|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
It's a slow Saturday morning in the LA Times newsroom, and reporter Eve Diamond is watching the usual weekend body count rise and waiting for a big story, when a distraught Vincent Chevalier bursts in. His daughter, Isabel, has disappeared and the police aren't interested as she hasn't been missing for 48 hours. Isabel is 15, and from a wealthy privileged background. She's been loved and adored since birth and she's smart and beautiful. But she's also rebellious and bored, and she and her friends have been fulfilling a need for excitement by hanging out in filthy squats with streetkids and runaways. Even worse, Isabel appears to have fallen under the spell of a charismatic young squatter called Finch. Chevalier thinks he knows where Isabel is, he just needs a witness to accompany him to the squat and help him get her back. Since the police won't help, he's turned to the press. It's his lucky day when his desperation leads him to Eve. Eve is always on the lookout for a good story. She sees possibilities in everything and has the curiosity and the hunger to follow things through. But, as well as having the instincts of a good journalist, Eve cares. She cares about the stories, and she cares about the people. She really gets involved in the stories she investigates -- infusing the words on the page with passion and warmth. Accompanying Chevalier to the squat, they make a horrific discovery and Eve is hooked. What starts off as professional curiosity becomes personal as Eve talks to the characters whose lives are separate but intertwining in this wonderfully involved and involving tale. Denise Hamilton takes us on a ride through the diverse neighbourhoods of LA, crossing borders of wealth, race, culture and class, as very different stories interconnect and unravel. As with the first Eve Diamond novel, JASMINE TRADE, Denise Hamilton serves up an intriguing mystery, along with comments on society and crime. SUGAR SKULL peels back the layers of seemingly unconnected worlds which co-exist, feed off, or ignore each other. The descriptions of Los Angeles are wonderful and insightful - revealing as much about the people who live there as about the city itself - a place which is constantly shifting and changing and growing. Eve Diamond really is a diamond - a flawed one perhaps, but all the more interesting for that. She's passionate, honest and strong, but she's also vulnerable and insecure. She takes risks and goes all out for a story, yet where her personal life is concerned she holds back somewhat for fear of getting hurt. She has her problems and her faults, but what makes her really interesting is she recognises them. I'm looking forward to seeing how she develops in future books.
Reviewed by Donna Moore, December 2003
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
