Nobody's Child - Hardcover

Dawson, Janet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 044990976X ISBN 13: 9780449909768

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1995

Synopsis

"Janet Dawson writes with a deft, sure hand, much the way her sleuth Jeri Howard detects. With both author and sleuth, you know you're in the hands of true professionals."
--Julie Smith
Across the glorious San Francisco Bay lies Berkeley, California, as famous for students and activism as it is for the charm of the town itself. But the complexities and troubles of the big city have made their home here and no one feels safe anymore.
A decomposing body buried in an empty lot has been dug up by a construction company, and Jeri Howard's demanding, imperious client, Naomi Smith, thinks the victim could be her daughter, Maureen, who ran away from her comfortable home two years ago. Jeri dislikes her client, but as a survivor of the mother-daughter wars herself, she is determined to discover the identity of the dead woman and how she was killed. What worries her just as much, though, is the missing child Maureen was last seen carrying--both of them sick, broke, and sleeping among the hopeless and homeless in the threatening shadows of Peoples Park.
Posing as a homeless person, Jeri probes the darkening heart of the once-beautiful city, peering behind the lace curtains of middle-class respectability to find out why Maureen ran from home and how she ended up on the streets. In her desperate search to save a child that nobody seems to want, Jeri hits a wall of suburban silence and urban distress.
Here is a mystery as real and believable as today's changing world, as intriguing as the stories strangers have to tell, as hopeful as the fate of a child who finds someone to love.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Dawson writes with a deft, sure hand, much the way her sleuth Jeri Howard detects. With both author and sleuth, you know you're in the hands of true professionals."<br>--Julie Smith<br>Across the glorious San Francisco Bay lies Berkeley, California, as famous for students and activism as it is for the charm of the town itself. But the complexities and troubles of the big city have made their home here and no one feels safe anymore.<br>A decomposing body buried in an empty lot has been dug up by a construction company, and Jeri Howard's demanding, imperious client, Naomi Smith, thinks the victim could be her daughter, Maureen, who ran away from her comfortable home two years ago. Jeri dislikes her client, but as a survivor of the mother-daughter wars herself, she is determined to discover the identity of the dead woman and how she was killed. What worries her just as much, though, is the missing child Maureen was last seen carrying--both of them sick, broke, and sleeping among the hopeles

Reviews

YA?An absorbing mystery that begins when P.I. Jeri Howard is hired by a woman to find out if a recently discovered body is that of her missing teenaged daughter, Maureen. Jeri starts by interviewing the people who befriended the girl during her two years as a runaway. This takes her from the exclusive upper-class neighborhood of her client's home in Oakland, CA, to the colorful but dangerous street life of Berkeley. The trail also leads to a warm and supportive family of organic farmers. Maureen's story is that of a young woman who made some poor decisions and trusted the wrong people. The development of minor characters is excellent, and the dialogue between the diverse people in the story is realistic. One of the strengths of the novel is the interaction between the detective and the street people she meets. The problems of homelessness are presented by many voices: the victims, the social workers, the church volunteers, and the local business people. The issues are not resolved, but many questions are raised. As Jeri unravels the mystery of Maureen's life and death, she begins to gain an understanding of her own problems and some insight into those of her family. The ending is suspenseful but the identity of the murderer is somewhat predictable. Teens should enjoy this well-written mystery with its many young characters and its interesting locations.?Penny Stevens, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Compassionate and tenacious, Oakland, Calif., PI Jeri Howard makes her fifth appearance (after Don't Turn Your Back on the Ocean) in this finely crafted, absorbing adventure. Howard is hired by an alcoholic woman to find out if the body of a young woman recently found in a burned-out home is that of her daughter who had run away three years earlier. Determining that the victim was indeed her client's daughter, the PI also learns that the young woman, who had been living on the streets in Berkeley, had had a young daughter. The client seems uninterested in her grandchild, but the PI feels compelled to search for the little girl. As Christmas approaches, Howard mingles uneasily with the homeless in the cold damp East Bay winter, moving from street markets to a backstage tour of Oakland's historic Paramount Theater as she tracks the murder victim's associations with high-school friends, some kindly "old hippie" benefactors and an enigmatic drug dealer. On the way to the satisfying solution, characters trade observations on homelessness, HIV infection and race relations, yet Dawson offers no glib answers in this timely, gentle tale.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Oakland, California, P.I. Jeri Howard has been hired by aging alcoholic Naomi Smith to find out if the body of a young girl discovered in an abandoned lot is Naomi's runaway daughter, Maureen. Although the case is a sad one, Jeri figures it's pretty simple. Not so. For starters, the body is Maureen, and she's been murdered. And the autopsy shows not only that she'd recently borne a child but also that she was HIV-positive. Even though the case is technically closed, Jeri is haunted by the thought of Maureen's baby. Is he or she HIV-positive, too? Jeri's search takes her through all strata of Bay Area life, where she finds more questions than answers and learns the pathetic, heartrending story of Maureen Smith's short life. An entertaining and well-written mystery with a spunky, caring heroine, Dawson's latest is also thought provoking and sobering. A good choice for all collections. Emily Melton

The female private investigator who narrates this series title (Don't Turn Your Back on the Ocean, LJ 10/1/94) takes on a case that appeals to her maternal instincts. At the request of a dreadful client who neglected to report her daughter missing, Jeri Howard helps detectives (one her ex-husband) identify the body of a young woman. It turns out that the "wayward" woman had a child, now either dead or missing. Jeri searches among San Francisco's homeless for clues to the child's whereabouts. A heart-wrenching theme, tempered by attention to clothing and cats and conveyed in nicely moderated, textured prose, makes this solid reading for most collections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 044990976X
• ISBN 13: 9780449909768
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308