In Mosquera’s debut spy thriller, an Iraq War veteran finds himself embroiled in a high-tech assassination plot.
Eric Caine wakes in the Miami Veterans Affairs hospital with no memory of where he is or how he landed in a hospital bed. He chalks it up to the post-traumatic stress disorder he’s suffered from since returning from Iraq, where he served as a pararescue jumper in the Air Force. After leaving the hospital and trying to piece together missing details, he visits a bar and ends up in a bloody brawl. A mysterious man, Antonio Montenegro, befriends Eric at the bar and helps find him a job in computer security at a large multinational corporation, Corso. After several successful months at Corso’s Miami office, Eric heads to Venezuela to tackle the company’s security problems. Upon his arrival, he meets Trishna, who soon becomes his lover. He notices that someone has attempted to hack into his computer and finds that he’s being followed, but Trishna assures him that the Venezuelan government tails all Americans. Despite growing misgivings and paranoia, Eric attends a security conference where Venezuela’s president gives the keynote speech. In a dreamlike state, Eric slips out of the conference, attacks a security guard, steals his gun and shoots the president in cold blood, causing widespread riots and damaging diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States. While Eric initially turns himself in, he escapes in order to discover why he assassinated the president and what he learns is chilling. Mosquera deftly captures the dreamlike states that Eric experiences. While the book is swiftly paced and exciting, some awkward phrasing and incorrect grammar distract from the otherwise engaging plot. Additionally, some of the spy and military jargon read like alphabet soup and it becomes difficult to distinguish between some of the agencies and military terms. Mosquera weaves a tale of suspense through a clandestine world, crafting an engaging read that’s not easily put down.
Pub Date: July 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615505442
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Oddity Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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