Piatt’s (Banned Questions About Christians, 2013, etc.) first foray into fiction is a religious thriller about a secret group aiming to incite the second coming.
Jacob is a relatively typical 19-year-old who works at a record store in Denver, plays sax and rides a skateboard. But he also has strange dreams of Jesus, set around the time that he was crucified, and wakes up with his own wrists seeping blood. He finds out about a strange man in black who’s been asking others about him and who later breaks into his co-op room. The man works for a group called The Project. New York journalist Nica has previously investigated the group, which crops up again when she’s writing an article about the Titulus Crucis, a piece of wood that’s reputedly a relic of Jesus’ crucifixion. The Project, it seems, is using science to engineer the second coming of Christ, a fact which eventually leads Nica to Jacob. This short novel is rich with detail, and many of Nica’s interviews feel like history lessons; at one point, for example, she and Dr. Pavel, who analyzed a sample of the Titulus Crucis, discuss the mutual appreciation between science and religion. But no part of Nica’s investigation feels tedious, and most of what she learns becomes important as she closes in on The Project’s ultimate goal. The more exciting, modern scenes are offset by the slower scenes of Jesus at the cross and during the days that followed. The two time periods alternate throughout the novel; the placid, engaging tale of the persecution of Jesus’ followers nicely counterbalances the tense, contemporary thriller, which later features a kidnapping. The novel also boasts an understated love story between Jacob and Elena and expanding intrigue as Jacob realizes that there’s much more to his life than vivid dreams. Readers will likely see where the story’s headed, as Piatt does drop quite a few hints as it goes along. He also smoothly sets up a potential sequel.
An inspired, stimulating religious thriller.
Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1938633553
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Samizdat Creative
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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