As hinted in the title, Francis has altered his formula a bit this time. Instead of one decent, reluctant hero, here there are two: the Derry brothers, who fight the same monster-villain. . .but 14 years apart. First we meet 30-ish narrator Jonathan Derry, a physics teacher who is given some computer-tapes (for safe-keeping) by a pal. And when the pal promptly dies in a boat explosion, a couple of thugs pay Jonathan a visit—who, since he happens to be an Olympic marksman, fends them off with a gun. What's on these precious tapes, then? Well, as Jonathan sleuthfully discovers, the tapes contain a fool-proof horserace-betting system—stolen from an ancient widow (her gambler-husband created the system). So Jonathan tries to keep the tapes from the thugs—but thug Angelo, who has already killed at least once in his tape-pursuit, now takes Jonathan's wife hostage; and our ingenious hero must use both physics and marksmanship to rescue wife Sarah (along with their rocky relationship) and get Angelo sent to prison. The end? Hardly. Suddenly it's 14 years later, Jonathan is teaching in California, but his kid brother William (now 29) is in England, managing the many racehorses of an American tycoon. And when raging bull Angelo is released from prison, monstrously vengeful, he goes after nartutor #2 William—who decides to try to make permanent peace: he bashes Angelo, locks him in a cellar, gets hold of those notorious tapes (which Jonathan long ago gave to a schoolteacher chum), and gives them to the now-subdued Angelo. The end? Not quite. Because, unbeknownst to William, those tapes are fatally flawed, and Angelo soon believes that William has tricked him—which means that there's more mayhem ahead before the Derrys can rest easy. True, as you may have gathered, the horses are pretty much in the background this time (though nicely so). And there's a thinness of emotional texture in the blow-by-blow second half. (One can't help wondering how much more powerful the book would have been if Jonathan were killed by Angelo.) But, if not as informative or affecting as prime Francis, this is topnotch, nonstop entertainment: ironic, clever, exciting, and—even when rip-roaringly violent—thoroughly warmhearted.
Pub Date: April 16, 1982
ISBN: 0425198774
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1982
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
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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