Complex characters and a few unexpected turns make for an engaging, if uneven, tale.
In Woods’ debut novel, two men struggle to find financial success in 1960s England.
Garry and Jim encountered different fates after losing their parents. Garry was adopted by a wealthy couple, the Osbornes, and raised as their own son, learning the truth about his origins only after their deaths. Jim grows up in an orphanage, which is also a farm, and winds up living as a bit of a wild man, close to nature in an abandoned hunting lodge, while Garry is on his way to becoming a rich business owner. Jim begins a romance with Angela, who happens to be Garry’s sister, and he dramatically intervenes in an attack on the Osbornes that leaves her parents dead and Angela in a coma. Though the police clear Jim of the killing of the Osbornes, Garry isn’t convinced. His hatred of Jim flares when he learns that Jim had a relationship with his sister. Garry grows even angrier with Jim when he discovers a secret that ties them closer than he ever imagined. The focus toggles between the two men. Garry’s obsession with getting revenge leads him to drink excessively and mismanage his companies. Meanwhile, Jim’s star continues to ascend as he becomes a savvy real estate developer. The novel starts slowly but picks up speed after the tragic night at the Osbornes. Sometimes the novel has a Horatio Alger feel as Jim’s hard work and ingenuity pay off. At other times, however, Jim’s almost superhuman ability to rise above challenges seems cartoonish, as when he nabs a corrupt police officer. Jim and Angela’s powerful romance drives the storyline, even when the pair has not seen each other in years. The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying with the introduction of a new twist.
Complex characters and a few unexpected turns make for an engaging, if uneven, tale.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492766124
Page Count: 282
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
All the narrative propulsion of escapist fiction without the escape.
Paced like a prophetic thriller, this novel suggests that "pandemic" is a continuing series.
Shepard has frequently employed research as a foundation for his literary creations, but never before in such pulse-racing fashion. He's set this narrative in the near future, when the threat of Covid-19 has passed but provides a cautionary lesson. And what have we learned from it? Not enough, apparently, as an outbreak within an extremely isolated settlement of Greenland begins its viral spread around the globe. Readers will find themselves in territory that feels eerily familiar—panic, politics, uncertainty, fear, a resistance to quarantine, an overload of media noise—as Shepard's command of tone never lets the tension ease. Eleven-year-old Aleq somehow survives the initial outbreak, which takes the lives of everyone close to him, and he may provide the key to some resolution if anyone can get him to talk. The novel follows the boy and the pandemic from Greenland to a laboratory facility in Montana as, in little more than a month, the virus or whatever it is, spread by touching, traveling, breathing, has infected some 14 million around the world. Jeannine Dziri and Danice Torrone, a pair of young researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who have dubbed themselves the “Junior Certain Death Squad,” find themselves on the front lines as they attempt to balance personal relationships (which occasionally read like plot contrivances) with all-consuming professional responsibilities. Meanwhile, the pandemic proceeds relentlessly. “APOCALYPSE II?” screams a Fox graphic amid “the social media cacophony,” as mass hysteria shows how human nature can take a horrible situation and make it so much worse. And though the novel builds to a sort of redemption, it suggests that there will be no resolution to the current pandemic beyond nervous anticipation toward the ones to come. Channeling Pasteur, Shepard promises—or threatens—“It will always be the microbes that have the last word.”
All the narrative propulsion of escapist fiction without the escape.Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-65545-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Chavez delivers a fraught if flawed page-turner that attempts too many twists.
A good Samaritan incurs a psychopath’s wrath in this debut thriller.
Veterinarian Cassie Larkin is heading home after a 12-hour shift when someone darts in front of her car, causing her to dump her energy drink. As she pulls over to mop up the mess, her headlights illuminate a couple having a physical altercation. Cassie calls 911, but before help arrives, the man tosses the woman down an embankment. Ignoring the dispatcher’s instructions, Cassie exits the vehicle and intervenes, preventing the now-unconscious woman’s murder. With sirens wailing in the distance, the man warns Cassie: “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.” He then scrambles back to the road and flees in Cassie’s van. Using mug shots, Cassie identifies the thief and would-be killer as Carver Sweet, who is wanted for poisoning his wife. The Santa Rosa police assure Cassie of her safety, but the next evening, her husband, Sam, vanishes while trick-or-treating with their 6-year-old daughter, Audrey. Hours later, he sends texts apologizing and confessing to an affair, but although it’s true that Sam and Cassie have been fighting, she suspects foul play—particularly given the previous night’s events. Cassie files a report with the cops, but they dismiss her concerns, leaving Cassie to investigate on her own. After a convoluted start, Chavez embarks on a paranoia-fueled thrill ride, escalating the stakes while exploiting readers’ darkest domestic fears. The far-fetched plot lacks cohesion and relies too heavily on coincidence to be fully satisfying, but the reader will be invested in learning the Larkin family’s fate through to the too-pat conclusion.
Chavez delivers a fraught if flawed page-turner that attempts too many twists.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-293617-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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