Another posthumously reprinted over-the-top comic heist that Westlake, the universally acclaimed master of the subgenre, originally published in 1980.
On his way out the door from the country of Yerbadoro, President Escobar Lynch plans to exit with the greater portion of the presidential castle he’s occupied, which is to be disassembled and shipped stone by stone to the French countryside for reassembly on a lot he and his wife, Maria, have carefully selected. And that’s not all he’s taking: Some of those stones have been hollowed out so they can serve as receptacles for a fortune Lynch has plundered from his people. It seems only fair that someone else should steal his ill-gotten goods in turn, so beautiful Yerbadoroan insider Lida Perez engages master criminal Eustace Dench to engineer the heist, splitting the proceeds equally with her. Since it’s impossible to tell in advance which stones are treasure troves and which are nothing but stones, Dench contracts with French con man Jean LeFraque and veteran German criminal Herman Muller to assemble teams that will be responsible for different phases of the intricate operation. What could possibly go wrong? As it happens, several noncomplications, from general ignorance of the caper by law enforcement to too few opportunities for individual team members to showcase their varied skills to lots of relatively innocent jostling among teammates competing for prominence with their more consequential double-crossing of each other, keep this from achieving the heights of Westlake’s best work.
What remains is the lazy, teasing mastery of a cat playing with a ball of exceptionally high-priced yarn.Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78565-722-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
77
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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. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A tragedy has sent a young artist into seclusion. A potential apocalypse may be enough to bring her back.
For the past two years, 10 months, and 18 days, Katie’s lived in darkness, on retreat from her former life as a rising artist after a personal tragedy eclipsed any happiness she believed possible. Jacob’s Ladder, a remote island named by a former resident for its potential as a stairway to heaven, offers Katie the chance to hide from the rest of the world, merely existing, not healing. She lives each day trying to fulfill what she’s called “the Promise” to those in the life she once knew, though a promise of what is not clear. The closest neighboring islands, Oak Haven and Ringrock, are equally cloistered. Though Katie’s realtor has suggested that Ringrock is some sort of Environmental Protection Agency research station, Katie’s cynicism makes her suspect something more nefarious. The protagonist's remote world and the author’s moody writing are disrupted one night by the startling appearance of drones and the suspicious behavior of a fox Katie’s dubbed Michael J. The wary canine serves as a harbinger of potential danger, and Katie responds by arming herself to the hilt when unexpected guests descend on Jacob’s Ladder. While the true purpose of these visitors is unclear, Katie senses that the greater world is at the precipice of permanent collapse and that she may be the only one who can prevent the impending apocalypse.
A moody tone hangs like a cloud over the alarming but vague danger awaiting the world.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-6625-0044-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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