Fans of fast-paced adventure novels with a touch of mystery will find plenty to enjoy in this richly textured series entry.
Cunningham’s 12th adventure-series installment delves into the complexities of Buck Reilly’s life, from his treasure-hunting exploits to personal upheavals that redefine his identity.
The story opens with a startling revelation: Buck’s biological connection to billionaire Sir Harry Greenbaum, which, in turn, unexpectedly ties Buck to an aristocratic Scottish clan. Soon after this revelation, an assassin tries to kill Buck; he’s unsuccessful, but Buck learns that a shadowy group wants revenge for the death of his biological mother, Catherine, who died giving birth to Buck. They’re also targeting Harry, and are on the hunt for a missing item that they believe he stole. It turns out to be a canister containing some important papers, which becomes a new treasure for Buck and his team to hunt down—and a new mystery to solve. The narrative unfurls through a journey across Scotland, where ancient secrets, modern dangers, and personal reckonings collide. The novel’s pacing is dynamic, transitioning seamlessly from reflective moments to heart-pounding excitement, as during pivotal scenes such as Buck’s discovery at Dunfermline Abbey, the burial place of Robert the Bruce. Although the dialogue occasionally leans on exposition, the chemistry among characters—particularly between Buck and his ex-wife, Heather—provides humor and emotional depth. Heather emerges as a standout, with her strength and intellect offering a compelling foil to Buck’s more impulsive nature. Secondary characters, such as Buck’s pal Lenny Jackson, an irreverent pastor, add a layer of levity that contrasts effectively with the story’s darker aspects. Cunningham’s exploration of such themes as heritage, loyalty, and the burden of the past resonates, although the narrative occasionally risks becoming overly intricate at times. Still, the propulsive nature of Buck’s quest and the palpable tension of his interactions with figures from his personal and professional lives propel the story along.
Fans of fast-paced adventure novels with a touch of mystery will find plenty to enjoy in this richly textured series entry.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9798986920054
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Greene Street, LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
