Full Description

Four Corners of the Sky

"There's humor and action aplenty, but Four Corners is also a warm-hearted look at how we love and forgive. Five hundred and forty-four pages never seemed so short."
People Magazine 4-Star Review

In small towns between the North Carolina Piedmont and the coast the best scenery is often in the sky. On flat sweeps of red clay and scrub pine the days move monotonously, safely, but above, in the blink of an eye, dangerous clouds can boil out of all four corners of the sky…The flat slow land starts to shiver and anything can happen. In such a storm, on Annie Peregrine's seventh birthday, her father gave her the airplane and minutes later drove out of her life.

Twenty years is a long time to be without a father, and, for Navy pilot Annie Peregrine-Goode, the sky has become a home the earth has never been. So when her father calls out of the blue to ask for a dying wish—one both absurd and mysterious—no is the easiest of answers. Until she hears that the reward is the one thing she always wanted …

Thus begins an enchanting novel that bursts with energy from the first pages, and sweeps you off on a journey of unforgettable characters, hilarious encounters, and haunting secrets.

The Four Corners of the Sky is master storyteller Michael Malone's new novel of love, secrets, and the mysterious bonds of families. Malone brings characters to life as only he can, exploring the questions that defy easy answers:

Is love a choice or a calling?
Why do the ties of family bind so tightly?
And is forgiveness a gift to others…or a gift we give ourselves?

PRAISE FOR THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE SKY:

"Devoted Michael Malone fans have been waiting more than 20 years for another Handling Sin, perhaps the greatest road novel since Tom Jones. The wait is over… The cast of characters is as large as it is rich. Malone is an absolute master of Dickensian character building…Don't miss it."
Bill Ott, editor-in-chief, Booklist

"Fried Green Tomatoes with copious draughts of Shakespeare… Malone (Theater Studies and English/Duke Univ.; The Last Noel, 2002, etc.) knows that the small-town South is a subject all unto itself, and no matter how eccentric the characters, they're wholly believable in that context… Secrets and intrigues among the honeysuckle: a sun-washed yarn of the New South, affectionately told."
Kirkus starrred review

"A father-daughter story that will have young adult readers (and you) laughing and crying and rooting for Annie, now 26 years old and still stinging from her father's abandonment of the family when she was just seven. Malone's titles have broad adult appeal, and Four Corners has the potential for being a gateway novel for maturing fiction readers."
School Library Journal

"This book is so complex and so beautifully done, it sort of outclasses Dickens (and I may have just committed literary heresy here). The Four Corners of the Sky is the best thing I have read in years and you can imagine how much I read. Truly, I couldn't put it down. I loved it."
Kathy Ashton, The King's English Bookshop

PRAISE FOR MICHAEL MALONE:

"Malone... delights the reader with his witty eye for the kind of detail that proclaims with humor and confidence, 'This is true!'"
Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Malone shows a knack for colorful characters, snappy dialogue and tragicomic human foibles."
Salt Lake Tribune

"Brilliant and entertaining... Wonderfully shrewd... Mr. Malone's characters have dimension and scope."
New York Times Book Review

"Michael Malone has a true narrative gift, the true eye for the character in action, and a fluent prose wrought carefully and well…."
Robert Penn Warren (on Dingley Falls)

"Terribly funny, emotionally engaging and almost impossible to set aside…a heartwarming tour de force."
Newsweek (on Handling Sin)

"Satisfying, deeply pleasurable…brilliant and entertaining. One remembers Mr. Malone's idiosyncratic creations the way one remembers those of another brilliant social caricaturist, Charles Dickens."
New York Times Book Review (on Foolscap)

"[Malone] combines humor, compassion and literate writing with a storytelling ability that is rare in contemporary fiction."
The Houston Chronicle (on Uncivil Seasons)

"A superbly stylish author whose books deserve the widest audience."
The New Yorker (on The Delectable Mountains)

"Like Charles Dickens—the comparison isn't farfetched—the author isn't afraid of stretching the truth to encompass it."
San Francisco Chronicle (on Time's Witness)

"Malone creates a gallery of Southern portraits with compassion, humor and more than a little blood. Highly recommended."
Chicago Tribune (on First Lady)

"Malone writes with such quiet authority and clear understanding of the world his characters inhabit that the story strikes deep emotional chords...."
Washington Post Book World (on The Last Noel)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Excerpt

Excerpt

Prologue
July 4, 1982

In small towns between the North Carolina Piedmont and the coast the best scenery is often in the sky. On flat sweeps of red clay and scrub pine the days move monotonously, safely, but above, in the blink of an eye, dangerous clouds can boil out of all four corners of the sky and do away with the sun so fast that, in the sudden quiet, birds fly shrieking to shelter. The flat slow land starts to shiver and anything can happen.

