A follow-up to the highly praised Vulcan’s Forge (1998), again featuring engineer and geological consultant Philip Mercer, a Bond clone with a sybarite’s taste for the good things in life and a Derringer strapped to his testicles. Intelligent writing is always a pleasure: readers will enjoy Du Brul’s descriptions of geological mining practices and his thoughtful consideration of the question as to whether or not the rewards of new mining practices make concurrent damage to the planet worth the heavy cost. There are no easy answers, as Mercer makes clear when helping to inflict lasting damage on Arctic wildlife in return for the US gaining an oil supply fully independent of the Middle East. Even so, he falls for environmentalist Aggie Johnston, whose father, Max, is a bad guy in league with nasty, super-fat Arab Hassan bin-Rufti, who plans to take over the United Arab Emirate while the US is diverted into protecting its second Trans-Alaska Pipeline and mopping up the oil spill from a supertanker taken over by terrorists—a ship that, if it’s sunk in Puget Sound will perhaps sink the US President’s new environmental program as well. Massive resistance to said program is underway already, with saboteurs and environmentalists gathering at Anchorage and Valdez, and threatening letters being sent to oil companies. Among other foul labors, the terrorists attempt to assassinate Mercer, two of his Alaskan fishing buddies are killed, and a third compatriot, the inventor of a new tunnel-boring drill, has his life ended by pain-loving Arabs who feed his cat into a sink grinder. Guiding all bad deeds from somewhere in the deep background is psychotic archvillain Ivan Kerikov, who, of course, lives to fight again in forthcoming Mercer adventures. A densely detailed and well-paced thinking-man’s melodrama.
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-312-86816-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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