Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270118
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Faye Kellerman. Morrow. $23.
Rina Lazarus, a young Orthodox Jewish wife, has raised complaining to an art form. She's the central character in Faye Kellerman's excellent series of murder mysteries. "Justice," her ninth entry, is an intelligent, exciting puzzle.
It parallels present and past-time to create a chilling tale of Los Angeles teen-agers abusing each other and themselves, lonely people, predators of all sorts and their victims. Once again, Rina's husband, LAPD detective Peter Decker raises a lot of important questions as he unravels a difficult crime. This time, the novel also touches on contemporary police issues. Faye Kellerman is one of the best crime writers around today, and "Justice" is one of her better books.
- JUDY KWELLER
Pandora's Clock
By John J. Nance. Doubleday. $23.50.
Anyone who's paranoid about plane travel needs to take the bus rather than read this one. At least you'd have a better chance of getting out.
The problem here is a sick passenger on a flight from Frankfurt to New York. But when the captain attempts to land the plane, the answer is "no." Seems the passenger has a particularly nasty bug, and New York does not want him. Neither does anyone else.
"Pandora's Clock" is like a plane trip in more ways than one. It takes an awful long time get started, but once you're moving, the speed can take your breath away - again in more ways than one.
- ROBERT HILLDRUP
Necessary Lies.
By Janice Daugharty. HarperCollins. $20.
Cliffie Flowers is a poor-white-trash pregnant teen-ager who tells what she calls "necessary lies" to protect the father of her baby from his own wickedness and to protect her own father from his "heart condition." Cliffie spends half the novel trying to run away with the boy she wants to love, the rest in jail covering for him, even after she finds out that he doesn't deserve her loyalty. Janice Daugharty has created a believable and sympathetic heroine who is very much a victim of poverty and its far-reaching consequences.
Most characters in the novel are torn: human frailty, the will to survive, love for family and even sacrificial nobility struggle within them. Sometimes weakness wins - characters commit incest, arson and murder - but enough goodness comes through to remind readers that low socioeconomic class doesn't make everyone act like trash.
At 160 pages, "Necessary Lies" reads quickly and easily. Unities are so well preserved throughout most of the book that is seems like a long short story.
Minor flaws include using too much narration rather than action, especially when the story's darkest secrets are revealed, and inexplicable confusions such as calling a toad a frog (a writer from Valdosta, Ga., surely knows the difference). But on the whole, this is a good read, especially for those who enjoy Southern literature.
- KATHERINE GRIMES
Judy Kweller is a special events coordinator.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
Katherine Grimes is working as a case study researcher for a National Science Foundation grant.
by CNB