Le Carré manqué, true enough, but spymeister Hagberg can percolate an action scene with the best of them.
With Kirk McGarvey’s return to action after a one-book hiatus, old pro Hagberg (Joshua’s Hammer, 2000, etc.) shows that his hand’s still firm on the thriller.
McGarvey is 50 now and graying at the temples, but “the best field officer the CIA has ever known” maintains that “rugby player’s physique,” and, with those “honest gray-green eyes,” he’s no less the chick magnet than ever. Also—in this 14th venture into tricky, sticky, geopolitical quagmires—he’s finally reached the pinnacle of his profession. In a couple of days, Senate confirmation hearings will begin on his appointment as DCI, Director of Central Intelligence. Not that he’s absolutely certain he wants the job—it’s dangerous in a variety of ways and thankless in every way—but since President Haynes wants him in the post, McGarvey, patriot that he is, feels he has no choice. Roiling the waters, however, is Senator Thomas Hammond, chairman of the pertinent subcommittee, whose view of McGarvey’s qualifications runs dramatically counter to the President’s. Vitriolic and venomous Senator Hammond does little to hide the fact that he views McGarvey as a loose cannon, that he dislikes him personally, and that he intends—by fair means or foul—to block his appointment. And he’s got company. Consider Valentin Baranov, for instance, once the evil genius behind the most vicious of KGB operations. Never mind that he’s dead, rendered so by a bullet from McGarvey’s gun. What matters is that his demonic Operation Martyr isn’t, and that it can be triggered posthumously in a particularly repellent way—triggered, that is, by someone in McGarvey’s inner circle, someone he’s always thought of as above suspicion. McGarvey now has to discover who, among those he loves and trusts, is most likely to be his betrayer.
Le Carré manqué, true enough, but spymeister Hagberg can percolate an action scene with the best of them.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-87334-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2002
Readers craving some nod at redemption may have to be satisfied with rough justice.
A bleak drama of rural America that offers grim lessons but minimal hope.
In a small-town park, Izzy and Junie, two 12-year-old girls, meet a grisly end. Junie’s fading consciousness sheds no light on the murderer’s identity. This is Engel’s second adult novel (after The Roanoke Girls, 2017) to unfold in a meth-ridden, dying town. The setting is somewhere in Missouri, but this could be any American town, in any area left behind by the concentration of wealth and the exodus of youth. In towns like the aptly christened Barren Springs, many young people never make it out, and Junie’s single mother, Eve Taggert, is one of these. The deck is stacked against Eve and her brother, Cal, from birth—in a trailer in a remote “holler” to a drug-addicted mother who starves them, abuses them, but manages to instill in them fierce family loyalty and an implacable eye-for-an-eye mentality. Now in their 30s, Cal and Eve have succeeded up to a point: Each has a small apartment in town; Cal is a cop, and Eve works as a waitress. Thanks to Eve’s efforts, Junie had a modicum of a normal life and a best friend, Izzy, daughter of Zach and Jenny, who by Barren Springs standards are middle class. Through a fog of grief, Eve vows to find the killer and begins tracking the short list of suspects. These include her violent ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Ray, and his meth-cooking sidekick, strip club bartender Matt. An unforeshadowed revelation about Zach halfway through adds nothing to the suspense—instead, we are brought up short, wondering how a first-person narrator like Eve, blunt, plainspoken, and obsessed with the truth, could conceal this glaring fact from herself for half the book. In fact, her unerring instincts will lead to a completely unexpected conclusion. These pages are replete with lessons about the choices women have in such environments—that is to say, none, except to toughen up or give up.
Readers craving some nod at redemption may have to be satisfied with rough justice.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4595-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Blingy, swingy fun plus a well-crafted, socially conscious suspense plot: Anchors aweigh!
Gal pals invited on a luxury cruise face rigid supervision, surveillance cameras, drugged drinks, and worse at the hands of a controlling, gold-digging birthday beeyotch.
Aspiring Hollywood actress/cocktail waitress Belle is among the gaggle of friends invited on a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate the birthday of their ultraglamorous pal Summer—all expenses paid by her new boyfriend, John (“not a day over sixty-three to her twenty-six”). But as soon as they start the trip on John’s private jet in Los Angeles, the girls learn that his generosity comes with many extremely irritating strings attached. Belle and Summer’s friendship goes back to high school, but Summer’s self-centered, freeloading, man-eating ways have been a problem all along. Now, it seems, the two are barely on speaking terms—yet, for some reason, Belle grits her teeth and gets onboard with a group that includes Summer’s trashy mother, loudmouth sister, Brittani, Brittani’s sexpot bff, Amythest [sic], and a couple of other thought leaders of the professional eye-candy set. The daily schedule on the ship is rigid and boring, and it is enforced by a pair of scary goons who make the girls go to spin class and lock them in their rooms at night. On top of everything else, there’s no Wi-Fi. Talk about a supposedly fun thing they’ll never do again! As Belle eavesdrops on John’s conversations with various dinner guests, she begins to get a sense of just how dirty his money may be. Meanwhile, a series of flashbacks investigate the fate of a dead ex-boyfriend of Summer’s who could not possibly have committed suicide because she dumped him. St. John’s sizzling debut sparkles with yacht and fashion porn, and smart, decent Belle is easy to root for as the panic reaches its peak.
Blingy, swingy fun plus a well-crafted, socially conscious suspense plot: Anchors aweigh!Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5387-3363-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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