The indefatigable Gardner is at it again: fresh from his triumphant conclusion of the intricate, masterful Secret Generations trilogy with The Secret Families, he's boiling the pot once more with his eighth James Bond outing, just as predictable and expertly concocted as the others. This season's malign international conspiracy is the Brotherhood of Anarchy and Secret Terror (BAST), headed by a troika of terrorists code-named the Man, the Snake, and the Cat, but actually dedicated to enriching only one of them: Bassam Baradj (born Robert Besavitsky in HeWs Kitchen), who plans to collect the ransom of the century by infiltrating a secret meeting between President Bush; Prime Minister Thatcher, and Secretary Gorbachev aboard HMS Invincible and kidnapping the three heads of state. Bond's boss M gets wind of the threat to Invincible early on and assigns Bond back to active naval duty to protect the ship. Bond's skirmishes with the usual bevy of ambiguously alluring women—blue-blooded WRNS officer Clover Pennington; Neapolitan maid Beatrice da Ricci; Soviet Naval Attache Nikola Ratnikov—are presented with more conviction than usual. And although the plot twists—Bond is fired on during his initial run piloting a Sea Harrier; dangled invitingly in an Italian villa as an assassination target; and debriefed at a NATO installation temporarily (and preposterously) in the hands of his enemies before finally boarding Invincible, foiling BAST with his customary single-handed heroics, and unmasking the bad-guys-pretending-to-be-good-guys-pretending-to-be-bad-guys (and vice versa)—sound like a child's idea of international intrigue, Gardner manages to charm some real suspense out of Bond's attempts to guess who's on which side today. Despite too many acronyms, too much artillery, and too many layers of deceptive identity, this is still one of Gardner's better Bonds, guaranteed to make you feel excited as well as a little foolish.
Pub Date: July 24, 1989
ISBN: 0425122611
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1989
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
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
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