by Gerard Dion ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2015
An interesting thriller that doesn’t quite match the ambition of its protagonist.
In Dion’s debut political thriller, an ambitious businessman takes it upon himself to fix relations between the United States and Cuba.
After growing restless in his retirement, successful businessman and former Marine Corp captain Nickolas Harvey sets out to realize what he refers to as his “Signature Event,” an ambitious project he hopes will be his legacy. Enlisting several former business colleagues, Harvey creates a political organization whose main objective is to end the embargo against Cuba. Harvey’s campaign quickly gains publicity; he garners enough support to become the point of interest for several major political groups. Harvey’s success also makes him a target of rival organizations and those looking to maintain the current state of affairs. Fending off both political and physical attacks, Harvey takes his cause to the highest levels of U.S. and Cuban governments with the goal of ending their Cold War animosity. Dion delivers a complicated thriller that expands its focus to include the plight of those living in Cuba under the effects of the embargo, particularly those looking to seek asylum in the United States to escape poverty or political prosecution. The novel unfolds at a quick pace and uses the character’s campaign to offer essential background information regarding U.S.–Cuba relations. Despite the fast pace of its plot, Dion’s writing sometimes drags and falls flat; the more dramatic moments of the novel are treated with the same muted tenor as the more mundane. The novel also spends a great deal of time invested in the political and business elements of the plot, which may not satisfy those looking for a more action-oriented thriller, but these details do offer additional realism.
An interesting thriller that doesn’t quite match the ambition of its protagonist.Pub Date: July 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5035-7954-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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