by Joe Shumock ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
Thrives on suspense, with a capable protagonist who’s more spy than detective.
In Shumock’s (Letter from the Dark, 2013, etc.) thriller, a former CIA operative investigates a series of strange deaths that may be linked to a secretive medical facility in Prague.
When Raegene “Rage” Doyle left Prague over 40 years ago, he may have left behind the love of his life, Katerina Bambenek. But Katerina’s recent letter asking Rage to return to Prague is on behalf of her late friend, whose 26-year-old daughter, Marta, died mysteriously. Katerina’s worried others may be in danger, including her own daughter, Ana, who’s taken ill by the time Rage’s plane arrives. Marta, along with two deceased male peers, had surrogate mothers, all of whom adopted the children after the intended parents died late in the pregnancy— Katerina and Ana’s identical circumstance. The Eagle Trust, a secret organization started years ago, had covered Ana’s expenses throughout the years and also funded Prague’s Cambridge Health and Research Center, where Ana works and is currently hospitalized. No one at the facility will allow Katerina to see Ana, claiming her daughter is in quarantine. Rage responds by getting in touch with old CIA contacts to identify members of the Eagle Trust and, with any luck, reach Ana. Someone watching Rage, however, worries his snooping will expose the center’s furtive operations, which members won’t allow to happen. Though the protagonist specializes in “private assignments,” Shumock’s novel focuses on espionage akin to Rage’s Agency days. The precise narrative, for example, describes Rage spotting two men in a van monitoring Katerina’s house. The story reveals too early the Eagle Trust’s most hush-hush research and the identity of a blackmailer in a subplot. Still, not all Eagle Trust members are immediately known, though Zuzana Balca’s title alone—Madam Chairwoman—gives her distinction. It’s likewise clear many are in peril, from Ana (readers know people at the facility are lying to her) to Rage (whom the baddies have marked as trouble), while dissidence within the Eagle Trust gleefully piles on the nefarious goings-on, including even more potential murders.
Thrives on suspense, with a capable protagonist who’s more spy than detective.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Silver Sage Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
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IndieBound Bestseller
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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