A somewhat predictable but enjoyable diversion for lovers of cozy mysteries, romance, and theater.
A debut novel introduces a contemporary, community theater–based romance series.
Since her divorce five years ago, Clarissa has been miserable—spending unappreciated days at her dead-end job and lonely evenings with her cat, Felix. Deciding that getting involved in theater again (something her cheating ex-husband, Stephan, did not allow) is the key to rediscovering herself, she auditions for the lead role of Tracy Lord in the Empire Theatre’s production of The Philadelphia Story. (The theater has a fraught history: a Prologue explains that during opening night of the Empire Players’ production of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None in 1988, two cast members died under suspicious circumstances.) But Clarissa’s budding acting career is almost cut short when she balks at kissing a handsome stranger, Alexander, during the audition. She gives in to the kiss and nearly gives in to unexpected lust. Alexander, a newcomer to the small town, is the typical alpha male—wealthy, handsome, mysterious, and a presumed womanizer. Scarred from her divorce, vulnerable Clarissa is immediately wary of him (despite the fact he gives her no reason to be), particularly his odd attachment to the Empire and his inexplicable interest in her. At the same time, Stephan strangely begins to woo her, the fate of the theater divides the town, and Clarissa discovers that a trinket from her grandmother may be her key to financial freedom. In Masque’s appealing tale, a small cadre of supporting characters—theater director Derek, assistant Ivy, and Clarissa’s best friend, Sally—provides depth, while the deliciously evil con artist Zandra and stupid Stephan give the reader two characters to hate. The conflict between wounded Clarissa and alpha Alexander, based primarily on her unwillingness to trust him or any man and on miscommunication, is a bit contrived. But while their romance remains slightly formulaic, the mystery subplot adds interest. The Prologue’s 1988 whodunit is not mentioned again until the closing scenes, presumably to be resolved in future installments of the series.
A somewhat predictable but enjoyable diversion for lovers of cozy mysteries, romance, and theater.Pub Date: July 31, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 280
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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