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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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

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 CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.