An intelligence officer, out of work thanks to the New World Order, goes free-lance to find out why an old associate took the trouble to crawl into his bathroom before expiring of multiple bullet wounds. Hunter's thrillers include The Potsdam Bluff and Tailspin. There's a bit of '40s ``Why you....I oughtta'' flavor, plus a spunky aviatrix—but everything else is quite up-to-date in this brisk, cynical thriller about a plot to tidy up the world drug- market and possibly advance the cause of a German neo-fascist politician. Even a past working relationship with the current President in post-Bush America is not enough to protect Tom Sweeney from peacetime budget cuts. Laid off from his high-level job at a between-the-cracks intelligence agency, the handsome bachelor cheerfully plans a few months of goofing off—but then a call from the police informs him that a corpse has been found in his bathroom and that the dead man has left a message in blood. The policeman turns out to be a fake, but the message is a real warning of danger for both Tom and the President. Within hours, there are attempts on Sweeney's life, and it becomes necessary for him to flee his pleasant Chesapeake Bay hideaway and form an ad hoc alliance with his beautiful ex-assistant, now an aerobat, and with an unusually resourceful automobile mechanic. Sweeney's predicament has something to do with an immensely complex scheme to monopolize the cocaine industry using pilotless planes and boats and vast amounts of cash. His enemies include an especially loathsome TV personality, a pack of vicious Germans, the President's ambitious and sexy chief of staff, the very nasty Vice President, and perhaps even Sweeney's old boss. The bad guys have not calculated on the persistence of an unusually intelligent general heading the drug- enforcement effort, Sweeney's remarkable survival skills, or the maneuverability of the lady's ancient flying machine. Rattles along pleasantly enough.
Pub Date: Sept. 24, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-85159-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
