Fitfully delivers on its license to thrill but may not leave readers shaken and stirred.
An American intelligence agent gets a (Hono)lulu of a Hawaiian homecoming when he discovers a covert operation against an American ally in Voelker’s inaugural spy thriller.
“It is hard to imagine a national security threat here,” American secret agent Donovan Cross muses upon his return to his native Hawaii after 30 years away. He’s there to investigate the connection between suspicious electronic activities reported near Waikiki and the city’s Chinese underworld. There have been many reported sightings—albeit unverified—of high-ranking members of Chinese military intelligence in Honolulu. What would bring the Chinese military to this specific location, and what connection could there be to the island of Taiwan, over three thousand miles away? The clock is ticking for Cross to foil plans to launch a covert invasion wreaking untold devastation and destruction and endangering the lives of thousands. From Hawaii with love comes this somewhat tentative beginning of the continuing adventures of Mr. Cross. For armchair, poolside, or beach-bound devotees of espionage adventures, the lush tropical setting provides the optimum escape—throw in a hero who’s “the best American intelligence had to offer” (and a gorgeous Cross girl) and you have a passport to old school spy excitement. After a crackerjack opening involving a sabotaged parachute, a blood-frenzied school of hammerhead sharks, and a nick-of-time rescue—the stuff of a swell pre-credit movie sequence—the narrative bogs down a bit with Cross’ upbringing and tragic origin story (though it’s one that yields a climactic twist). Readers don’t need to hear wannabe agent Cross tell his friends, “Every adventure carries risk, but the world needs those willing to face it.” That’s a little too on the nose; just drop him in the middle of a plot to destabilize the globe and set him loose. And perhaps provide him with a worthy adversary like Blofeld.
Fitfully delivers on its license to thrill but may not leave readers shaken and stirred.Pub Date: April 28, 2025
ISBN: 9798218546021
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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