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SHORT TAKES: F.X. Toole scores with boxing tale

September 10, 2006

F.X. Toole says midway through "Pound for Pound," his only novel, that to be without shame is the worst abuse a Mexican can hear.

Yet Toole, a page-turning writer with guts, can be shameless about making his characters puppets in a fairy tale.

Toole's name may be familiar; he wrote the stories Paul Haggis adapted for "Million Dollar Baby." Toole was a boxing trainer named Jerry Boyd, who took the pseudonym Toole for two books: the story collection "Rope Burns" and "Pound for Pound," whittled down by editors after his death in 2002.

Folks who know "Million Dollar Baby" will see similarities. The hero is again a self-destructive Irish trainer in Los Angeles. A novice boxer from the South again asks for guidance and becomes a surrogate child. The trainer goes through personal tragedy and believes God has turned his back.

What's different is the view of Latino boxing. Chicky Garza rises through the amateur ranks in Texas before ending up impoverished. He goes west to start over, which gives trainer Dan the will to do so, too.

The best boxing novelist is still W.C. Heinz ("The Professional"). But with his knowledge, Toole runs a close second.

LAWRENCE TOPPMAN, The Charlotte Observer

Iraq setting falls short

Minette Walters uses the war in Iraq to set up her latest novel, which opens with a burst of keen, nail-biting suspense.

International correspondent Connie Burns suspects that a Scottish mercenary is using the chaos in Sierra Leone to hide his sadistic murders. She spies him in Baghdad after being sent there to cover the war and launches an investigation, only to be kidnapped for three days and then released.

When "The Devil's Feather" sticks with this riveting story line -- as well as Connie's ensuing psychological devastation and return to England -- it's a first-rate thriller.

But the story bogs down in a far more pedestrian mystery involving a senile landlady, her neglectful daughter and an oddball neighbor. Their secrets are revealed through talky exposition, which prevents "The Devil's Feather" from living up to its promise.

CONNIE OGLE, Miami Herald

'Quartet' romance scores

You'll dread those final pages in "Scandal in Spring," the last in Lisa Kleypas' Wallflower Quartet of historical romances.

The series began when four English women -- Annabelle, Evie and sisters Lillian and Daisy -- forged a friendship after sitting unnoticed at parties. They dubbed themselves "the wallflowers," and vowed to help one another find husbands.

Now it's Daisy's turn. She has little time: Her father will force her to marry Matthew, whom she doesn't like, if she doesn't choose soon.

But then Matthew returns to England from America, and Daisy realizes he's not nearly as bad as she remembered.

Meanwhile, Matthew has a secret he thinks will prevent marriage. But Daisy and Matthew's love overcomes all.

LEZLIE PATTERSON, The State (Columbia, S.C.)

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.