by AJ Basinski ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
An enjoyable, intriguing read that captures the atmosphere of a chaotic era.
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Basinski’s legal procedural is set on Georgia’s Fort Daley Army base in 1969 when the Vietnam War is raging and the anti-war protest movement is gaining traction.
Drafted after completing law school, Pvt. Frank Grabowski is in basic training and not by choice. It’s a cold October morning when he learns that Sgt. Eustice Benson has been killed, repeatedly stabbed to death during the night. Benson had been an especially brutal drill sergeant, but he was also a war hero. The Army intends to conclude the case quickly. Within the day, they arrest Pvt. Perry Morrocco and charge him with premeditated murder. A year earlier, Perry had rescued Frank from the police-instigated violence during Chicago’s Democratic convention. Now they are serendipitously serving in the same unit in Fort Daley. Perry has been an active anti-war protester, and his induction in the Army was the unconventional result of having been arrested for drug possession after leaving Woodstock. It’s through such narrative snippets that Basinski evokes the political, legal, and social turmoil that was roiling the country at the time. Much to Frank’s surprise, Perry is refusing to talk unless his just-out-of-law-school buddy is assigned to the Judge Advocate General defense team. JAG attorney Lt. Karen Farrall is co-counsel, and she and Frank begin the search for other plausible suspects, indulging in a bit of romance along the way. This is first and foremost an engaging legal drama, pitting the idealism and naiveté of an inexperienced attorney against the institutionalized power of the U.S. Army. But it also serves to highlight one of the tragic ancillary problems arising out of the Vietnam debacle—the easy availability of drugs in Southeast Asia, resulting in a dependency that plagued too many returning troops. Legal enthusiasts will find some disturbing examples of the differences between civilian and military codes of justice. Conversational narration and easy-flowing dialogue propel the story forward at a good pace, with a couple of surprises along the way, including an unsettling epilogue.
An enjoyable, intriguing read that captures the atmosphere of a chaotic era.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 195
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Elliot Ackerman & James Stavridis ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024
A game effort at a tough theme.
The Singularity may become the new ultimate weapon in the aftermath of a nuclear debacle.
If the page-and-a-half prologue doesn’t stop the reader cold, nothing will. It begins: “If a beam of light / energy / open + / close— / reopen == / repeat / stop...” Stop, indeed. This will prompt only the geekiest among us to move on to Chapter 1. But do turn the page. In 2054, the U.S. is in turmoil. Two decades earlier, China nuked San Diego and Galveston while the U.S. inflicted the same on Shanghai and Shenzhen. In the aftermath, the two countries no longer dominate the world, and traditional U.S. political parties are no more. The current action begins when the physically fit President Ángel Castro collapses while giving a speech, prompting “malicious rumors that the president had suffered some sort of health crisis.” He had, and he dies. Of course, there are profound suspicions over his sudden demise. Was the president’s aorta inflamed by a sequence of computer code, à la the prologue? Is he a victim of “remote gene editing” by an unknown entity? Hence the inklings of the 21st century’s new existential threat, a race to achieve the Singularity, where—to oversimplify—technology and humanity become one. The cast includes some holdovers from the authors’ last book, 2034, including Dr. Sandy Chowdhury and Julia Hunt, a woman born in China with allegiance to the U.S. But key is the elusive (and nonfictional) Dr. Ray Kurzweil, thought to be living in Brazil. Meanwhile, American society threatens to explode into civil war between Dreamers and Truthers. But if the ultimate threat to humanity is the Singularity, it doesn’t come through convincingly on these pages. In 2034, the stakes were brutally clear, with millions of lives on the line. Two decades hence, they’re mushier—serious to be sure, but tougher to wrap up into a thriller. With apologies to T. S. Eliot: This is the way the book ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.
A game effort at a tough theme.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780593489864
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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by Amy Tintera ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
Smart, edgy, and entertaining as heck.
Against her better judgment, Lucy Chase returns to her hometown of Plumpton, Texas, for her grandmother’s birthday, knowing full well that almost everyone in town still believes she murdered her best friend five years ago, when they were in their early 20s.
Coincidentally—or is it?—Ben Owens, a true-crime podcaster, is also in town, interviewing Lucy’s family and former friends about the murder of Savannah Harper, “just the sweetest girl you ever met,” who died from several violent blows to the head. Lucy was found hours later covered in blood, with no memory of what happened. She was—and is—a woman with secrets, which has not endeared her to the people of Plumpton; their narrative is that she was always violent, secretive, difficult. But Ben wants to tell Lucy’s story; attractive and relentless, he uncovers new evidence and coaxes new interviews, and people slowly begin to question whether Lucy is truly guilty. Lucy, meanwhile, lets down her guard, and as she and Ben draw closer together, she has to finally face the truth of her past and unmask the murderer of her complicated, gorgeous, protective friend. Most of the novel is told from Lucy’s point of view, which allows for a natural unspooling of the layers of her life and her story. She’s strong, she’s prickly, and we gradually begin to understand just how wronged she has been. The story is a striking commentary on the insular and harmful nature of small-town prejudice and how women who don’t fit a certain mold are often considered outliers, if not straight-up villains. Tintera is smart to capitalize on how the true-crime podcast boom informs and infuses the current fictional thriller scene; she’s also effective at writing action that transcends the podcast structure.
Smart, edgy, and entertaining as heck.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781250880314
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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