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DEADLY PROVOCATION

A YEAR OF DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE

In the author’s debut thriller, a private investigator is recruited by a clandestine company that may be using questionable methods of surveillance.

Jake Conley becomes a media darling after he shoots and kills a gunman who opened fire in a crowded movie theater. The PI catches the attention of Alan Michaels of the Domestic Surveillance Consulting Company, who makes Jake an offer he gladly accepts—a condo, a new car and a hefty paycheck. But Jake quickly grows suspicious of the DSCC when he realizes that some monitored subjects, or “targets,” don’t seem to have done anything wrong. Coleman’s story is more espionage than mystery. The former gumshoe spends much of the novel honing his surveillance skills with technology such as drones and GPS trackers. Scenes of Jake spying are rousing, even if the work’s only routine, like observing a U.S. senator who might have info on the missing wife of Gustavo Mendoza, a DSCC investor. And the author introduces a rather chilling concept: The privately funded company is flagging citizens based on behavior, gun purchases and violent video games, but it still doesn’t prevent a couple of shooting sprees at a high school and mall. Jake is, for the most part, commendable. Readers will empathize with a man in an unfamiliar new career, and he proves himself both proficient and honorable when he goes against his DSCC orders and makes direct contact with Dillon, a seemingly harmless man under scrutiny. But Jake’s treatment of women is frivolous; it’s clear that he has feelings for his girlfriend, Medalia, that go beyond the physical; however, he notes that DSCC employee Christina is the “perfect receptionist” because she’s pretty and coquettish, while profiler Ms. Livingston could be attractive if she didn’t wear glasses and “made a little more effort with proper make-up.” The novel concludes with Jake drafting a few friends, including retired detective Thomas Luck, for a rescue mission; it’s well-done and undoubtedly enjoyable but also unfortunately signifies the close of the espionage plot. But, with Jake’s future left open, he’s definitely ripe for a sequel. At its best when the protagonist is surveilling; Jake Conley could use another book or two to work on his spying abilities.

 

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2013

ISBN: 978-1478703419

Page Count: 228

Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc.

Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2014

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MAGIC HOUR

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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