Helmed by an Everyman, this tale is likely to appeal to readers who envision themselves leaping from the armchair into an...
Gallagher’s debut paranormal potboiler examines one man’s search for the truth.
Sean O’Shea always wanted to be a writer, but unfortunately “every attempt ended with an unfinished manuscript.” A huge fan of the History Channel, Sean finds himself with a thirst for information about UFOs and a need for cash. Seeing his longtime dream as a practical solution to both problems, he decides to take action. Sure, his family is fine thanks to an online business selling organic products. But, after some issues with the housing market, Sean is motivated “to not only regain financial independence, but also to restore his self-esteem.” Leaning toward a book that will attempt to prove the U.S. government has suppressed evidence of UFOs, he speaks with an old acquaintance who once worked for the CIA. Originally from Germany, Wilhelm Wolfe tells Sean of an incident that occurred in a forest near Freiburg in 1936. The story includes a UFO, Nazis, and the potential for a connection between the two. With Wolfe able to explain more and more about Nazi interest in the occult, Sean is soon transfixed enough to change his investigative intentions. He heads to Europe, where his journey takes him down darker, more dangerous paths that happen to include the murkier aspects of the Roman Catholic Church. Frequently blunt (“Someone is hunting and killing people who were doing what you’re about to do,” Sean is warned before embarking on his mission), the book moves with all the heft of a no-nonsense adventure. But ever the family man, Sean travels to Europe in part to see his daughter, who is studying at the University of Heidelberg. While this aspect can slow down some of the action (could Dan Brown’s hero Robert Langdon have made it so far if he constantly stopped to call his wife?), it creates a protagonist that is relatable, if a bit corny. Incorporating items of historical interest (including “Operation Paperclip”), the novel blends the real with the fictional to make a mix that explores what sort of boogeymen might lurk in locations as disparate as the Vatican and the Black Forest.
Helmed by an Everyman, this tale is likely to appeal to readers who envision themselves leaping from the armchair into an international thriller.Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61225-334-3
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Mirror Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2016
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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