Three unlikely companions face the ultimate evil in this engaging, if far-fetched, adventure.
A team of unlikely heroes, including Thomas Edison and Noel Coward, embarks on a desperate quest to defeat Nazis—and demons—in Church’s historical novel.
The third volume in the author’s Edison Trilogy continues the astonishing adventures of the inventor and his former assistant, John Dawkins. The story opens in 1941 with German Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess’ daring solo flight to Scotland to deliver a cryptic warning about Hitler’s secrets—a message he’ll disclose only to Thomas Edison, John Dawkins, or President Franklin Roosevelt, and only in person. Hess is dismissed as delusional: Edison has been dead for 10 years. (Dawkins has settled down on a farm in rural Pennsylvania with his wife, Sophie, a former investigative journalist, and their 10-year-old son, Josh.) Four years later, after Dawkins’ family is attacked by Nazi spies, Roosevelt asks Dawkins to go to London to “do whatever needs done,” which means dealing with unknown supernatural forces. Dawkins, with his family in tow, sets out for London, where Hess reveals Hitler’s obsession with the occult, saying, “the Magi possess the solution.” Dawkins reunites with Thomas Edison—whose spirit temporarily occupies a boy’s body—and they are joined by real-life playwright and composer Noel Coward, here an undercover agent for British intelligence. The three set out on a dangerous mission through enemy territory to discover the meaning of Hess’ cryptic words and thwart an evil that threatens the whole world. The plot moves quickly, with one action scene after another, several surprises, and a healthy dose of humor. Dawkins is a stalwart hero, Sophie is smart and plucky, Coward is witty even in dire situations (after faking a panic attack while imprisoned, he says, “I am not merely a coward. I am the Coward”), and Edison is always thrilled to learn something new. A few scenes don’t feel necessary, such as the team’s visit to an abandoned zoo, and there’s too much detail about some of the minor characters. Still, this is an entertainingly outré yarn.
Three unlikely companions face the ultimate evil in this engaging, if far-fetched, adventure.Pub Date: April 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798985576146
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Ferrisville Publications
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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