A solid, often engaging thriller that will likely appeal to fans of conspiracy theories and high adventure.
Ruppert (The Seven Watchmen, 2009) delivers a fast-paced, intelligent thriller about a police detective’s journey into an intricate underworld of religion and politics.
Gallagher, a hardened, sharp cop from Washington, D.C., investigates the bloody death of a Jesuit priest. Although it was first ruled an accident, Gallagher believes the priest was murdered and, as the story goes on, risks his career and reputation to prove his suspicion. He teams up with a helpful fourth-grade teacher, Laura Miller, and uses tough investigative tactics, and a bit of larceny, to finds what he needs—plunging into a shady, intricate netherworld of Jesuits, South American revolutionaries, Vatican and CIA officials, Cold War secrets and more. Ruppert expertly sets his characters on the trail of intrigue and adventure, and his prose is consistent and straightforward, offering guidance to the reader when necessary. That said, it sometimes offers long, unnecessary exposition and explanatory dialogue, during which some readers may become lost. At times, the narrative tells instead of shows, instructing readers about a character instead of providing subtler character development (as when it refers to one character’s “sharp mind.”). Readers will likely enjoy the mystery at the heart of this thriller, but repeated, vague references to “a giant man” and a “well dressed man” plotting from positions of power may frustrate some readers. However, these minor flaws are, in the end, forgivable. Overall, the author has a clear knowledge of his engaging characters, settings, plot and ideas, and most readers will appreciate the attention to detail in this complex, well-planned narrative.
A solid, often engaging thriller that will likely appeal to fans of conspiracy theories and high adventure.Pub Date: May 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615677415
Page Count: 350
Publisher: The Greater Glory
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2013
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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