A tricky, cerebral action-filled thriller that fulfills the promise of its predecessor.
In this futuristic thriller, a sequel to Flatline (2015), a conspiracy debunker uncovers evidence of an elite plot against the world.
In Austin, Texas, Peter Richards used to be an investigative journalist but became the victim of a conspiracy so stressful it gave him a heart attack. A mechanical heart restored his life (though he died and was revived twice more). His name was cleared, and now, 10 years later, with technology having advanced sufficiently that a robot hosts the evening news, Peter makes a living debunking conspiracies. His former news director, Cleft Duvall, who also helped expose the truth, runs a company helping people establish new identities. And Detective Skelly, who once suspected Peter of murder, has very little work to do because the Miles Cooperative keeps cities like Austin safer than the police ever did through constant electronic surveillance; homicide is no longer a category on coroner’s reports. But a couple of recent deaths look like murder to Skelly, so he keeps digging. Miles himself contacts Peter, asking him to do a story assuring people that the cooperative isn’t part of some global elite trying to enslave the world through technology. Certainly not. Peter’s and Skelly’s research projects converge on a virtual reality game called Stolen Planet whose objective is to infiltrate a secret world-threatening organization and dismantle it. Amid growing chaos in his marriage and abroad, Peter longs for the calm of the afterlife but commits himself to a dangerous course. Barney, as he did in his previous novel, keeps readers guessing with inventive twists and on edge with the paranoid atmosphere and prickliness of his characters’ interactions. For example, the vibe between Peter and his wife and some neighbors when they get together to play Stolen Planet is fascinatingly uncomfortable, both sexual and hostile. The novel also raises interesting questions about our relationship with technology and its uses and misuses, especially by those in power.
A tricky, cerebral action-filled thriller that fulfills the promise of its predecessor.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9965888-2-9
Page Count: 277
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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