Crackerjack spy yarn about an ultra-deep Soviet agent trying to come in from the cold—and a big step up for Reiss, who's previously spun out only so-so thrillers (Flamingo, 1989; Saltmaker, 1988, etc.). Reiss opens in 1967, with a group of Smith Falls, Mass., schoolkids studying current events—only these kids are Russian, and their town, a training ground for spies that's a carbon copy of the real Smith Falls, sits in Siberia. Cut to 1991: One of the kids, known only as Ash, is now a Washington Post reporter—and, like his ex-classmates, is feeding information back to Moscow through the group's leader, David Kislak. But lately Kislak has inexplicably been asking for data about Third World trade; curious, Ash breaks the cardinal rule of no-contact. Kislak gives Ash a vague explanation and, when Ash leaves, sends a killer after the nosy spy—sparking the nonstop manhunt that dominates the story. Running fast, Ash tracks down another group member; but she, loyal to Kislak, tries to kill Ash—who then seeks refuge in the Soviet embassy in Washington, only to learn that no one there knows of his group: So many years have passed that the group's Moscow controls have died. Kislak, Ash realizes, is acting on his own, fattening his wallet by selling to various parties the data fed him by the group. Meanwhile, Gorbachev is ousted by the coup, and two KGB honchos—an old-liner and a moderate—begin to vie for control of Kislak's network. As Ash heads to the real-life Smith Falls to resolve matters by locating the group's founder, Kislak follows— but the KGB moderate follows as well, cavalry riding to a last- minute rescue during a brutal, bloody climax. High-velocity action plus clever interludes—as when Ash confesses to his girlfriend that he's a spy—add up to a smart, taut thriller, Reiss's best by far.
Pub Date: Jan. 21, 1993
ISBN: 0-671-77622-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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