by John Griffiths ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1992
Soviet neo-Stalinists and a couple of highly placed Americans have one last go at preserving the cold war before democracy ruins everything—in another smart thriller by the author of The Good Spy (1990), etc. Henry Kissinger won't like this one. The ex-academic, former secretary of state, heavy-handed skirt-chaser with the oversized noggin and impenetrable accent is one of the bad guys seizing the final minutes of the Gorbachev reign as the last opportunity to put the deep chill back into international relations before the cold warriors and think-tankers lose their meal tickets forever. The masterminds in this plot to undo the peace wrought by the man they call ``Blotface'' are Politburo members and KGB types who plan to activate Adam Kalugin, a long-buried operative in London, and use him to stir up trouble in the Ukraine. Kalugin is supposed to rouse the little band of Ukrainian expatriates to action and, with technical and financial assistance believed to be from the CIA, return to the homeland to foment unrest, creating an excuse for Moscow to crack down, derailing the peace movement for the rest of the century. But Kalugin, who was tops in his KGB cadet class, is not a complete company man. His paramount goal is not to serve the state but to revenge himself on the KGB officer who drove his sister to suicide. A further destabilizing factor: As a healthy young male, Kalugin is susceptible to the attractions of a lovely, ideologically unattached American in the employ of the mischievous think tank. And then there's the problem of Mr. Pickett, an honest American intelligence officer who shares Kalugin's taste in political scientists and who has picked up the false notes in Kalugin's legend. He threatens to undo all the bad work. Griffiths may have overdrawn the villains, but his young lovers and hopelessly brash Ukrainians are immensely attractive.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1992
ISBN: 0-88184-797-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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