Spunky seniors successfully turn the tables on terrorism. A well-written modern fairy tale that achieves believability.
Computer scientist Brandin (The Technology War: A Case for Competitiveness, 1987, etc.) invites the reader into the world of David Green, a semi-retired entrepreneur who plots revenge on Arab terrorists for the murder of his son.
While taking pictures of a sunrise in Israel, Green’s son, Aaron, an aspiring photojournalist and recent graduate from a prestigious university, inadvertently catches an Arab patrol on an intelligence mission. Although it is peacetime, the Arabs and Israelis are on the brink of war. Aaron is brutally murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thirty-four years later, David Green is still thirsty for revenge. He arranges a meeting with his friends to develop a plot to kill Arab terrorists. Green and his five friends, fondly referred to as the Stony Island Gang, are a leanish, meanish, 70-something group of men who have stuck together through a gang fight, multiple marriages, affairs, divorces and a couple of prostate removals. Although they are sympathetic to their friend’s grief, the men question Green’s vendetta and the cost of their loyalty. Green’s plan, Project Moses, is named after the horns on Moses by Michelangelo. To the Jews, the horns signify the blessing of God’s radiance. To the Christians, they represent the devil. Utilizing terminally ill Jewish men, an Islamic Jihad bomb and ad hoc targets, designed to minimize the death toll of innocents, the group stages suicide bombings that kill 50 people. The first targets Hamas fighters, the second al-Aqsa martyrs. Suspicious of Israeli involvement, yet puzzled by the methodology, Palestinian factions are pitted against each other as they scramble to decipher the identity of the killers and their reasoning. Espionage, counterintelligence and paranoia are ignited at every level of government as American security network heads strive to cover their back sides. Among the sexual exploits, gossip, political ambitions and rounds of whiskey, no one is completely trustworthy. Newscast-style timelines add atmosphere and blend character and scene changes.
Spunky seniors successfully turn the tables on terrorism. A well-written modern fairy tale that achieves believability.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-595-44086-3
Page Count: 290
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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