In such a storm, on Annie Peregrine's seventh birthday, her father gave her the airplane and minutes later drove out of her life.

When thunder scared her awake she found herself in their convertible, parked atop a hill near a barn. Off in the distance rose a large white house with a wide white porch. A white
pebble road curved away behind the car, unreeling like ribbon on a spool. Annie looked past two rows of rounded black trees to where fields of yellow wheat spilled to the edge of the sky. Her father and she must have arrived at Pilgrim's Rest, the Peregrine family house in Emerald, North Carolina, toward which they'd been driving all day.

Sliding from their car, she saw him, slender and fast-moving, his white shirt shimmery, as he ran toward her out of the barn and across the dusky yard.

"Annie!" Reaching her, her father dropped to his knees and hugged her so fiercely that her heart sped. "I'm in trouble. I've got to leave you here a little while with Aunt Sam and Clark. Okay?"

She couldn't speak, could only shake her head. How often had he told her that the house where he had grown up, that Pilgrim's Rest had been for him a pit of snakes, a cage of tigers?

He kept nodding to make her nod too. "Okay? I'll be back. Just hang onto your hat." Pulling a pink baseball cap from his pocket, he snuggled it down onto her head. Colored glass beads spelled ANNIE above its brim; a few beads were missing, breaks in the letters.

Across the driveway a tall woman with short thick hair banged open the large doors of the barn. She called out to Annie's father. "Jack? Jack! Jack! Jack!"

Annie's father turned her around to face the woman but kept talking with that nodding intensity that always meant they would need to move fast. "See my sister Sam over there? I told you how nice she is." The sound of sharp thunder flung the child back into the man's arms. "So's Clark. They'll take care of you. I'll call you. Remember, you're a flyer." He yanked her small hard blue suitcase out of the convertible, dropping it onto the gravel beside her. "Give Sam the cash."

"Stop it. Where are you going!"
"Annie, I know. It's rotten." A drop of rain fell on his face like a fat fake tear. Drops splattered on the suitcase's shiny clasps. "Go look in the barn. There's a present for you. 'Sorry, no silver cup.' "

She kicked him as hard as she could. And then she kicked over the blue suitcase. "I want to go with you," she said. "You!" But before she could stop him, her father had run to their car and was driving away.

She raced after the Mustang, down the pebble road between the dark rows of large oak trees. It was hard to make her voice work loudly but finally it flamed up her throat and she could shout at him to come back. She was already crying, already knowing she couldn't run fast enough.

Behind her, the tall woman named Sam kept calling, "Jack! Jack!"

Annie echoed her, hoping it would help. "Dad! Dad!"

The convertible braked to a skidding stop, her father twisting around in the seat to call out, "Your birthday present's in the barn, go look in the barn! Annie! Don't forget. You're a flyer!"

She screamed as loudly as she could, "You stop!"

The wind caught his scarf as he sped off; it flew into the air behind him. Then he was gone and the green silk scarf lay coiled near her feet. She ground it into the pebbled road with her small leather cowboy boots; they were as green as the scarf and stitched with lariats. She had wanted these boots so badly that only a week ago her father had turned their car around, drove them back fifty miles to some small town in the middle of a flat
state; he took her to the store where she'd seen the boots in the window and he bought them for her. "Never wait to say what you want," he told her. "It's no fun to go back. And sometimes you can't."

But now she'd said what she wanted and he'd left her anyhow. Dust and rain stung Annie's eyes shut and the world turned black.

Reviews

Reviews

Booklist
Devoted Michael Malone fans have been waiting more than 20 years for another Handling Sin, perhaps the greatest road novel since Tom Jones. The wait is over. Malone’s latest isn’t exactly a road novel, but it’s all about movement, from flying jets at mach speed to embracing the uncertain ebb and flow of experience. Just as (ex-) Reverend Earley Hayes in Handling Sin shanghais his stolid son, Raleigh, into a raucous jaunt to New Orleans, during which he forces him to unlearn everything he thought he knew about right and wrong, so Jack Peregrine, con artist extraordinaire, must teach his daughter, 26-year-old navy jet pilot Annie Peregrine Goode, to fly toward life, not away from it. Annie is estranged from her father, who left her with her aunt and uncle when she was 7 years old, but when Jack turns up again, on the run as always-but this time apparently near death-Annie is swept back into the maelstrom of his life.

