australian Fiction. This issue contains new short fiction by Irma Gold and Matthia Dempsey Views: 55
Far away from the city of his birth, in a frontier town on the edge of tribal wilderness, a doctor tries to resolve the seemingly unreconcilable demands of his public career and his personal feelings. He believes his exile her to be temporary, and youthful memories of the distant city torment him with an unbearable sense of loss. Yet he has grown to love a fellow exile, a woman of fierce independence and strong will, who belongs by nature to the warmth and chaos of the frontier. But, during a summer of drought and disease, the desert erupts into savagery and he is at last confronted by the choice of returning to the city or of remaining with her.From Publishers WeeklyThubron is a British travel writer ( Where Nights Are Longest ) and novelist ( A Cruel Madness ) whose sense of atmosphere and character may remind the reader of Graham Greene, without seeming at all derivative. This novel has a rather portentous allegorical framework: in an unnamed country, presumably somewhere in Africa, hero Rayner (no first name) is a doctor struggling with a mysterious disease in a provincial town set in a wilderness inhabited by primitive bush people. He dreams nostalgically of the langorous, more cultivated coastal capital city where he grew up. After murders of townspeople by the savages, racial hatred begins to fester. Rayner, fascinated by the savages, becomes increasingly involved in their lives of apparent exile from an imagined paradise, and when he has a longed-for opportunity to return to the capital from which he was once exiled, he refuses to take it. Though the framework is heavy, Thubron's writing has remarkable vigor and fluency; and in Rayner's relationships--with the dancer Zoe, and with Ivar, a childhood friend who is now a rather sinister army officer--he shows sharp psychological insight and creates considerable pathos. In the end the book becomes a moving lament for a vanished world and for the difficulties of human communication. It's by no means a casual read, but an ultimately rewarding one. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThe aborigines believe that if they can turn back the sun, prevent it from "dying" each night, then the tree that once connected heaven and earth will flourish anew and "everything will be all right." Rayner is a doctor temporarily assigned to an army unit sent to pacify these "savages," a few of whom have been raiding the outlying farms of this unspecified frontier town at a time of severe drought. As he watches them perform the "djannu" ritual, it seems for an instant that the sun does freeze on the horizon before inexorably resuming its journey. Nominated for the 1991 Booker Prize, this cryptic novel by a well-known British travel writer/novelist is a rumination on both our vulnerability to the vicissitudes of life and the resilience of the human spirit. In the face of the violence (not necessarily aboriginal) brought on by feelings of helplessness and fear of the unknown, Rayner discovers the power of love and of belief. Intelligent and lyrical in its evocation of life on the fringe of civilization, this book should attract a relatively small but discriminating audience. For larger collections of serious fiction.- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 55
'REMEMBER ALL THOSE STORIES GRANDPA USED TO TELL US ABOUT CHANGELINGS...?'Colin and Sarah can't bear the way their much-loved Grandpa seems to be slipping slowly away from them in his old age. Refusing to believe it, they decide instead that he has been stolen away and a changeling left in his place. In an attempt to find him again, they follow his path, step by step out of the land of mortals and into the Otherworld - the realm of the Faer Folk... Views: 55
