An enthralling, action-packed novel about a hero’s courageous call to action in the wake of a realistically portrayed attack.
In Alan’s debut political thriller, the governments of Iran and China join together to coordinate deadly terrorist actions on American soil.
One Monday morning in Washington, D.C., Navy SEAL sniper Lt. Cmdr. Cam Nite watches six 45-foot recreational vehicles drive onto the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge, screech to a halt, and explode in the middle of traffic. The bridge is destroyed, and a stunned Cam has a flashback of his second tour with SEAL teams in Iraq, when he survived a devastating explosion that claimed the lives of 10 Marines and crew members. Back in the present, a series of coordinated suicide bombings across the capital ensues, and Cam jumps into action to rescue civilians and take down terrorists. As the novel progresses, the narrative jumps among Cam; Iranian Deputy Cmdr. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, the orchestrator of the terrorist attacks; the pompous, unnamed president of the United States and his White House associates; and agent Xi Gang of China’s Ministry of State Security. Readers quickly learn that China and Iran conspired in the attacks as a larger conspiracy with the end goal of eliminating the United States’ status as a world leader. Alan delivers a gripping, imaginative, and meticulously researched novel that looks at the what-ifs of modern-day United States foreign relations by drawing on his own lifelong personal enthusiasm for the subject of geopolitics. (In an introduction, he informs readers that, at the age of 8, he sent a letter of protest to Iran’s embassy in response to the Iran Hostage Crisis and was sent back a packet of propaganda, which sparked his interest.) In this novel, he effectively examines how Americans’ fear of terrorism increased after the tragic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he uses this awareness to create scenes of riveting, cinematic action and suspense. Overall, this thriller is highly recommended for readers who enjoy cerebral, absorbing narratives about contemporary politics and the devastating potential of global terror.
An enthralling, action-packed novel about a hero’s courageous call to action in the wake of a realistically portrayed attack.Pub Date: June 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9971167-0-0
Page Count: 444
Publisher: 2nd City Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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