by James A. Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2020
An impressive amalgam of historical astuteness and dramatic thrills.
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In this historical novel, former President Theodore Roosevelt goes on an African safari and is hunted by an assassin sent by a political enemy.
After he completes his second term as president of the United States, Roosevelt is wildly popular, but promises, following the example of George Washington, to step aside and allow someone else to lead the country, becoming “Citizen Roosevelt.” He pledges to his successor, William Howard Taft, to refrain from public comment on politics for a year, and to that end, embarks on an expedition to Africa to collect game specimens for the Smithsonian Museum and New York’s American Museum of Natural History. For all his popularity, Roosevelt has accumulated some powerful enemies, especially in the business world where he is generally seen as a “madman” and a “financial ignoramus” whose misguided economic policies strangled commerce. Among those enemies is John Pierpont Morgan, who arranges for one of Roosevelt’s bodyguards, Jimmy Dooley, to ensure the former president meets with a tragic accident. Dooley has his own personal grudge to bear—he holds Roosevelt responsible for his older brother Mickey’s imprisonment. Mickey, a New York City police officer, got caught up in Roosevelt’s anti-corruption campaign as police commissioner. Ross imaginatively conceives a gripping story that paints a vivid tableau of both Roosevelt and the tumultuous times. In addition, one subplot could make a novel of its own—Maggie Dunn, Roosevelt’s childhood friend and former flame, now a “muckraking Hearst reporter,” follows him to Africa to detail the safari and to discover his political ambitions, if any. The author’s prose is punchy and full of verve, and the plot is generously filled with drama. For readers in search of a novel that combines historical rigor with cinematic action, this is a worthy choice.
An impressive amalgam of historical astuteness and dramatic thrills.Pub Date: July 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-947548-96-1
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
An absorbing crime yarn.
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New York Times Bestseller
A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).
In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.
An absorbing crime yarn.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593493434
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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