So begins a rollicking roller coaster of a novel that fantails from sleepy Emerald, North Carolina, to Miami and on to Havana, with multiple stops in between, as Jack’s last scam plays itself out. The cast of characters is as large as it is rich. Malone is an absolute master of Dickensian character building, as capable of breathing vigorous life into slow-moving Uncle Clark and worrywart Aunt Sam as he is at imbuing his showstopping heroes with unquenchable spirit. And his bit players never saw a scene they couldn’t steal. Take Raffy Rook, Jack’s Shakespeare-quoting accomplice, who in summing up the philosophy of a con artist neatly captures the point of it all: "It was never the score; it was the insubstantial pageant." Don’t miss it.

- Bill Ott, Booklist Editor-in-Chief

Kirkus
A long but satisfying tale of crime and death foretold that blends hints of The Great Santini, Top Gun and Fried Green Tomatoes with copious draughts of Shakespeare.

Annie Peregrine Goode—a charged name, that—is a tough customer, but easy on the eyes. (Isn’t that always the way?) So when a leering buffoon, rebuffed, steals a bit of tomato from her guacamole and makes Hannibal Lecter noises with it by way of expressing contempt, she is not at all above grabbing his wrist and “compressing nerves with an accuracy that the Navy had taught her.” Well, the Navy is nothing if not thorough, and Annie, a flight instructor at Annapolis with a need for speed—beg pardon, a “passion for velocity”—in vehicles of every description, is prepared for just about any eventuality except for the sudden reappearance of her deadbeat dad, who gave her a model airplane when she was but a little girl and then split from their Carolina home. Malone (Theater Studies and English/Duke Univ.; The Last Noel, 2002, etc.) knows that the small-town South is a subject all unto itself, and no matter how eccentric the characters, they’re wholly believable in that context—the kind who, say, board up windows in advance of a hurricane and then settle in for a film festival in the basement. (“Les Diaboliques. Clouzot. I’ve got a great print.”) The amiably meandering narrative picks up speed—“Go, Annie P. Goode!”—when Dad reappears, now apparently dying. Peppering his pages with funny conversations, learned references to the Bard and keenly observed apercus about family life, memory, forgiveness and all the puzzling ways that love and friendship can twist and turn, Malone delivers a tale that takes a little long to tell but that pays off nicely in the end.

Secrets and intrigues among the honeysuckle: a sun-washed yarn of the New South, affectionately told.

School Library Journal
A father?daughter story that will have young adult readers (and you) laughing and crying and rooting for
Annie, now 26 years old and still stinging from her father’s abandonment of the family when she was just
seven. Malone’s titles have broad adult appeal, and Four Corners has the potential for being a gateway novel
for maturing fiction readers.

BookPage
Michael Malone is a prolific writer who has won awards ranging from an Emmy to an Edgar; he favors robust casts of characters and sprawling, intricate plots—and he continues in that vein with his 10th novel, The Four Corners of the Sky. Annie Peregrine’s father Jack drops her off with his sister Sam on Annie’s seventh birthday, gives her his airplane, a Piper Warrior named King of the Sky, and then disappears. Now, on her 26th birthday, Annie travels from Annapolis, where she’s an ace flyer and instructor, to Emerald, North Carolina, where Sam still lives with Clark Goode, her longtime friend and housemate. Sam and Clark have raised Annie like a daughter, with only the rare, cryptic phone call or postcard from Jack over the years. Out of the blue, Jack calls on Annie’s birthday, tells her he’s “dying in St. Louis,” and pleads with her to fly the King of the Sky there to meet him. Annie does just that—setting in motion a bizarre cat-and-mouse chase involving an intriguing cast of characters including con-men, the Mafia, a Cuban refugee who effortlessly spouts Shakespeare, various FBI operatives and Annie’s soon-to-be-ex-husband, a pilot with a tendency toward adultery.

As Annie, Sam and Clark have suspected all along, Jack is more than just a “capricious” dad. He’s been charged with 11 felonies, and has three outstanding warrants, the latest for absconding with a hugely valuable gold- and jewel-encrusted statue smuggled out of Cuba. But despite his shortcomings, Jack is her father, and Annie will do whatever she can to keep him out of jail. She follows him from St. Louis (where he eludes some Mafia thugs by exiting through his hotel bathroom vent) to Miami (where he hides from the FBI in the Golden Day rest home) to Key West (where Annie finally discovers the identity of her mother).

Each of Malone’s characters is larger than life, and someone readers would love to encounter in the real world. Intricate relationships reveal themselves as Malone offers sporadic glimpses into the past to illuminate Annie’s murky background. Malone’s latest brims with humor and pathos—it’s an engaging, multifaceted saga touting the power of love and family to overcome all, even a lifetime of apparent neglect.
• Deborah Donovan writes from La Veta, Colorado.

