An intriguing if superficial thriller that spans the globe, from fictional Khatamori to Boston to picturesque midcentury...
In Ayotte’s debut novel, an American priest is the linchpin that links an affair in the City of Light to a murderous succession plot for the throne of an oil-rich Arab nation.
Even a man of the cloth can succumb to temptation. While on vacation in Paris to celebrate his ordination, Father Richard Merrill met a bubbly, blue-eyed tour guide named Françoise DuPont, a girl with whom he forsook his vow of chastity. He put the transgression behind him for 35 years—until he learned that his sin wasn’t the only one unconfessed. Françoise had been keeping a secret too, and unanticipated consequences have come to light. After receiving a desperate missive from her, Merrill must find a way to help. Jim Howard, a Vietnam veteran turned life-insurance salesman, is recommended to the priest for the job by a mutual friend. Once Jim’s mission has been set in motion, he largely disappears from the plot as Ayotte sweeps backward in time, recounting Merrill’s schooldays in rural New England and that fateful rendezvous in Paris, along with Françoise’s childhood, upstart career at the Louvre and Grace Kelly–esque romance with the prince of Khatamori. Though Merrill serves as the link to all of the characters in the novel, Françoise is its heart. Her segments are the strongest, stylistically. Ayotte brings her character to life as Francoise learns Paris’ landmarks on walks with her father, Louis; suffers the German occupation that abruptly puts an end to their outings; and celebrates when the Allies liberate France. It’s an intimate perspective on a pivotal time in the city’s history: Françoise describes seeing Paris come “alive again.” Moments that allow visibility into characters’ interior thoughts are rare, however, and action unfolds too quickly for much reflection. But the romance and danger juxtaposed with unusual twists and confused identities create an interesting read.
An intriguing if superficial thriller that spans the globe, from fictional Khatamori to Boston to picturesque midcentury Paris.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2012
ISBN: 978-1479274734
Page Count: 248
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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