A lively thriller with plenty of unexpected developments.
In this prequel to Cunningham’s (Maroon Rising, 2015, etc.) adventure series, a treasure hunter’s quick rise to fame and wealth takes a nose dive, due to circumstances involving deceit and murder.
By 2006, Buck Reilly’s treasure-hunting company, e-Antiquity, which he co-founded and owns with Jack Dodson, has enjoyed its share of success. But when Buck finds a Serpent King’s tomb, filled with numerous artifacts, in the former Mayan city of El Mirador, it causes his company’s stock to skyrocket. This is accompanied by lavish media attention, primarily aimed at Buck, in part due to his relationship with supermodel Heather Drake. Their honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands, however, is ruined when Buck ends up wrongfully jailed for murder. He narrowly avoids a conviction, but the damage, it seems, is done. The company’s stock drops, and the public revels in reports that Buck’s latest archaeological sites are turning up nothing. This puts a strain on both his marriage and his relationship with Jack, who’s handling the company’s financial side. Soon, Interpol and the FBI are knocking on e-Antiquity’s doors, accusing Buck of all sorts of other crimes. Cunningham’s zigzagging plot is invigorating, as Buck faces a range of threats, from potential arrest to an estranged wife. A few of the plot turns are predictable, even for readers who may be new to the series, but most prove to be genuinely surprising. The author’s confident narrative voice adds weight to the narrative, whether the mood is light (Buck and Heather “making a dedicated effort to flatten out the lumpy mattress”) or baleful (“The bright light of reality made me wince,” notes Buck as he faces possible charges). Many secondary characters are multilayered, as well, such as the shrewd, professional research partner Scarlet Roberson and Buck’s underhanded, meticulous betrayer.
A lively thriller with plenty of unexpected developments.Pub Date: March 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9987965-0-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Greene Street, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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