Armchair Interviews Beth Cummings
Prize-winning author Michael Malone has fabricated a terrific novel in The Four Corners of the Sky. It is an adventure, a romance, a mystery and the story of a family, all rolled into one immense romp. He plays with emotions and curiosity while twisting and turning an intriguing plot. The story travels from North Carolina to St. Louis to Miami to Havana, Cuba.

Malone’s characters are complex and feel extraordinarily real. Annie, the main focus, is a Navy pilot who was abandoned by her father, Jack Peregrine, at the age of seven. He spent his life as a con artist and he conned his only sister into raising his daughter. Suddenly, on Annie’s twenty-sixth birthday, Jack comes back into her life with a request that she fly from North Carolina to St. Louis because he is dying. It’s a con. Annie knows it probably is. Her aunt, Sam, knows it too – yet they move forward in the plot that Jack set up for them – because despite everything he has or has not done, they still love him.

This strong bond of familial love is a major force in the book. Annie has a strong love/hate feeling toward the man who deserted her as a child. She also has a firm love for the aunt and pseudo-uncle who raised her. At the same time, she is almost overwhelmed by her desire to know who her “real” mother was. The other characters in the book also have strong bonds of love and loyalty that ends up making them very interesting and memorable. Even the family dogs are characters with distinct personalities.

This could be a fun book for a book group to dissect because of its variety of people, motives and of course the mystery and intrigue, which I won’t spoil by discussing here. I would give it a strong positive recommendation.

Armchair Interviews aggress.

Lori’s Book Den Lori Noe
At first I had a really difficult time getting into this book. I kept thinking, okay what’s the story here. Guess I couldn’t bet settled in with it at first. After reading a while I sat up and took note. The book, The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone, reached out and grabbed me (course not literally, LOL). ~Why would a father who has made a life as a con artist, drop his daughter (Annie) off at his sister’s (Sam) place (the family homestead) and leave her there, never making any attempts to contact her, then one day call’s Annie and tells her to come to St. Louis that he was dying.~ Now that grabbed my attention.

As I was reading this, my emotions became a tangled mess, as I am sure Annie’s did with regards to her father.

Annie was a very head strong character, who went after her childhood dream and lived it. I loved the character Sam (Annie’s Aunt) She was so funny and witty. Clark the “in-love” (have to read the book to figure that one out), was a fairly, laid back character. I won’t be spoiling anything here as they have a very interesting relationship. LOL.

When I finally cozied up to this book, I found the book a very entertaining read. The book was filled with deceit, love, Navy, and the FBI! Be sure to check this one out when you can.

I Just Finished
This was the first Michael Malone novel I have read and boy does he thrill you will a convoluted cast of rich, colorful characters. I had to laugh when I was trying to explain the plot and characters to my husband! There were so many intertwined stories that I got confused trying to explain all of them to him. There are so many exciting characters that take you along for the ride of your life. I LOVED most of the characters and laughed out loud at others. There were almost too many characters for me - some I didn’t find believable.

The protagonist Annie is flawed, though downright a great gal - navy pilot and graduate of Annapolis. Her father is a master con artist who leaves seven-year-old Annie with his sister at the family homestead. She is then raised by her aunt & an uncle (her aunts roommate.) Annie doesn’t see her father for many years - a quick visit leaves him running from the police before she can talk to him. Twenty years after he leaves her he contacts her asking for a dying wish - for Annie to fly the airplane he gave her for her seventh birthday to St. Louis to meet him.

It almost sounds cliche to say this, but Annie goes in search of answers to the family secrets and ends up finding herself and the ability to love.

My big complaint was that the book was almost 600 pages long. As a wife, mother and owner of two businesses I don’t often have quiet alone time to read novels over 75,000 words. I generally read books that grab you into the story and you just can’t put them down until you have finished (thus, I need a quick read of around 300 pages max.) I loved the storyline and it was beautifully told, but it didn’t make me want to read it in one sitting - I had to take breaks to digest all the mysterious elements. I will definitely be checking out some of Michael Malone’s other novels!

The Review From Here Tracee Gleichner
When I was offered the opportunity to read this book I jumped at the chance. I have not read a book by Michael Malone before and thought that the premise had real promise. This is really a fantastic book!

Annie Peregrine is seven years old when her father Jack leaves her at her aunt’s house in Emerald, North Carolina. But, even though he is leaving, he leaves behind his airplane King of the Sky, a fixed-wing, single engine Piper Warrior.

