An often entertaining mystery with a satisfying ending despite a few too many subplots.
In Berger’s debut novel, a human-interest journalist for a small New York City weekly finds herself unexpectedly investigating a 14-year-old insurance scam related to the World Trade Center attacks.
Jordan Marshfield writes articles for the magazine Gathering Moss about ordinary people with unusual avocations. Her latest assignment takes her to a prison in upstate New York to interview Giuseppe “The Bishop” Romano, a dying gangster who established an animal rescue foundation before his incarceration. He promises Jordan that he’ll give her a story about Ted Lipman, a man who faked his own death on 9/11, on her next visit, and she quickly becomes obsessed with uncovering the fraud. It’s a personal and emotional journey for Jordan, whose father was one of the 343 firefighters who died that day. Meanwhile, Jordan’s unpleasant ex-husband, Peter, adds domestic turmoil to her life. Back at the prison, Giuseppe admits to Jordan that he helped hide Ted for the first few months, and he tells her that she needs to track down Ted’s best friend, Leonard Legasse; Ted was killed in the Bahamas after collecting the insurance payout, and Leonard has disappeared. Jordan finally connects with Leonard through his daughter, Abby, who’s living in an art commune in Taos, New Mexico. Debut novelist Berger has some tricks up his sleeve for his protagonist, and as the plot twists and turns, Jordan’s relentless pursuit places her and her young daughter, Kristen, in danger. However, it will likely take readers a few chapters to keep the plethora of characters straight—and every one of them is hiding something. The novel is written in two voices: Jordan’s first-person account of the present (in 2015) and a third-person narration for sections set in the past (2001-2002). It’s a device that effectively sprinkles crumbs of disinformation throughout the story and lulls readers into believing they know more than they do. The most sympathetic character is Jordan, but the most interesting one is Leonard—a quirky gentleman who stages beetle fights; he’s also quite a storyteller who’s always shading the truth.
An often entertaining mystery with a satisfying ending despite a few too many subplots.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5424-8986-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: TouchPoint Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.
Another surprise from an author who never writes the same novel twice.
Though Whitehead has earned considerable critical acclaim for his earlier work—in particular his debut (The Intuitionist, 1999) and its successor (John Henry Days, 2001)—he’ll likely reach a wider readership with his warmest novel to date. Funniest as well, though there have been flashes of humor throughout his writing. The author blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he recounts the coming-of-age summer of 15-year-old Benji Cooper in the family’s summer retreat of New York’s Sag Harbor. “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses,” writes Whitehead. Caucasians are only an occasional curiosity within this idyll, and parents are mostly absent as well. Each chapter is pretty much a self-contained entity, corresponding to a rite of passage: getting the first job, negotiating the mysteries of the opposite sex. There’s an accident with a BB gun and plenty of episodes of convincing someone older to buy beer, but not much really happens during this particular summer. Yet by the end of it, Benji is well on his way to becoming Ben, and he realizes that he is a different person than when the summer started. He also realizes that this time in his life will eventually live only in memory. There might be some distinctions between Benji and Whitehead, though the novelist also spent his youthful summers in Sag Harbor and was the same age as Benji in 1985, when the novel is set. Yet the first-person narrator has the novelist’s eye for detail, craft of character development and analytical instincts for sharp social commentary.
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.Pub Date: April 28, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52765-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
BOOK TO SCREEN
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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