A speedily paced actioner that keeps its heroes—and readers—on their toes.
Two FBI agents go undercover to infiltrate a group of domestic terrorists planning an attack on Washington, D.C., in Windsor’s debut thriller.
The California hijacking of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives truck nearly ruins the undercover FBI operation of agents Harry Harper and Ellen King. The missing ATF vehicle, which was full of weapons, quickly becomes their top priority. Their boss, Jim Morton, gives them an assignment that calls on Ellen’s skills as a “computer wiz,” as a flood of internet bulletin-board posts seems to add up to a call to arms for antigovernment extremists. Then the FBI director is shot, and the deputy director is killed in a bombing. Meanwhile, hacker Jeff Barnett, when he’s not hiding his online activity from his parole officer, is trying to convince a weapons dealer, George Pilkin (aka “the Commander”), to partner with him to help bring the government down. Harry and Ellen, posing as father and daughter, manage to infiltrate the Commander’s group in Lake Tahoe, but rogues in the FBI threaten their investigation by launching an unsuccessful raid without warning. The Commander’s specific target isn’t initially clear, but the code name of the strike, “Torch Day,” suggests something explosive. Harry, however, has a more immediate concern when someone blows his cover. Windsor gets his novel off to a rollicking start as Ellen improvises to help undercover Harry deal with Vietnamese gangsters. The devoted partners’ relationship is always professional, without a hint of romance. There’s also plenty of dialogue, which helps to make the action scenes concise and efficient; the best of them feature Ellen, who can inflict significant damage with a flashlight. The solid, packed plot, in addition to the imminent attack, includes a villain who may recognize one of the undercover agents; a blackmail scheme; and potential trouble from Harry’s ex-boss, who swore vengeance after the agent reported his corruption. A few bad guys, particularly Barnett, are so well-developed that they’re almost as sympathetic as the protagonists.
A speedily paced actioner that keeps its heroes—and readers—on their toes.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9981310-2-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: CT Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
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.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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