Many years pass and Annie hears very little from Jack, whatever contact there is is confusing, especially to a child. With the help and guidance of her Aunt Sam and Uncle Clark, she becomes a pilot in the Navy. She learned all she knows about flying from D.K. Destin, a retired Lt. US Navy Pilot.

Out of the clear blue she receives a phone call from her father telling her that he is dying, and that if she flies King of the Sky to St. Louis to see him he will then give her the name of her mother, information she has always wanted. What is strange is that she is also contacted by the FBI who is also looking for her father in connection with a missing relic from Cuba.

This is the type of novel that shouldn’t be rushed, as each of the characters has so much to offer. The writing and development of the story is so unique and well done I will make sure to rush out and get more by this author. This book is highly recommended!

Books are My Only Friends Tripp Ritter
You may not have read any of Michael Malone’s novels, but you have probably seen one. The covers of his novels are particularly eye catching with great use of color. The cover of his latest novel, the Four Corners of the Sky, features a girl running and carrying an airplane on the cover. That little girl is Annie. At age seven, her father abandoned her at her aunt and uncle’s farm, leaving her only a beat up airplane as a remembrance. As a child, the girl was a metaphorical flyer, fleeing from place to place with her con artist father. As she grew, she started flying for real, attending Annapolis and becoming a Navy pilot. At age 26, her father contacts her again, promising to finally give Annie the name of her mother if she will come to his deathbed...with one or two items he left behind.

Against her better judgment she goes to find her father, starting a loopy quest that brings in all manner of odd characters, including Cubans, the Feds, local Miami police and Brad, the husband Annie is trying to divorce, but can’t quite seem to shake. Malone is a native North Carolinian and he is clearing working in the tradition of the Southern tall tale. The characters are often over the top, including the foul-mouth disabled pilot who teaches Annie to fly and assists in her quest and the Shakespeare loving con who helps her Dad on one last giant con. The story gets increasingly wild with multiple people chasing Annie and her Dad for differing reasons.

You don’t need to have read any Baum, or even to have seen the movie, to note that the story is heavily influenced by the Wizard of Oz. Annie lives in Emerald, flies her rattle-trap plane into a tornado, nearly loses her dog, and does her fair share to help the cowardly and the broken- hearted.

Not that you need to be a fan of Oz to enjoy this book. Malone’s background includes writing for soap operas as well as crime novels. The Four Corners of the Sky has elements of soap opera, with heavy doses of romance, and crime, with crime at the center of the plot, but really this is a big book about families and the odd people in your family. This is one for those who want a giant, crazy story in which to sink themselves.

Carpe Libris Reviews Diane Kidman
In Michael Malone’s brand new novel The Four Corners of the Sky, Annie’s father gave her a lot more than an old broken-down airplane when he took off. After leaving her to be raised by her aunt and uncle, he also gave her a mystery to solve years later; a mystery that would change everything. Annie’s father Jack is a con artist who, after abandoning his daughter for years without any word, has resurfaced and suddenly needs her help. Now a successful Navy pilot, Anne isn’t so willing to take the bait - but perhaps if he agrees to finally tell her who her mother is…

The Four Corners of the Sky is suspenseful, humorous, and filled with mystery. New York Times Best-Selling Author Michael Malone gives us a host of unforgettable characters, both dramatic and humorous, and a plot that will keep you guessing right up to the end. This his tenth novel, Malone offers an entertaining read to a large audience base. Whether you’re a mystery, romance, thriller, or comedy reader, you’ll find it in aces in The Four Corners of the Sky.

Grumpy Dan’s Journal Dan Karpf
“Four Corners of the Sky” by Michael Malone is an ambitious novel about family dynamics and the bonds that hold them together. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this novel but as I started reading this story I felt for Annie and wanted to know what her con artist father was up to. Why a father would leave his seven year old daughter with her aunt and not come back? What is so important about the plane residing in the family barn? Time goes by and Annie is a soon to be divorced naval pilot when her dad comes back into her life. Upset and confusion are two of the emotions that Annie feels. This is a book one has to read slowly to really understand the characters and where they are coming from and where they are heading. I approached the book this way and although there were some parts I thought dragged, overall it is a good read.

Library Queue Tricia Seguine
Michael Malone is an Emmy-award winning author from North Carolina, so I was excited to receive a copy of this book for review. This book has a great premise about a girl whose dad is con man. After living life on the run, Annie is dropped off at age seven to be raised by her aunt and her aunt’s male best friend in Emerald, NC. But her dad has left an airplane in the barn for her, and when she is 26 he contacts her to say he’s dying and he needs the plane. Annie, now a naval fighter pilot going through a divorce, just wants to know who her mother is.

