A smart, tightly written, scary science thriller.
Rogers’ (Petroplague, 2013) characters must escape the dangers of deadly disease, dangerous wildlife and vicious criminals in this tense medical thriller.
Tessa Price is a brilliant doctor, but an intense phobia of needles and the loss of her infant son to genetic disease have left her with more than enough reason to keep her distance from patients and colleagues. But even if her work is mostly behind the microscope, she desperately wants to help people. When one of her colleagues falls ill just as an experimental gene therapy starts showing results, she rushes to the front lines. The patient, a boy named Gunnar, is showing remarkable improvement in an experimental clinic in Mexico, but while the Palacio clinic avoids American law that would delay Price’s experiments, it comes with its own share of problems. The clinic’s proprietor, Dr. Manuel Vargas, relies on local cartels for medical narcotics. He agrees to treat a kingpin and ends up plunging the Palacio into a drug war. If there’s any real weakness here, it’s Vargas himself. The use of multiple perspectives gives the novel flexibility, but Vargas’ boundless self-interest is so deplorable that he quickly become tiresome. Meanwhile, Price finds herself trapped, hiding from the gangsters along with Gunnar, his mother, a friend and a few other unfortunate—but highly capable—Palacio clients. Matters only get worse as a mysterious illness takes hold of lab animals and people alike, leading them to violence and death. Price wrestles with her deepest dreams and fears, eventually discovering that there may be a connection between her gene therapy and the contagion—a connection that could save or condemn them all. Overall, the novel is an enjoyable ride, remaining tense and exciting without feeling overly dark or oppressive. And while the science is a consistent presence, it’s easy to understand, enriching the story. A rabies plotline unfolds with enough nuance to avoid major pitfalls. And if some sections drag, the payoff is well worth the wait.
A smart, tightly written, scary science thriller.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-940419-01-5
Page Count: 292
Publisher: ScienceThrillers Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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