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It was fourteen-year-old Karen's home town. A good place filled with good people. Then a man was found dead; the victim of a hit-and-run.
125 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 14, 2015
The kind of book that makes you feel things. The kind of book that makes you think for a long time.
There are many things I can't stand in this world, and hit-and-run drivers are amongst the many things.
When someone is killed or maimed in this manner, all that is left for them is truth and justice, even if that means the driver is not charged. When the driver runs, the victim, and usually their shattered family, gets absolutely nothing.
Everyone knows that sometimes the driver's life is ruined as well, even when they stay hidden. Some people cannot function after what they did, and are never right again, so at least in some way, that is a sort of justice.
We also know that there are people who could run you down, go home and eat dinner, and go to sleep and think nothing of your life. You are nothing to them. They don't even care.
In this book, the hit-and-run driver straddles the line. They care, but they care more about themselves. They want to protect everything they've built, so they will do what it takes to save their own skin...even commit more crimes if it comes to it.
A little part of me managed to feel a hint of sadness for this driver, but the things that they were willing to do to keep the secret just could not be understood.
There are many things I can't stand in this world, and hit-and-run drivers are amongst the many things.
When someone is killed or maimed in this manner, all that is left for them is truth and justice, even if that means the driver is not charged. When the driver runs, the victim, and usually their shattered family, gets absolutely nothing.
Everyone knows that sometimes the driver's life is ruined as well, even when they stay hidden. Some people cannot function after what they did, and are never right again, so at least in some way, that is a sort of justice.
We also know that there are people who could run you down, go home and eat dinner, and go to sleep and think nothing of your life. You are nothing to them. They don't even care.
In this book, the hit-and-run driver straddles the line. They care, but they care more about themselves. They want to protect everything they've built, so they will do what it takes to save their own skin...even commit more crimes if it comes to it.
A little part of me managed to feel a hint of sadness for this driver, but the things that they were willing to do to keep the secret just could not be understood.
January 28, 2019
14 year-old Karen lives with her aunt in a small Midwestern 1960s town. Her mother has committed suicide and her father long ago abandoned the family. She has a birthday coming up and each day she waits for the mailman to deliver a greeting from the lost father, an event that she scarcely believes can happen, yet she waits.
A deadly hit and run accident serves as a catalyst for discovering the truth about her father, but will this truth bring yet more grief?
Narrated in the first person, the book is a suspense thriller that could have been soap opera fodder, but isn’t. Karen is an insightful and charming narrator whose ironic and self-deprecating humor helps to make a rather grim tale more bearable, both for herself and for the reader.
The hit and run accident places her young babysitting charge, Laurie, in peril as the child unknowingly picks up a key clue from the scene of the accident. The suspense in the story is focused around whether the driver of the hit and run vehicle will attempt to recover the clue and eliminate Karen and Laurie, the only two people who know about it.
Karen, effectively abandoned by both parents and not completely trusting her guardian aunt, attempts to discover the identity of the killer on her own and ensuing events soon reveal the possibility that her missing father may be involved.
Rickett does a great job of maintaining suspense and as in her other two mystery novels, THE PROWLER and STALKED, writes a nail biting ending. Karen’s emotional depth is fully realized and there is nothing trite about any of the characters or the situations. The coming of age aspect of the story is neatly blended with the suspense elements. There is also some humor in the book as Karen’s observations regarding herself and the small town world around her are often amusing.
All three of Rickett’s mysteries are completely different from each other and from much of the crime fiction written at the time. They defy binning in a sub-genre, which is very refreshing, but this may have cost her at the time if she sought an extended career as a mystery novelist. And she seems to be mostly forgotten today. Too bad.
A deadly hit and run accident serves as a catalyst for discovering the truth about her father, but will this truth bring yet more grief?
Narrated in the first person, the book is a suspense thriller that could have been soap opera fodder, but isn’t. Karen is an insightful and charming narrator whose ironic and self-deprecating humor helps to make a rather grim tale more bearable, both for herself and for the reader.
The hit and run accident places her young babysitting charge, Laurie, in peril as the child unknowingly picks up a key clue from the scene of the accident. The suspense in the story is focused around whether the driver of the hit and run vehicle will attempt to recover the clue and eliminate Karen and Laurie, the only two people who know about it.
Karen, effectively abandoned by both parents and not completely trusting her guardian aunt, attempts to discover the identity of the killer on her own and ensuing events soon reveal the possibility that her missing father may be involved.
Rickett does a great job of maintaining suspense and as in her other two mystery novels, THE PROWLER and STALKED, writes a nail biting ending. Karen’s emotional depth is fully realized and there is nothing trite about any of the characters or the situations. The coming of age aspect of the story is neatly blended with the suspense elements. There is also some humor in the book as Karen’s observations regarding herself and the small town world around her are often amusing.
All three of Rickett’s mysteries are completely different from each other and from much of the crime fiction written at the time. They defy binning in a sub-genre, which is very refreshing, but this may have cost her at the time if she sought an extended career as a mystery novelist. And she seems to be mostly forgotten today. Too bad.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews