An interesting, plausible, fast-paced tale.
In Young’s (Epsilon Zeta, 2006, etc.) latest novel, two college students find themselves caught in a deadly conspiracy.
Alpha 7, a covert branch of the Cuban military designed to mitigate smuggler and drug-trafficking activities in South and Central America, bungles an assassination attempt on a notorious pirate agent. Cuban officials scramble to recover their losses and maintain government secrets. Meanwhile, Pete Stephen and Ryder Westcott, recent graduates of Florida State University, celebrate their achievements by embarking on a deep sea fishing adventure off the coast of Florida. Ryder catches the big one, but, instead of a fish, he reels in a large blue ice chest containing $30,000. The captain of their skiff pulls a gun, a fight ensues, and Pete accidentally kills him. Still in shock, Ryder and Pete then rescue a man floating in the ocean, who, shortly after boarding, takes over their boat. Another fight ensues and more dead bodies litter the small vessel. Not far away, Coast Guard officials investigate two bullet-strewn cruisers replete with dead and unscrupulous crew members. Mack Olen, a seasoned DEA agent, is called on to unravel the ambiguity of execution-style methods and weapons used. When three savagely murdered bodies are found in a deserted fishing boat off the coast of Andros Island in the Bahamas, U.S. and Bahamian police forces join efforts to break a drug ring. They uncover links to international, upper-level government envoys. Pete and Ryder discover information exposing Cuban connections to the assassinations of several U.S. political representatives. They become pawns of international intrigue, with Olen as their only tenuous ally. Surrounded by scoundrels, crooked cops and government bureaucrats with connections all the way up the international food chain, Pete and Ryder fight to prove their innocence and preserve their lives. Some scenes fall flat and the plethora of characters is distracting, but overall the sustained action, divided into short segments, keeps the story moving.
An interesting, plausible, fast-paced tale.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-60461-789-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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