A powerhouse first volume in a supernatural-thriller series.
In this first volume in an epic urban fantasy series, an American federal agent has to deal with hell itself.
The protagonist of Walsh’s ambitious debut novel is a depressed, down-on-his-luck Diplomatic Security Service agent named Jubal Stone who’s been “effectively benched” by his boss, who thinks little of him. Stone was once a special investigator for the Office of Asset Recovery (“a deliberately obscure name for what sometimes turns out to be very nasty work”), but now he’s bitterly resigned to life in Norvell Township, Michigan, where he seems very much out of the loop. As a result, he’s cultivated a kind of big-picture cynicism: “Earth itself was no more than a rock with a bubble of air surrounding it,” he thinks at one point, “a tenuous condition that supposedly existed at the whim of some unknowable and unreachable God.” God suddenly seems much more reachable when a supernatural meteor crashes to Earth bearing a fallen Angel—a mystical being who quickly becomes the object of Stone’s new job for the agency. He’s partnered again with his former mentor, Thaddeus Coleman, and tasked with safely delivering the Angel to none other than Satan himself. The pairing of Jubal and Thaddeus is one of the strongest aspects of the book, as neither is a typical hero: They were chosen for the job, one character says, because the agency had nobody else available (“They’re both capable, but neither has been on top of their game for a while now”). What follows is an extremely winning variation on the formulaic model of Dan Brown’s 2003 bestseller The Da Vinci Code that offers a compelling combination of interagency thriller and supernatural fantasy. As various agents either help Stone or hunt him, Walsh handles the action scenes in a smooth and professional manner, and the dialogue is similarly efficient. The author also pays his readers the bedrock compliment of taking his absurd premise—a secret partnership between the U.S. federal government and hell—completely seriously, which works wonders.
A powerhouse first volume in a supernatural-thriller series.Pub Date: July 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-818665-0
Page Count: 563
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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