by Alfred Lenarciak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2017
A slow-moving, sometimes-clumsy thriller that gathers momentum to deliver a rewarding conspiracy theory.
A legendary “suicide” after the Bre-X gold mine scandal gets a remarkable twist in this suspense tale.
Lenarciak’s (Napoleon’s Eagle Prophecy, 2015, etc.) fifth novel is a variation on his fourth, which also explored the international intrigue surrounding Bre-X geologist Michael de Guzman and his supposed suicide. This one is told as a “dead man’s tale” or an entertaining tall tale—or a confession—over drinks between two men on the fringes of the company whose $6 billion gold fraud scandal rocked 1990s Canada. Bre-X Minerals Ltd. stock had risen astronomically on speculation of unparalleled amounts of gold being mined in Busang, Borneo, then crashed in 1997 when it was discovered that de Guzman had salted the core samples with gold panned from Borneo’s rivers. The novel’s protagonist (the author himself), a mining investor, meets, through Opus Dei in Rome, Akiro Guzzo, a mysterious businessman. The two agree to have lunch in Rome to discuss business, yet as the date approaches, Lenarciak becomes suspicious, realizing that Guzzo’s life story doesn’t add up. When Lenarciak discovers a connection between Guzzo and the Bre-X scandal, the protagonist fears that his life may be in danger from the Mafia at the businessman’s behest, perhaps seeking revenge for fortunes lost. In disguise, Lenarciak hovers in search of enemies, then decides to keep the rendezvous in Rome and ends up hearing from Guzzo a story stranger and more convoluted than any article reported in the press or written by historians. But is it true? Or is de Guzman really dead? This odd, sophisticated mixture of true and revisionist history leaves the reader without any clear sympathies: no one is morally pure, especially not the Roman Catholic Church, yet womanizer de Guzman is as motivated by his desire to provide for his family as by greed. The expository dialogue plods at times but becomes intriguing when Guzzo reveals the interlacing relationships of the Indonesian government, off-shore accounts, illegitimate children, and local politics. The author unnecessarily repeats his back-cover synopsis several times—these references could be cut, as they may frustrate readers before the plot twists finally accumulate.
A slow-moving, sometimes-clumsy thriller that gathers momentum to deliver a rewarding conspiracy theory.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Book Venture Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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