A curvy thriller with a few unexpected turns.
American tourists on a Veracruz biking trip find themselves in the middle of a savage war between the Mexican militia and local contraband-running rebels in the Silberbergs’ debut novel.
Dr. Brad Sommers believes that a bicycle tour through Mexican jungles is just the thing to take his mind off a pending lawsuit. He’s facing civil action because he couldn’t save a senator’s injured daughter. Joining him are cancer survivor and divorcée Celia Dane; Kevin Black, who’s entangled in his own legal battle over his family business; and hapless, boozing Robbie Roberts. Guide Ramon Garcia and his younger sister, Elena, lead them on a pleasant excursion that takes a nasty detour when they stumble upon the bloody aftermath of a gunfight, including plenty of leftover drugs, guns, and gold coins. The group opts to take some of the latter, and soon it’s clear that their greed could be their downfall. The authors open the story by quickly establishing the protagonists and their back stories. Although the novel wisely introduces its villains early on—including black marketeer Enrique Salerno, who doesn’t mind killing (and is really good at it)—they take their time developing Brad and the rest. It’s a slow but particularly effective method, easing readers into the tour right along with the characters. It also makes it more convincing when avarice precipitates the need for a kidnapping—and even more shocking when someone later dies. The Silberbergs’ well-developed characters remain credible even in severe circumstances; Brad, for example, could potentially use his medical knowledge to render an armed man unconscious, but it’s a different story when he’s actually facing the man. The story races through invigorating twists, including double crosses among both the good and bad guys, an explosion or two, and the use of a bike as a weapon (of sorts). However, the climax, though exciting, doesn’t quite measure up to the buildup of the brisk final act. The coda thoroughly wraps up the story, including all the subplots of the people still alive.
A curvy thriller with a few unexpected turns.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78228-396-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: Pneuma Springs Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2015
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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