A clever, sprightly tale, whether it’s set in, atop, or near the ocean.
In Brown’s (Snowmen, 1991, etc.) thriller, a man who can envision the locations of shipwrecks searches for treasure while dealing with Russians and an oil tycoon.
Kyle Dawton has had odd episodes of apparent precognition since childhood, but only a few have turned out to be accurate. He uses his ability to sense the locations of sunken vessels for Argos Salvage, which he owns and runs with his buddy, former SEAL Wayne Chizzick. Still, the company is in the red, so its chairman, ex-admiral Curt Chizzick, brings in investor Bill Cooper, whose daughter, Victoria, comes onboard as a new partner. She’s an archaeologist with her own team who aims to use the company’s resources to find valuable historical sites. Kyle’s latest vision, which seems to involve ghosts and a mermaid, also hints at another wreck (and possibly treasure). His “hunch” takes the crew to the Bermuda Triangle, which they find to be surprisingly crowded. The Russian military is in the area to find and return defector Pyotr Telasnikov, but the reasons why they want him aren’t immediately revealed. At the same time, the salvage team gets too close to oil well sites that were capped after an accident; JJ Oil CEO James Jessup Harwood III claims that he simply wishes them to stay capped, but he may have other motivations for having the team keep their distance. Brown keeps the story’s supernatural element ambiguous and sublimely understated; Kyle, for example, isn’t certain whether his vision of a ship going down during a storm is a past or future event—or perhaps both. Furthermore, the book grounds his ability in reality, implying that Kyle might be hallucinating from diving too deeply and experiencing nitrogen narcosis, which he’s endured twice before. There’s a plethora of characters in the novel, including pirates and hijackers, but thankfully, it’s easy to keep track of them all. There’s a bit of mystery, too: the Russians have to identify Telasnikov first before snatching him, and supposedly have a mole at JJ Oil. Brown sufficiently describes scenes set underwater and onboard vessels, but he shines brightest with his nautical-inspired metaphors; for instance, an irate Wayne “stomped the decks like peg-legged Ahab pacing The Pequod.”
A clever, sprightly tale, whether it’s set in, atop, or near the ocean.Pub Date: July 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4951-6764-5
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Star Peak Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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