The first half of the book moved really slowly for me, but the last half sped right by. Sure, the plot was implausible (Miami Vice, FBI, and the Cuban mob were all involved) and the coincidences were a little ridiculous at times. But as Annie traveled to St. Louis, Miami and Cuba, she puts the pieces of her life together and is able to better understand who she is and where she came from. She also learns that love comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes where you least expect it.

I did feel some parts had a little too much detail and there were a couple of anachronisms that I noticed. I also don’t think that in real life, a naval officer would handle the situation how Annie did. But overall, this is fun read if you like action-thriller type books with some good character development thrown in. This book would definitely qualify for the Southern Reading Challenge too!

Grace’s Book Blog Grace Loiacano
I found The Four Corners of the Sky to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. Malone’s writing is excellent. If there is one draw to this book, it is Malone’s superb writing talent and it really kept me engaged in the novel. I was engaged in The Four Corners of the Sky from the moment I picked it up.

The characters in the novel were also excellent. I was so excited to read a novel about a female Navy pilot. The feminist from my Women and Gender Studies days did a happy jig. Annie was a wonderful character. It was easy to empathize with her. I also loved Sam and Clark. They were such great characters. I do have to say that my favorite character was Jack, Annie’s absentee, con-artist father. He could have been extremely easy to dislike but I found myself sympathizing with him just as much as Annie. It was obvious that he abandoned Annie for her safety. She would have a much better life with Sam and Clark and he loved her enough to leave her. At least that’s the way I saw it or chose to see it. He also could have left her to make his life as a con-artist easier but I choose to think the best of Jack.

This is one of the books I will come back to again. The story is so simple yet complex. At the base it is about a woman who wants to know her roots and where she comes from despite her absentee father and mystery mother. Malone also manages to weave a mystery and a romance into the plot seamlessly. I also love how the ending does not tie all the bits and pieces of the plot into a neat little box with a pink bow. It is a great read and I am recommending it to just about everyone I know.

Booksie’s Blog Sandie Kirkland
Annie Peregrine Goode has a dilemna. What does an adult child owe to their parents, especially when those parents were bad ones? Annie’s father, Jack, dropped her off with her aunt when she was seven and didn’t come back. Jack is a major con artist, wanted by the police in several states and countries. Annie was raised by Sam, her aunt, and Clark, her aunt’s best friend. She grew up and became one of the top pilots in the Navy. After a failed marriage, Annie returns home for a visit only to find out that her father is dying and asking for her help. Should she go to his rescue?

Not sure if Jack is even really dying, Annie goes to find out what is going on. Jack is in the midst of what he considers his crowning con. He claims to have a sixteenth-century golden Madonna, which was lost in a shipwreck and now worth millions. The Catholic Church is interested, but so is the local mob in Miami, which Jack has crossed. Add in the fact that Cuba wants the statue as a national treasure, and it seems that the cross-currents and loyalties are so tangled that they may never get unwound.

Annie also has another reason for going to see Jack. He has always refused to tell her who her birth mother was, and it is the final piece of her history that Annie needs to make peace with her life. How she helps Jack, finds love, and discovers the true meaning of family is the crux of this wonderful novel.

I really enjoyed this book. Malone is one of my favorite authors, and this book does not disappoint. I loved Annie’s strong character. Subordinate characters such as her ex-husband, her new love, her best friend, and even a nursing home adminstrator are well thought out and portrayed. Characterization is Malone’s strong point, but there is plot and subplot aplenty. This book is recommended for anyone wanting a great read or interested in family relationships.

Diary of an Eccentric Anna Horner
In The Four Corners of the Sky, Michael Malone tells the story of Annie Peregrine Goode, a Navy pilot going to visit her Aunt Sam and Uncle Clark at the family home in Emerald, North Carolina, for her 26th birthday. Annie was raised by her Aunt Sam, a movie buff who owns a video store and likes to quote old films, and Clark, a pediatrician and Sam’s childhood friend. Sam is a lesbian, and Clark has been married twice, and they enjoy living together in a purely platonic relationship. Annie was abandoned by her con artist father, Jack, when she was just 7 years old. She hasn’t seen her father in years, but he’s brought back into her life when she receives a call from Detective Daniel Hart in Miami, who tells her that Jack is wanted by the feds for stealing a relic the Cuban government has laid claim to. Annie heard about the Queen of the Sea — a gold statue of the Virgin Mary — from her father when she was little, but she never believed it was real.

