A thriller with sound action and a reliable protagonist, but it falls victim to overelaboration.
In Fox’s debut adventure novel, a couple stumbles upon what may be pieces of a long-lost treasure, which piques the interest of greedy cartel members.
Kyle Macdonald finds a gold coin during a dive off Cocos Island with his girlfriend, Jenny Whiting. He suspects it’s from a legendary treasure that once belonged to the city of Lima, Peru. An American captain and his crew were transporting the loot in the early 19th century, tried to steal it for themselves, and reputedly stashed it before they were lost at sea. Kyle and Jenny register their find at the island’s ranger station, but the ranger, Emilio Gonzalas, already has a deal with the cartel. He gives them a heads-up about the claim, and two men grab Jenny and hijack Kyle’s ship, Pegasus. They head to Colombia and hold Jenny for ransom, as only her boyfriend knows the coordinates to the discovered treasure. Kyle, with the help of a Peruvian group hoping to retrieve the country’s valuables, puts together a team to rescue her. This novel has a multifaceted protagonist in the Canadian Kyle, who served eight years in the armed forces and has training in bomb disposal; he’s also a successful businessman who co-owns an American company and owns a Cocos Island hotel. Fox gives his character a rich back story, as well: Kyle lost his wife years ago and later had an affair with a married woman, Anna, who was one of his hotel employees. The narrative’s descriptive passages are meticulously detailed, which generally works in the story’s favor—particularly when it gives context for nautical jargon or describes aquatic creatures, such as a Pacific manta ray that resembles “a giant Portobello mushroom.” Other times, however, the particulars are excessive; a backgrounder on cocaine and an explanation of global positioning systems, for example, are simply unnecessary, as are specifics about mundane actions, such as Kyle’s elevator ride. Fox shakes the story up, however, with turbulence in the main characters’ relationship: Kyle bumps into an old love interest, while Jenny finds herself strangely attracted to Ricardo, one of her captors. The book’s latter half is an action-packed romp, as a daring rescue takes the team on an extended chase.
A thriller with sound action and a reliable protagonist, but it falls victim to overelaboration.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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