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GHOSTRIDER ONE

Authentic scenes of aerial combat, land battles, and shipboard support distinguish a businesslike novel about Navy and Marine fliers during Vietnam's Tet Offensive. Sensibly sticking to the serviceable prose of his previous North S.A.R. (1991), decorated Naval aviator Carroll provides plenty of the real-life detail that separates good war stories from technoglitz as he takes a small group of fliers through a few action-filled weeks in l968. Commander Jim Hogan is at the center of things, landing on the American aircraft carrier Shiloh for a hitch as executive officer of squadron of attack bombers just as his injured predecessor is flown out. Hogan discovers within hours that the squadron is badly demoralized after too many months under the command of an unimaginative, risk-averse careerist. His chance to fix things comes sooner than he is ready. The unsatisfactory commanding officer is slated for removal as soon as the Shiloh's top brass see that Hogan, a natural leader and flier, has the right stuff even if he hasn't had the requisite training time for the job. The squadron, grateful for a boss who understands aerial warfare better than bureaucratic battle (which he handles well enough to get his men out of a scrape), quickly shows the commander that they can bomb the daylights out of anything. While Hogan smoothes things over on the carrier, his old chum Major Dick Averitt, a Marine aviator, sticks to the ground at Khe Sanh, where he is supposed to observe and advise the ground troops. But the hitch at the front coincides with the greatest enemy assault of the war, and Averitt has to pick up a rifle and join the rest of the groundpounders to save the base. Just when things look darkest, the clouds start to clear and planes from the Shiloh show up. No hokum, no hyperbole, minimal politics, plenty of action. There's just no substitute for experience.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-671-75323-1

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Pocket

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1993

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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MAGIC HOUR

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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