An intelligent, energetic tale rife with double-crossings and espionage.
The chief engineer of a Panama Canal project unwittingly becomes immersed in political conspiracy and implicated in murder in this debut thriller.
The chance to work on expanding the Panama Canal is an amazing opportunity for British geomatic engineer Max Burns. It comes courtesy of childhood friend Godfredo, whose father is Francisco “Paco” Roco. Paco’s CISCO Construction represents Britain in the bidding for the project. Max is wary of Paco, who physically abuses his son. Meanwhile, Max’s hydrogeologist colleague Alexandra Wong quickly tires of endless parties and prostitutes in Panama as the British group preps its design for the bid. The bidding war soon entails illicit deeds from Paco and the U.S. engineering consortium, each trying to undercut the other. Even after CISCO wins and Max becomes chief engineer, tensions remain high. A U.S. agency believes someone newly associated with Max is a particular country’s attempt to sabotage the project and threaten America’s national security. Max is in a precarious spot, now a scapegoat for both CISCO’s dire financial state and something much worse: a project-related murder. He turns to Karis Deen, biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (and romantic interest), for help, but she’s been keeping a rather sizable secret from Max. Martin’s novel is a smart, rousing story condensed into a relatively quick read with short and sprightly scenes and chapters. Much of the suspense is relegated to the final act; the author uses the preceding pages to focus on what Karis has been hiding. It’s worth the wait, though, with the protagonist in peril and a prime candidate for a murder frame-up, all part of someone’s political coverup. Max’s naiveté (staying with the project despite warning signs, like Godfredo not showing up for meetings), coupled with losing his parents years ago in a helicopter crash, earns him sympathy. But it also makes him less intriguing than some of the other characters, especially Godfredo, who’s torn between loyalty to his father and his unmistakable hatred of the man.
An intelligent, energetic tale rife with double-crossings and espionage.Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-911525-29-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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