Irresistible lead characters will likely draw fans and leave them looking for a third adventure with Rob and Mike, despite...
Establishing an airfreight business between the U.S. and China becomes a struggle for money and power in the second volume of Green’s Easy Money series (Company of Deceit, 2001).
Aviation veteran Capt. Saunders is starting a freight airline with flights to China and hires pilot and business owner Rob Marshall to locate planes. He and his assistant and friend, Mike, travel to California and soon realize that the proposed company, still in the process of being financed, needs more than just aircraft, and that some of those involved are dodgy individuals more interested in politics than aviation. Green’s novel is a character-driven work. Returning stars Rob and Mike are solid leads, particularly Mike, whose Cajun charm shines when the novel visits his home state of Louisiana. He gives the romantically invested Kathy a tour of the French Quarter. The villains are appropriately disreputable, including the enigmatic and possibly mob-connected Mr. C; an attorney who’s also the company’s CFO; and a governor who doesn’t trust or want Rob and Mike’s assistance. The sometimes unclear plot engages less than its characters. The bad guys are unmistakable—they’re greedy and devious—but their actions merely slow the bankrolling of the airline and don’t provide much dramatic conflict. One of the few potent scenes doesn’t occur until near the end of the story. In addition, the generally well-written narrative sometimes sags in its descriptions of mundane action. For example, one scene describes everything the governor’s aide does while driving: signaling, turning, rolling down the window and watching a gate open. There are rarely indications of time passing, e.g., Rob’s love interest, Sharon, agrees to call him, and his cellphone rings in the very next sentence. Missing or extraneous quotation marks can render dialogue hard to follow. Unless, of course, it’s Cajun Mike speaking: “There’s sho’ a lots of swamp water and cypress trees down there.”
Irresistible lead characters will likely draw fans and leave them looking for a third adventure with Rob and Mike, despite the novel’s slow spots.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-1479202003
Page Count: 212
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2013
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
