Just the ticket for everybody still smarting from our ineffectual Gulf War victory: a Day of the Jackal-esque fantasy recounting an elaborate postwar plot to assassinate Saddam. A discreetly indirect overture from a government minister leads to security expert Ed Howard, a Special Boat Service veteran, who, agreeing to take on the job for a $10 million payoff, recruits a crack British team, from volatile Mideast expert Johnny Bourne to Scottish sniper Danny MacDonald. Bolstered by enviable inside information, meticulous planning, periodic bouts of restorative sex with brave, pliant women, and a list of supplies—including outsized stores of frozen peas, margarine, and an inflatable raft—Howard and Co. follow an ingenious blueprint to Saddam's birthday celebration in his hometown of Tikrit and dig in for the one shot they'll be allowed. Even as they're lining up the target in their crosshairs, though, trouble has already struck. John Kearwin, an eager beaver reconnaissance analyst in D.C., has picked up their trail via satellite recon and—courtesy of some Clancy-esque technological wizardry—traced them back to Britain and forward to Tikrit. After an initial abortive attempt to wipe out the assassins—because only Saddam can hold together the strong Iraq the US needs to balance Iranian power in the Mideast—the top dogs in Britain and America (a bunch of fictional bozos named George Bush, John Major, Brent Scowcroft, John Kelly, Robert Gates et al.) trade accusations and try to keep a step ahead of the plotters even as Kearwin and other underlings sentimentally cheer them on. British first-novelist Mason still has a few tricks up his decorated sleeve; you'll love the details of exactly what happens to Saddam, and the reaction to assassination rumors back in Baghdad, even if you guess the surprise saved for the very end. A good time is promised to everyone in the novel's huge, exasperated target audience. (Film rights to United Artists)
Pub Date: Nov. 16, 1993
ISBN: 0-525-93709-9
Page Count: 484
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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