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
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
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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