Army of God

Name: Army of God
Author: Bill Hartnett
ISBN: 978-1-62217-720-2

by Bill Hartnett ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 2016

Resonant characters deciphering a puzzle involving artifacts generate an absorbing tale even if readers already know where...

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In Hartnett’s debut thriller, an American cop and an Interpol agent scour Europe to verify a potential link between alleged suicides and stolen relics.

Angie Anderson’s seven-year marriage to husband and fellow Stanford professor Andy is full of romantic gestures, like Angie surprising him with his favorite meal. So she’s understandably shocked when police officers arrive at her door claiming Andy’s taken a dive off the Golden Gate Bridge—based on the suicide note left in his abandoned car. This is remarkably similar to what happened with Denver detective Caleb Mathews’ father 15 years earlier, only his dad’s newly dead body just showed up in Amsterdam. Caleb suspects someone’s kidnapped Andy to replace his father, both in the field of bioengineering. It’s a wild speculation, but Angie sees its validity, further surmising that the abduction and murder have something to do with pilfered relics, both over a decade ago and more recently in the Netherlands and Turkey. Caleb and Angie meet in Dublin with Angie’s former roommate, Siobhan Callahan, now with Interpol. They connect other scientists’ questionable suicides with pinched relics, all relating to saints and spanning various countries. The group amasses a plethora of clues, from missing women to chemicals used to render guards unconscious, to find Andy and his abductors. An early introduction to the villains leaves little mystery, but the baddies prove as riveting as the good guys. Caleb and Angie, for starters, get plenty of help, namely from Siobhan’s dad, Tippy, who’s no longer with Interpol but still excels in the field. Billionaire Gabriel Papadakis, meanwhile, who’s unmistakably spearheading the thefts and disappearances, has a rather chilling employee turnover. Subordinate Lucas Weber, on account of his larceny accompanied by excessive killing, may be up for termination, while probable replacement Viktoria busily recruits lackeys. Papadakis’ outlandish purpose, too, revealed before the halfway point, is a doozy. A few scenes with Caleb and Siobhan, involving her other, unrelated case or Caleb teaching her to ride a horse, are extraneous. These moments certainly foster the couple’s personal and professional relationship, but so does their plot-relevant trek from Austria to Moscow—with more subtlety and brevity.

Resonant characters deciphering a puzzle involving artifacts generate an absorbing tale even if readers already know where the pieces go.

Pub Date: April 28, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-62217-720-2

Page Count: 772

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

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

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.