A fine thriller that’s intriguing and clever, appreciative of art’s power, and grounded in a sensitive humanity—a winner.
In this novel, a Yale student investigating her roommate’s disappearance uncovers clues to a centuries-old art mystery and a shadowy group of art collectors.
Sabrina Gutierrez and Danielle Carruthers have little in common besides being Yale roommates. Sabrina was raised by her Colombian single mother who worked two jobs to support her, and Danielle comes from wealth and privilege. But the two become close friends, Sabrina being touched by Danielle’s kindness. She feels compelled to investigate when Danielle goes missing, especially since she’s certain that Whitmore Verhaast, a charismatic Yale art history professor and Danielle’s senior adviser, is involved. Sabrina has reason to think the worst of Verhaast, and as she digs for information, she discovers additional mysterious disappearances, all somehow linked to Johannes Vermeer; a convent in Belgium; and a secret, powerful cabal of art collectors with Nazi ties. And what of Hanna Deursen—a mistress and protégé of Vermeer’s fellow artist Carel Fabritius—whom Verhaast warned Danielle to stop researching? Sabrina’s investigations could bring Verhaast down and destroy some received notions of art history, but powerful forces are amassed against her. Halaban (The Last Commission, 2014, etc.) offers something rare in thriller novels: a strong female friendship and an honest-to-goodness heroine who has no extraordinary skills or weapons beyond her courage, intelligence, compassion, and determination. Bombastic egotists like Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon often inhabit thriller plots; what a pleasure it is to see his ilk skewered in the loathsome Verhaast. In contrast, Sabrina’s willingness to put pride aside if necessary and play dumb stand out as a special kind of bravery few authors would highlight in a badass-worshipping world. Similarly, Halaban’s characterization avoids clichés and is instead both deft and well-rounded. Danielle’s mother, for example, is no snobby Westport matron but a kind, thoughtful woman who treats Sabrina like family. Another nice touch is Sabrina’s growing trust in her sweet boyfriend, Josh, handled with unsentimental but moving realism. The plot moves briskly, with a growing sense of tension, toward a satisfying conclusion.
A fine thriller that’s intriguing and clever, appreciative of art’s power, and grounded in a sensitive humanity—a winner.Pub Date: April 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62901-239-1
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Inkwater Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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