Mystery/Thriller Reviews

Page Two of Two

Kaleidoscope by Dorothy Gilman

Ballantine, January, 2002
Hardcover, 244 pages
ISBN: 0345448200
Ordering information:
Amazon.com


Kaleidoscope
by Dorothy Gilman In 1975, readers met the Countess Karitska, a genteel, elegant, old world psychic who had recently fallen hard times. Never one to stay down for long, she rents a shabby brownstone in New York City, and proceeds to help people using psychometry (when she picks up an object, she can read things about the owner.) Now, Madame Karitska is back, and she's better than ever. With the help of her policeman friend, Detective Lieutenant Pruden, Madame Karitska solves a series of puzzles: the murder of a wealthy businessman, locating the missing owner of a briefcase full of diamonds, finding the murderer of a young college student, and assisting an intelligence officer who is trying to stop a terrorist attack on the nation's electric supply.

Madame Kartiska's life goes on as if there had been no twenty-five year gap in her story at all. Dorothy Gilman moves the characters neatly to the present day - and they fit right into modern life. Considering that this book must have been finished by mid-2001 in order to be turned into the publisher, the terrorist storyline is eerily prescient. Madame Karitska is an absolutely delightful and mysterious character, who deserves more adventures in the very near future.


The Summons by John Grisham

Avon, February, 2002
Doubleday, 357 pages
ISBN: 0385503822
Ordering information:
Amazon.com


The Summons
by John Grisham Ray Atlee is a college law professor at the University of Virginia. His father is a beloved judge in his birthplace, the small town of Clanton, Mississippi, and his brother is a drug abuser and drunk who can't hold a job. Ray receives a letter from his father, who he hasn't spoken to in years, informing him that he is very ill and needs to come back to town to discuss his will. Unfortunately, when Ray arrives at home to visit his father he finds him already dead. Later, he discovers hidden stacks of money in his father's house -- nearly 3 million dollars worth. The will only left him and his brother a few thousand dollars, which was left in a bank account and the house itself. So, where did all this money come from and who else knows about it? Was it even legally earned? Ray is forced to deal with this mysterious money, his problematic brother and the locals while trying to figure out what to do with the money and who to trust.

John Grisham, the bestselling author of exciting legal thrillers such as The Firm, The Testament and The Rainmaker returns to his roots with his latest novel. In The Summons, Grisham introduces Ray Atlee, who thought he would be left with a pittance from his stubborn father, but instead finds three million dollars of unexplained cash in his father's house. Ray is an appealing soul, who struggles with his decisions about what to do with all the money. If he reports it, then he'll have to pay taxes on it and turn over half of the money to his brother, who will surely waste the money on drugs. If he doesn't report it, then someone could turn him in. And in any event, someone who knows about the money could come after him. Grisham's latest novel starts slowly, almost too slowly for a Grisham novel, but really builds as Ray begins exploring casinos as a source of his father's mysterious cash. The information about how the FBI can trace money and the inner-workings of the casinos along the Mississippi river add interest to the novel -- readers will definitely learn something along the way. The Summons is a return to legal thrillers, after a brief departure to more literary works with A Painted House. Fortunately for Grisham legal thriller fans, he is under contract to write at least two more legal thrillers.


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