Solid political-thriller action that’s more focused than Burk’s previous adventure.
U.S. President Tommy Burk faces off against vengeful killers targeting infamous public figures in Fitzpatrick’s (Fear Itself, 2014) thriller sequel.
The nation is shocked by the apparently accidental drowning death of former U.S. Vice President Richard Rumson. But President Burk and a select few others are hiding the truth: they’ve seen security footage that reveals that someone killed Rumson by deliberately pulling him into the water. The notoriously corrupt and deceitful VP had been out of office for nine years, so the motive for murder may be long-awaited retribution. Then shady mortgage lender Albert Mazola dies in a similar manner, facedown in a pool, and the president locks in on a possible lead: Israel “Icy” Colburn, who fought with Burk in Vietnam, specializes in vengeance, running a law firm that doesn’t litigate but eliminates. Icy’s current client may be the man behind the killings: Russian Army Col. Dmitri Vova, who has ties to the Islamic State group, which makes the ongoing assassinations a possible terrorist threat. At the same time, Burk is worried that collaborative articles by New York Post reporters Ron Todd and Tom Sweeney will divulge too much information about the murders and incite copycat killers. But soon, “good people” who aren’t discernably unethical are being killed as well. This nicely paced novel brims with political satire, some transparent (as when the villains know that Obamacare coverage will result in one victim’s death) and some more subtle. The lighter moments shine the brightest, such as Fitzpatrick’s depiction of the thoughts of Icy’s German shepherd, Natasha, whose unwavering loyalty balances the human characters’ back-stabbing. The author even includes an unnamed writer who’s angered Islamic terrorists with his book—titled Fear Itself. This touch also explains away a few inconsistencies between the two novels, such the fact that events in this installment take place in 2016, while in the preceding story, Burk was inaugurated in 2017. A few other errors distract but don’t prove too detrimental, such as Vova’s inconsistent first name (Dmitri/Demetri) and a gunshot suicide being called seppuku, a Japanese ritualistic disembowelment.
Solid political-thriller action that’s more focused than Burk’s previous adventure.Pub Date: July 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-27541-2
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Hard Pressed
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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