A spy story that feels wordy but redeems itself with strong characterization and an impressive ear for dialogue.
A mousy scientist's knowledge of nuclear secrets puts her in the middle of a 72-hour game of kill-or-be-killed in Manson's debut thriller.
Katherine Richmond just wanted a trip to China to ease her job and marriage tensions; she ends up with post-traumatic stress disorder, an international scandal and an unfulfilled romance with a twisted double agent. An often overworked plotline sees Katherine kidnapped, tortured and subsequently rescued by super secretive Michael Sunday. Katherine is frequently confused, and readers will likely feel the same as they struggle to understand where Sunday is dragging Katherine, who they are talking to and whether anyone is telling the truth. Author Manson creates so many plot twists and turns, readers will have a hard time keeping up with which characters are good and which are downright rotten. Yet the conversations between Sunday and Katherine keep the narrative moving regardless of the evil political machinations going on around them. Two broken people, both suffering from lost love, find something human inside one another despite being surrounded by blood, gore and a Big Brother-like Chinese government. Their back-and-forth banter feels natural and fluid, making these two more interesting and relatable by the page. Manson’s clear technical knowledge of the work Sunday does, whether interrogation or inflicting pain, is impressive. But his portrayal of Katherine and the spy who loved her as complete people despite their flaws buoys the book's murky plot. The couple’s strange desire for success, unwillingness to compromise and sudden passion for one another all lend depth and nuance to this uneven look at today's political landscape.
A spy story that feels wordy but redeems itself with strong characterization and an impressive ear for dialogue.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615585727
Page Count: 298
Publisher: EM.c Press
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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