A layered spy novel helmed by a remarkable female agent.
In Vincenti’s World War II thriller, a young Swedish spy makes her mark.
Vincenti, whose last work was The Sandman (2018), creates a smart, fearless lead in Glenda Paal, a “linguistic chameleon.” At 16, Glenda is spending the summer working for the Swedish Legation in Berlin, where she meets German spies, falls in love, and becomes pregnant. In 1939 Sweden, having a child out of wedlock is illegal, so Glenda’s father uses his undercover contacts to smuggle her to Canada after she gives birth to a son. At a British-run training camp, she receives combat and spy training. In Ottawa, Glenda fosters a relationship with Russian intelligence and subsequently becomes a triple agent to defeat Nazism. While working for the Canadians, she’s supposedly spying on her Russians contacts for the Germans. She develops multiple personas and successfully completes missions involving defections and smuggling people to safety all while juggling three demanding spy agencies. Glenda finds herself on an even more dangerous mission when she’s assigned to the Manhattan Project compound in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where her identity and intentions are thoroughly scrutinized. There she witnesses the first atomic bomb explosion, the “devil’s dawn” of the book title. Glenda just hopes the war will end soon so she can join her son and parents in Sweden and maybe reconnect with her German boyfriend. Glenda is a stellar, larger-than-life (in good spy-genre style) lead. She does have a few minor flaws to humanize her, such as confusing the makeup styles of two of her personas. Vincenti’s nail-biter has a dauntless hero at its center and capably renders the realities of World War II. J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph Stalin, and other historical figures make memorable appearances. The novel also does a fine job of exploring Sweden’s attempt to remain neutral in the war, the realities of living in a makeshift community in the desert, and the morality of making a terrible weapon to end a terrible war.
A layered spy novel helmed by a remarkable female agent.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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
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