An agent-assassin for Iraq runs rampant on British soil in Seymour's powerful and intelligent new thriller, set—and apparently completed—just before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. As in The Running Target (1989), An Eye for an Eye (1988), and nine earlier novels, Seymour writes here of a skirmish in the perpetual war between freedom and tyranny: of the hunt in England by young FBI agent Bill Erlich for the British-born Iraqi agent who accidentally killed Bill's CIA-pal with a bullet aimed at an Iraqi dissident. Bulldogging through British bureaucracy, Erlich ferrets out his quarry's identity: Colin Oliver Louis Tuck (``Colt'')—wild son of aristocracy, adopted and molded into a killing machine—as shown in grim Iraq-set scenes—by one of Saddam's henchmen. Like Erlich, whose dedication is tarnished by ruthlessness, Colt proves a well-shaded, complex character; he's back in England to visit his dying mother as well as to subvert ambitious and disillusioned British physicist Frederick Bissett to Iraq's nuclear program: this treated in a major subplot, enriched by a poignant portrait of Bissett's despairing wife, that Seymour intercuts with Erlich's search for Colt. When that search ends, Colt and his girlfriend beat Erlich to near-death; as the Yank recovers, Colt snares Bissett, speeding off to Heathrow and a flight to Baghdad. But back in Iraq, a brave Swedish scientist/Mossad spy has sniffed out Colt's plan; when his warning reaches London, Erlich and British colleague James Rutherford race to Heathrow, where Erlich shoots at Colt—and accidentally kills Rutherford: an irony compounded when, in a furious climax, Erlich kills Bissett but Colt steals away.... Morally charged, politically astute, and utterly unromantic— an admirably gritty-gray slice of spydom by the ever-reliable Seymour.
Pub Date: July 17, 1991
ISBN: 0-688-10631-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1991
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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