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THE PARIS PLOT

Name: THE PARIS PLOT
Author: Joseph Aragon
ISBN: 978-0-9981612-0-4

by Joseph Aragon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 21, 2016

A fast-paced international adventure featuring engaging characters.

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In Aragon’s debut thriller, a French official’s attempt to arrest the president of the United States for war crimes sparks a firefight in Paris.

President Leyland Childs is planning a trip to the French capital, and he wants Secret Service Special Agent Isabella “Izzy” Stone, who’s already saved his life once, to be there by his side. Childs intends to work with French President Amaury Jardin to ease tensions between their countries, which stem from a covert U.S. missile strike in Islamabad that was aimed at a wanted terrorist. Tragically, a group of French middle-school children on a trip to the city were killed in the explosion. An angry mob in Paris then attacked the U.S. embassy, which, in turn, led to fiery anti-France protests in America. After POTUS gets to Paris, local magistrate André Malevu, who abhors American influence on French traditions, issues an arrest warrant for Childs. This results in a violent confrontation between Secret Service agents and members of the French special forces. In order to get the president to safety, Izzy and her team must head into the subterranean maze of Paris’s catacombs. This exhilarating underground pursuit is only part of the story, however, and Aragon keeps up an impressive pace throughout the novel. Its short sentences and chapters are packed with intriguing details, such as French rioters’ treatment of American tourists: “On the Seine an American couple was thrown overboard from a tourist boat plying the river.” Izzy is shown to be astute and resourceful, and not even a potential suitor, Liam Cabot of the British Embassy, can sway her ever-present caution; she even calls in a background check during their first meeting. Her bond with Childs, however, is the story’s strongest relationship. An early scene, in which she protects him from an assassination attempt, ably establishes their trust and shows why she’s the one in charge of the presidential detail.

A fast-paced international adventure featuring engaging characters.

Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-9981612-0-4

Page Count: 456

Publisher: Oakhurst Print

Review Posted Online: May 15, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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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

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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.