A rousing and riveting work of military fiction from a writer with great potential.
A group of military elites and geologists tries to thwart a sinister Islamic terrorist plot in this thriller.
McDowell’s follow-up to his debut novel, Driftwood Unmasked (2018), jump-starts in the ready room of the imposing American aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz, stationed in the Red Sea. There, a seasoned squadron is briefed on rogue Saudi Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim’s plot to overthrow his country’s regime. The American military’s strategic interception strike plan, Operation Conundrum, is put into motion and includes shooting down traitorous infiltrators within its own ranks. A sole survivor of the attack is Kamal Rashid, the son of a mujahed father and a staunch jihadi ever since a 1979 Soviet attack on his Afghanistan village forced him to watch his mother being raped by Russian soldiers and his family executed. Rashid “lost his soul to the dark side” and, self-radicalized and battle-hardened by the time he was a young teenager, became a prodigy of Osama bin Laden, vowing to ruthlessly avenge the pillaging of his homeland. Despite being on FBI counterterrorism analyst Dan Shields’ radar, Rashid elusively and skillfully organized the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. His current lethal plan is to sneak across American borders and orchestrate the explosive lava tube rupturing of volcanic magma simmering beneath Yellowstone National Park’s surface to incite a catastrophe. Enlisted in the American disaster prevention initiative is gorgeous Dr. Christy Albright, assistant to Dr. George Ainslee, director of geologic studies at Yellowstone and a former “tunnel rat” in Vietnam. When both scientists are kidnapped by the terrorist cell, the FBI must move its master plan into high gear and enlist a Navy SEAL team before the al-Qaida–provoked disaster strikes.
As evidenced in a narrative studded with factual details, McDowell conducted extensive research on geologic phenomena and consulted with military corps intelligence to craft this gripping tale rich with vivid, realistic action sequences. The author adds generously detailed backgrounds to his core characters, and the interactions between the agents and the scientists are also authentically rendered, creating a classic battleground scenario and impressive, consistent dramatic tension. Additionally, McDowell packs the story with riveting combat scenes and even bits of romantic intrigue involving Allen Carter “AC” Collins and Ronnie “Toad” Rawlings, a pair of best friends and top-tier SEALs who find themselves vying for the heart of the same research scientist. Opening the tale is the author’s organically derived description of the consequences of a possible eruption of volcanic magma from deep beneath Yellowstone’s surface, which makes up for the somewhat hurried resolution in the story’s closing chapters. Aptly titled after a loudly gurgling, natural hot spring in Yellowstone, the book generates excellent suspense from the high-stakes circumstances engulfing the American military forces and the frenzied scientists scrambling for a victimless resolution. Creepy in its global relevance and future foreboding, this novel tells a frightfully prophetic tale of radical extremism battling against the forces of patriotism and the consequences for a world whose security is compromised by terrorism.
A rousing and riveting work of military fiction from a writer with great potential.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1734951592
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Ybr Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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