Outlaws become patriots in this imaginative, suspenseful what-if story.
In this novel, Bonnie’s and Clyde’s deaths are faked so that they can save President Franklin D. Roosevelt from an assassin.
In 1984, a Texas newspaperman named Royce Jenkins, who typically covers obituaries and cattle shows, gets the scoop of a lifetime: the true story of Bonnie and Clyde, who—the woman claiming to be Bonnie says—didn’t die in the famous 1934 shootout. Instead, their deaths were faked, and a woman calling herself “Sal” gave the outlaws a second chance at life, saying “This moment is when you get one last chance to rise above your past….I see two people with the unique talents to do a job we need done.” And that job is to prevent Roosevelt’s assassination by wealthy industrialists Percival Stubbs, Angela Dunthorpe, and Archibald Farquist, who oppose FDR’s social welfare plans and have already attempted to kill him. Another attempt is planned, so Bonnie and Clyde—now Brenda and Clarence Prentiss—have 10 days to discover and stop the next assassin. They come up with a dangerous plan to infiltrate the conspirators’ organization, identify the assassin, and keep FDR safe. Along the way, they discover that they enjoy making a difference: “Probably we were fighting against the wrong things before, robbing those little stores and banks,” says Bonnie. Hays and McFall (The Last Sunset, 2016, etc.) make their Depression-era tale timely with reflections on wealthy fat cats and a rigged economic system that still ring true: “ ‘They need us to believe some fairy tale that we can improve our lot if we just work hard enough and save careful enough,’ Bonnie said. ‘But we can’t—not when everything is stacked against us. Not the way things are.’ ” A few references are too contemporary, such as “Trust, but verify,” a Russian proverb made famous by Reagan. Overall, though, Hays and McFall call out authentic historical and biographical details. More than that, the story is an exciting ride, with tight corners, narrow escapes, and real romantic heat between Bonnie and Clyde.
Outlaws become patriots in this imaginative, suspenseful what-if story.Pub Date: May 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9974113-3-1
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Pumpjack Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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