Millennial politics in 2001, in a sumptuous sequel to McCarry's long-running series about secret agent Paul Christopher's family (Second Sight, 1991, etc.). McCarry wastes no time in establishing his electrifying premise: On the eve of President Bedford Forrest Lockwood's second inaugural, his defeated opponent, Franklin Mallory, announces, first to Lockwood and then to the world, that someone in Lockwood's campaign stole the election by manipulating computerized vote tallies in three key states. Will Lockwood resign in Mallory's favor? He will not, thank you, but instead prepares for the inevitable impeachment trial by allowing his chief of staff—Christopher's cousin Julian Hubbard—to nominate as his new Chief Justice (who will by law preside over the trial) the strenuously unaffiliated Archimedes Hammett—that staunch courtroom defender of terrorists and consumer of natural foods. But Hubbard and Hammett, members of the utopian and ultra-secret Shelley Society since their days at Yale, are playing a far deeper game than Lockwood realizes. What they plan, together with the other Shelleyans who've honeycombed the government, is nothing less than the collapse of the presidency and the dawn of a totalitarian new government. It's Seven Days in May all over again, of course, but this time with every thrust and counterthrust—except for a single puzzling assassination early on—planned strictly within the laws of the land. As the Shelleyans plot to show how the Constitution allows for the nation to be delivered legally into the hands of a far-left dictatorship, McCarry grooms Christopher's now-grown daughter Zarah for a crucial role as political mediator and assassination bait. Even discounting the baroque embellishments that keep threatening to derail the story—Ouija board revelations, excursions into Mani†te folkways, impassioned accounts of new technologies for embryo recovery, leisurely portraits of every citizen residing within the Beltway—McCarry plots with a grand extravagance that generates tremendous suspense and leaves you more shaken than ever once you've turned the last page.
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-41533-5
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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