When she arrives home, there is a cryptic note from Jack telling her to fly the plane he gave her as a little girl, the King of the Sky, to St. Louis. He needs her help, and when Annie learns from his accomplice, Raffy Rook, that he is dying of cancer, she decides to do what she can to keep him from from spending his last days in jail. The trouble is, he’s a con artist, so no one knows whether he’s really dying or not.

There’s a lot going on in The Four Corners of the Sky, with Annie going on a wild goose chase to locate her father and the statue’s missing jewels, fighting off her soon-to-be ex-husband who wants her back, wanting her father to tell her about the mother she never knew, and uncovering the secrets of the Queen of the Sea. It wasn’t hard to keep things straight, and the plot and subplots were interesting enough to keep my attention for more than 500 pages. However, the one downside to the book is its length. There were a lot of unnecessary details and events — most in the form of flashbacks — that could have been left out, and while they were interesting, they did nothing to move the plot along.

Malone has created a cast of eccentric characters that kept me guessing throughout. I thought Annie was likable, though I didn’t always agree with how she handled matters involving her father, and Sam was a riot. Annie’s soon-to-be ex, Brad, was infuriating, and Raffy was entertaining, though I couldn’t figure him out for much of the book. Annie’s father, Jack, was an intriguing character. He tried to groom Annie to swindle people with him, then suddenly dropped her off at his sister’s house. He returned briefly only once when she was a teenager, and then he expected his grown daughter to come to his aid at the drop of a hat. I wanted to know more about what made him tick, and I was a bit disappointed that Malone didn’t include more about him.

The Four Corners of the Sky touches upon what it means to be a family, learning to love and to forgive. Despite the book’s length, I enjoyed the bit of mystery and watching the characters grow from their experiences. Malone is a talented writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

BookLoons.com Joan Burton
Annie Peregrine is on her way home to Emerald, North Carolina. She is a successful Navy jet pilot, working out of Annapolis. She lives for the thrill of speed and enjoys teaching new recruits.

When Annie was seven her father left her on the family farm, Pilgram’s Rest, to be raised by her lesbian Aunt Sam, and her good friend and boarder, Dr. Clark Goode. Jack Peregrine is a con artist always on the move and telling one lie after another. Annie was raised with love and stability but she craved excitement. At a young age she learned to fly her father’s single engine plane, King of the Sky, that was left at the farm. This led her into the Navy doing a job she loves.

Now at home celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday, Annie gets a call from her father. He tells her he is dying and wants Annie to do one thing for him. Jack wants Annie to fly King of the Sky to St. Louis and meet him there. He has told Annie of a gold encrusted statue, Queen of the Sea, that he must return to Cuba. Reluctantly, Annie agrees, but only if he will do one thing for her. Tell her the name of her mother.

Annie heads to St.Louis despite her Aunt Sam’s advice and is taken on a wild goose chase, always one step behind her elusive father. He leads her from St. Louis to Miami, and then on to Cuba. Along the way Annie meets shady characters as well as Miami PD Vice Detective Hart, who is also after Jack. Annie and Detective Hart connect on many different levels and together they try to figure out what Jack is trying to cover up.

The Four Corners of the Sky is a story, filled with adventure, love and family secrets, and starring larger than life characters. It is a very satisfying read.

Savvy Verse & Wit Serena Cox-Augusto
Michael Malone’s The Four Corners of the Sky is a story of the Peregrine family and particularly Annie Goode, con artist Jack Peregrine’s daughter. From its Wizard of Oz feel to its convoluted mystery, Michael Malone shifts from past to present and person to person, but it is far from confusing and a highly enjoyable ride.

"After the muddy hues of Emerald, North Carolina, Miami had almost blinded her. Miami was in Technicolor. Annie felt as if she’d awakened in a tropical cartoon of hot pink birds and purple flowers, set to salsa music. What’s more, she felt rested, although the rest had been imposed on her." (Page 241 of the ARC)

Lt. Annie Peregrine Goode is a fighter pilot in the Navy who is dropped off by her father, Jack, in Emerald, N.C., at her aunt Sam’s house when she is only 7 years old. Sam, Jack’s sister, is a lesbian eager to play matchmaker who lives with her childhood friend Clark Goode, who has given up on love after several marriages. Annie is divorcing her husband and fellow Navy pilot Brad Hopper and heading back to Emerald for her 26th birthday party with family and friends, including Georgette. Hoping that her trip back home will help clear her head and get her life back on track, Annie is completely unaware of the mystery she has to unravel concerning her father, a mother she has never known, and La Reina Coronada del Mar (Queen of the Sea).

