A conceivable threat and suspense-filled plot keep readers engaged until the end.
An Army captain struggles to make sense of an impending terrorist plot on U.S. soil while battling Washington bureaucracy in Hampton’s well-researched thriller.
U.S. Army Capt. Ben Hawkins has a sneaking suspicion that a basic investigation into faulty record-keeping at the Tupelo Chemical Research Center will yield bigger issues for his Criminal Investigations Command. Soon, he’s hot on the trail of missing nerve gas, an AWOL Army officer tasked with destroying the fatal toxin, a kidnapped coed and a mysterious source who seems just as intent on stopping a terrorist attack as Hawkins. When several other U.S. agencies get involved, Hawkins has difficulty ceding the case to a by-the-books FBI assistant director, and he must choose between a possible court marshal and trusting his unverified source, an enigmatic man calling himself Julian. Despite all signs pointing to a typical rogue-agent thriller, debut novelist Hampton eschews the genre’s typical plot holes and vague facts. Hampton served in the military, and he includes a wealth of authentic details, from the types of vehicles used in the CID to the military history that propels terrorists to plan an attack against the U.S, even against the wishes of their own government. As for the story’s villains, Hampton’s handle on international relations gives them credible motivations, though readers may yearn for deeper insight into the personal pasts of these vengeful Middle Eastern patriots. Likewise, Julian, a high-ranking Iranian intelligence officer, has charm, strategic thinking, a sense of humor and a never-ending repository of spy tricks. In other words, he’s a Middle Eastern James Bond. Unfortunately, Hampton truncates Julian’s character development in favor of Hawkins’ rather bland private life, which consists mostly of meeting his fiancee for meals and working on a sailboat. Hawkins, and the reader, doesn’t have much time to ponder breakfast or rudders, however, as Hampton deftly weaves a complex plot taking the action to Europe, the Middle East and various American locations. The terrorists’ plans are tightly wrought and hinge on a terrifying possibility, uncovered in the first few pages, that chemical weapons marked for destruction in the U.S. could be stolen and turned against American citizens. Hampton forcefully brings this point home, while packing in surprises until the very last pages.
A conceivable threat and suspense-filled plot keep readers engaged until the end.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470048082
Page Count: 248
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
