A beefy, diverting plot with a compelling protagonist to match.
Blum’s supernatural thriller features a bogus psychic who may hold the key to rescuing captive children and thwarting an imminent terrorist attack.
Ryan Gordon is making a decent living as the self-described “Psychic to the Stars.” It’s all for show, though; he’s just using intuition and info fed through an earpiece. So when CIA agents secure Ryan to a chair and demand he use his ability to stop a terrorist strike called the Flower Garden, he chalks it up to a hallucination; he is off his meds. Other issues surface, however, like former CIA assassin Seth Roemer, who knew Ryan as a boy, and Sen. Zachary Karbin, who’s sure Ryan can find his kidnapped daughter, Jackie. Ryan may actually be “super psychic” Kenny Vickers, whom the CIA had worked with years ago. He also could help save the Crystal Children, psychics the agency has imprisoned to use as weapons and impede the terrorists’ plan. Much of the author’s plot consists of past events, and Ryan spends a good deal of time denying his power or trying to recall apparently repressed memories. But Blum retains interest by gradually revealing vital details, like the initial mystery surrounding Ryan’s parents; his half brother, Arthur, who might not be as dead as he thought; and men who tried to take young Ryan and ended up in pieces. The supernatural elements are notable: most of the Crystal Children have telepathy, but Ryan has a few more things in his arsenal, including telekinesis and astral projection. Yet the plot outside the paranormal is equally worthy. The terrorist cell, for example, led by the Undertaker, is an undeniable threat, while a powerful someone orders the liquidation of the program, Starburst, which contains the Crystal Children and basically anyone who knows about them. There’s also a never-ending and immensely enjoyable shifting of alliances, as when a good guy or two, out of self-preservation, lend a hand to the baddies. The ending ties everything up in a nice, tight bow; it’s convincing but unfortunately marks the end for several curious characters, like Ryan’s stepmom/manager, Maria, who didn’t get enough of the spotlight.
A beefy, diverting plot with a compelling protagonist to match.Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5114-5216-8
Page Count: 228
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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