An intriguing ride through the bumpy landscape of U.S. politics, with a healthy dose of deception and corruption.
An action-packed political thriller that rotates between multiple characters and their dark, dangerous worlds.
In Knedgen’s debut novel, U.S. politics are a means to achieve world domination by any means necessary. This includes drugging a young woman named Kim into wooing high-level politicians into bed, where she ultimately kills them. The goal is to eliminate the competition so that the power-hungry overlords win the presidential election and commence their reign of control through the media, in wars, regulations and more. However, the drugs’ effects start to wear off, and memories of Kim’s victims begin to haunt her. The impact of these flashbacks debilitates Kim and causes her to question everything. If it weren’t for Street and Angie, who help her put the pieces of the puzzle together, Kim would be lost for good. These intriguing, well-developed characters have a surprising number of layers to them. In particular, Street, who spends his days hustling on the street corner, works hard to maintain his tough facade, but his soft underbelly reveals itself when it comes to his Grandma Mae. After listening to Street’s conversation with his grandma over the phone, Angie and Kim “saw him in a new light. Kim couldn’t resist.” “Keep that to yourself,” Street says. “Can’t have my image being ruined.” However, the depth of conspiracy in the political turmoil can be hard to digest since there are an implausible number of bad guys with corrupt agendas. In addition, the story is at times unnecessarily violent. In the first chapter, for example, a brutal scene of a woman being attacked is foisted upon the reader. While the blunt impact of this opening was perhaps meant to act as a lure, it ultimately feels more like an assault on the senses.
An intriguing ride through the bumpy landscape of U.S. politics, with a healthy dose of deception and corruption.Pub Date: March 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482634754
Page Count: 250
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
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