Malone’s training as a soap opera writer is apparent in this novel with its over-the-top characters—Raffy Rook, Jack Peregrine, Vietnam Vet D.K. Destin, Helen Clark aka Ruthie Nickerson, Dan Hart, Sam Peregrine, and Georgette Nickerson—but his writing style is vivid and compelling as each of these characters’ lives peels back slowly revealing the deep love and connection they all share.

"’Sometimes these ladies I [Raffy] flop on? These ladies and myself, at Golden Days, we got to be friends. We go to the salad bars, botanical gardens, zoo, IMAX. They get a senior’s discount, I play them a song on my guitar. It’s a connection. And in this sad fast life, how many do we make time for?’ He spoke wistfully into the water bottle, as if he were depositing his confession inside and then quickly screwing the cap back on to keep it there." (Page 340 of the ARC)

Readers will enjoy the plot twists and revelations in The Four Corners of the Sky as Annie heals old wounds left by her father when he abandoned her and refused to reveal her mother’s identity. She finds strength in adversity and strives under pressure. The subordinate characters—Raffy, Sam, Clark, and Georgette—add comedy to the plot. While some portions of this novel are a bit too long and veer off randomly into the past, these tangents are vivid and entertaining. Some readers may be put off by the continuous movie references made by Sam, Clark, and other characters or the constant puns, but these character flaws set these characters apart, providing them greater depth. Overall, Malone creates an intricate family web that readers must unravel to understand the depth to which a daughter can love her father in spite of his faults, learn to forgive those faults, and dig deep within herself to emerge a stronger woman whose foundation she couldn’t initially see.

You Don’t Say John McIntyre
I recall enjoying Michael Malone’s First Lady very much and was pleased to have the chance to read his latest novel, The Four Corners of the Sky (Sourcebooks Landmark, 544 pages, $24.99). It did not disappoint.

Annie Peregrine Goode, a pilot in the U.S. Navy, returns to Emerald, N.C., for her twenty-sixth birthday and hears from her father, a con man who abandoned her in Emerald on her seventh birthday. He has a dying wish to see her again. He wants her to fly to him in the Piper Warrior airplane he left for her as a child, the King of the Sky.

Well, Annie hates her father for abandoning her and for being a lifelong liar. She has her own problems, including her pending divorce from a dim but handsome Navy pilot, and her confidants in Emerald, the people who raised her, her lesbian aunt Sam (Samantha) and Sam’s lifelong friend, Dr. Clark Goode, are skeptical of her taking to the air in an old plane during tornado weather.

But Annie is a risk-taker and a fast-mover, and soon she’s off into a web of intrigue involving her father and his multitudinous lies; a religious statue, La Reina Coronado del Mar, of incalculable value; a stubborn Miami police officer; a Cuban exile who makes a living by faking being hit by old ladies’ automobiles; and other characters on both sides of the law.

There are intrigues within intrigues, mysteries and family secrets, and the whole improbable set of twists and turns is, as in so many novels, a voyage of self-discovery for the heroine.

Mr. Malone has a gift for comic writing. Annie tells her childhood friend Georgette about a man who “could be your type,” and Georgette responds, “He’s my type if he’s got a combined total of at least three arms and legs and he weighs less than four times his IQ. Can he spell his last name? Has he been convicted of any capital crimes—I don’t mean just charged, but actually convicted?”

And the chapter on the funeral of Coach Ronny Buchstabe — a triumph of American make-it-up-as-you-go-along commemorations in which, among other things, “three young fat girls clambered up the steps and sang harmonies in a medley of ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech’” — must not be missed.

Along the way there are a few maxims about life that are worth considering: that people who have style just might not have brains and that “you can’t stop enjoying things just because you’re bad at them.”

And this: “It was true that despite their blessings, the Peregrines had always been a sad family. Most of them were American enough to believe they had a right not to be sad, an inalienable right not only to the pursuit of happiness, but to its capture. So, while a few had skidded down the shale of life without digging in their heels, most Peregrines had died scrabbling at every outcropping they passed along the way—a new job, a new marriage, a drink or a sport or a church or a chance—determined to grab the American dream before they landed at the bottom. Wasn’t it the national story that failure was the fault of those who failed?”

I confess that there were some longueurs in those five hundred pages as Mr. Malone wound up his plot, but he proceeded to spring it in a highly satisfactory series of comic climaxes.

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Trade Paper Specfications

• Length: 9.00 in
• Width: 6.00 in
• Height: 0.00 in
• Weight: 30.00 oz
• Page Count: 560 pages