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
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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