Nash’s debut novel is a straight-forward pulpy tale of revenge and espionage set in Southwest Florida.
Dexter Rubino, a once-great Secret Service agent, has retired to a meager pension and a position with Basalt Security, a company catering to the retired presidents who vacation in the islands off the southwest coast of Florida. Steelworker Matt Narvik spent his life savings to retire in the same area. Days before Christmas 2009, Rubino is presented with a mysterious proposition—millions of dollars to arrest Philippe Ben-Balla, an Iraqi arms dealer who plans to assassinate President George H.W. Bush, the man he holds responsible for the killing of his sons in the first Gulf War by Saddam Hussein. This information unravels in a series of events that moves forward at a lightning-quick pace to entertaining results. Part of the joy of the novel comes in its economy; it’s sparse, with the lines between good and evil blurring very little. Rubino is the good archetype, Ben-Balla is bad and Narvik is the innocent man, somewhat pathetic but lovable, caught in the middle of the web of violence. Character development is inserted sparingly so as not to detract from the action. With this fast-paced approach, Nash reels readers in from the first page and keeps his numerous characters active and integral to the plot. Perhaps a bit too much attention is spent on the tactical side of things and to the sailing terminology that takes up pages of space. But, otherwise, the novel is a nearly pitch-perfect throwback to simple pulp fiction. Nash plants the seeds of a second adventure, somewhat clumsily, at the end of the story, something he has earned by creating an entertaining world full of vibrant characters that deserves to be seen by a wide audience. The book puts all the intrigue and suspense of a Bond film into a sleek, no-nonsense package. Nash has produced a surprising, entertaining tale of pulp intrigue that will leave readers clamoring for more.
Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983799405
Page Count: 375
Publisher: Brazenhead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
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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