A thriller that adeptly makes use of real-world issues, but its political angle is too heavy-handed.
The Walther family takes up arms with other U.S. citizens when an exodus of undocumented Mexican immigrants crosses the border in Schulz’s (co-author: Brokerage Fraud, 2001) political thriller debut.
As the story opens, Mexico is crippled by a depression and its government and military have been unable to stop a revolutionary guerrilla army from wreaking havoc. As a result, millions of Mexicans enter the United States unlawfully and many ultimately raid stores or hijack trucks for food. The Walther brothers—professor Craig, border patrol officer Dave, stockbroker Cliff, and executive Mark—live in different states with their own families but are all in the mob’s path. They find that they must defend themselves in whatever way possible—especially after the raiders start stealing guns. This novel takes a serious national issue and convincingly fits it into a thriller-genre storyline. Fortunately, the author doesn’t demonize either the Mexicans or their country; instead, he shows that it only takes one or two persons to incite a mob to violence. There are good and bad characters on both sides: Mexican stock trader Fernando and his wife, Carla, who lost everything in the crumbling Mexican economy, are both sympathetic, while Cliff is decidedly unsympathetic—an unfaithful husband and a racist and homophobe to boot. Schulz knows how to dish out thriller elements, including a few gunfights, surprising deaths, and an implication of a powerful conspiracy. However, the story leans very far to the conservative right, and characters’ discussions of “bleeding-heart liberals,” for example, may eventually grow wearisome for some. Women, in particular, are often equated with liberalism; President Rosemary Denton’s administration is almost exclusively female and seems more interested in having votes than making decisions. The president’s personal adviser is portrayed as a man-hating lesbian and perpetuates distasteful stereotypes. The overall story, however, is less offensive as it attempts to spark debate on amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
A thriller that adeptly makes use of real-world issues, but its political angle is too heavy-handed.Pub Date: June 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9963254-0-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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