A historical novel as edifying as it is exhilarating.
An espionage thriller dramatizes the risky work of the French Resistance during World War II.
Mark Lynch, an American lawyer, had already undertaken some sensitive, classified missions on behalf of the United States when he was recruited to join another organizationally amorphous group that would eventually become the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS is the country’s principal intelligence agency, originally comprised solely of Ivy League grads, many of whom had very limited military experience or none at all. Lynch is whisked away for training at Beaulieu, a finishing school in England that now teaches spycraft. Once prepared, he is sent back to the U.S. to recruit two of his own men: Ludlow Carr, a distant relative with a talent for brawling, and Marshall “Fingers” Malone, a professional burglar. Lynch is assigned some dangerous missions stateside before he’s shuttled back to Europe—he helps steal sensitive documents from the French Embassy and stops a philandering congressman from carelessly leaking classified documents to his mistress. Lynch travels to Europe, and he finally parachutes into Paris, tasked with ferreting out collaborators within the weak and compromised Vichy government. The Comet Line—an escape route established to help downed British pilots safely make it out of Belgium—is targeted by Jean-Claude Blanchard, a French traitor. The OSS orders Lynch to track down and assassinate Blanchard, a mission that takes him to Andorra, a little known country in the Pyrenees. Summers (Harold’s Speakeasy: and Other Lynch’s Corner Short Stories, 2017, etc.) once again displays his unimpeachable knowledge of World War II as well as the history of the OSS, a subject he has returned to time and time again. The plot marches forward with indefatigable vigor, brimming with action and loaded with colorful characters. And while the story has its lighthearted moments, Summers never loses sight of the historical gravity of his subject: “We’re in a fight to the death with the Nazis. They give no quarter. They kill to protect their secrets. And so must we, when we go in search of those secrets.”
A historical novel as edifying as it is exhilarating.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-977809-97-1
Page Count: 260
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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