by David E. Fisher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1993
Fisher is a Bo Jackson of writing, an author whose yen to excel in two literary arenas—thrillers (Hostage One, 1989, etc.) and popular science (Across the Top of the World, 1992, etc.) seems to spread his talent a bit thin. Here's his latest fiction—a typically clever but not electrifying tale of three assassins stalking one another in Europe and the US. As usual, Fisher's world has few straight lines: The plot often folds back on itself, and nearly everyone in it lies. The story opens with top German spy Klaus Vorsage offering top hit-man Jean-Paul Mendoza a million marks to kill two men: an unnamed target, and a retired CIA assassin, Walter Naman. Mendoza agrees, unaware of Vorsage's next move: to warn Naman of the hit in order to see whether Naman or Mendoza is the better killer. Naman is, eliminating Mendoza quickly, and so Vorsage offers Naman the big hit: on German Chancellor Gottfried Waldner, whom Vorsage claims is a closet Nazi, uncovered by Vorsage's boss, the vice-chancellor. But the truth is that Vorsage's real master is German tycoon Gerhard Hauptmann, who wants Waldner dead before the Chancellor can shut down Hauptmann's illicit arms business. Moreover, Hauptmann hasn't told Vorsage that, as backup, dogging Naman's every step will be Hauptmann's own pet killer, Carlos Grass. Into this incredibly tangled nest of vipers steps ice-blooded viper-killer David Melnick, Mossad-agent/hero of Hostage One, as well as a resourceful Manhattan cop. Naman tracks the chancellor, Grass shadows Naman, Melnick hunts Grass and Naman, and the cop marvels at Melnick, with tense set pieces (including the burying alive of Melnick) keeping the action twisty, brisk, and bloody. Fisher's characters seem mere pawns in his baroque plotting, but he moves them with finesse, making this solid enough fare for the Forsyth/Follett crowd.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-679-40935-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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