A millennial thriller about biological terrorism and the quest for peace in the Middle East.
An American James Bond for the 21st century, Jason Stouter slices through conspiracies, double crosses and even a few femme fatales in this continent-hopping technological thriller inspired as much by Ian Fleming’s flair for the tongue in cheek and dramatic as by the precision of detail and exciting speculation mastered by Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. The narrative wastes little time establishing Stouter as a strong, uncompromising former intelligence officer with nary a chink in his armor, save for one thing—his son. The brilliant, shrewd Dr. Chance Bonnard, who has a suspicious passion for counterterrorism and devious quid pro quos, offers Stouter a chance to save his ill son’s life, but only if he’ll do Bonnard a whopping geopolitical favor and return to the shadow world of international espionage. Stouter is no spring chicken and does his research using old friends and ex-contacts, but he’s made a Faustian bargain; Bonnard and his group want to use the threat of a decimating virus to scare the Middle East into peaceful submission, but Kahlil Zufar, an old thorn in Stouter’s side, has other plans for the virus and Stouter must thwart them while still finding a way to save his son. Many novels crumble under such pressures, but Stouter’s headlong plunge and the story’s sophisticated plotting keeps things just on this side of believability. Many of the novel’s main movements begin with a wire service news flash or a transcript of a cable anchor’s reportage that give the reader the addicting advantage of feeling that they’re in on the real story, the moral conundrums and complexities that constitute the empty distillations of news networks’ headlines. It’s a clever structure for the genre that not only provides a broader political commentary, but legitimizes the more whimsical aspects of Stouter’s adventures as they build to a near pitch-perfect ending. A book tailor-made for fans of high-tech, high-stakes intrigue.
Pub Date: July 30, 2011
ISBN: 978-1257880058
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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