THE NEPTUNE STRATEGY

Name: THE NEPTUNE STRATEGY
Author: John J. Gobbell
ISBN: 0-312-31170-2

by John J. Gobbell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2004

Gobbell is, as always, at home at sea (When Duty Whispers Low, 2002, etc.); it’s those ho-hum home-front scenes that persist...

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Back to WWII and the Navy’s Todd Ingram confronting his usual sea of troubles—but finding it doubly hard to keep his head above water.

Twice—at different times, in different places, on different vessels—the intrepid but often unlucky Commander Ingram gets swept off decks. The circumstances, too, are radically different. Incident one: June 1944, the North Pacific Ocean. Todd, skipper of the U.S.S. Maxwell, a destroyer, is on its bridge when a couple of bomb-dropping Japanese planes create fiery havoc. The Zeros fail to sink the ship, but a near miss has the effect of exploding the skipper into the drink. He’s not alone. Accompanying him—and in dire need of comfort—is Dexter, the Maxwell’s woebegone monkey mascot, the pair clinging to each other and to a hunk of Maxwell flotsam that fortunately floats by. Along comes spidery Commander Hajime Shimada of the Japanese Imperial Navy, boss of the highly developed submarine I-57, to the rescue—in a manner of speaking. Dexter is fired on, left for dead, Todd hauled aboard to endure virtually nonstop abuse, physical and every other kind. Incident two: Some weeks later, in the Indian Ocean, Todd is on the deck of the surfaced sub, hands bound, facing the bleakest of futures—execution, actually. Again planes swoop down, and again Todd is catapulted into the water. This time, however, the planes are friendlies, and the rescue is not only for real but propitious, enabling Todd to return home to dandle a brand-new baby, cuddle with his gorgeous wife Helen, and then, having been restored to command of his beloved Maxwell, keep a fated Coral Sea rendezvous with the hated Shameda.

Gobbell is, as always, at home at sea (When Duty Whispers Low, 2002, etc.); it’s those ho-hum home-front scenes that persist in gumming up the works.

Pub Date: April 5, 2004

ISBN: 0-312-31170-2

Page Count: 368

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2004

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN DUTY WHISPERS LOW
by John J. Gobbell

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAST LIEUTENANT
by John J. Gobbell

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.