A sometimes-clinical narrative relays a smart, unquestionably regaling tale.
The crew of a Malaysian crude oil tanker bound for India is held hostage by armed men demanding a hefty ransom in Isaiah’s debut thriller.
When a group of men sporting Uzis storms the Green Endeavour, her 18 crew members, including Capt. John Lopez, become their hostages. The hijackers are more organized than typical pirates since it’s clear that they’ve specifically chosen the vessel for its deep-pocketed owner—multibillion-dollar Global Shipping. Satu, the leader of the armed men, uses Capt. Lopez to communicate with the company and demand that $25 million be delivered in three days—or else there will be consequences. While Global Shipping president and CEO Vincent Lee decides whether to pay the hijackers, Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense assembles an elite team to prep a possible rescue mission. But they must be cautious: when Global Shipping violates the baddies’ instructions not to contact the vessel (and instead await further direction), Satu confirms the severity of the situation by executing a crew member. The novel sometimes has the feel of a report, delivering the narrative in an unadorned style with minimal dialogue. It’s shocking, for example, that Global Shipping seems more worried about the legal ramifications from the crew’s families if anyone is killed, while First Bank, which is handling the ransom payment, sees the incident as a way to promote the bank. Isaiah does take time to focus on human interaction. In one of the best scenes, Satu forces Capt. Lopez to choose which crew member will be killed. Though much of the novel is spent on the Green Endeavour, there’s also a good deal of perspective from outside the ship. As a consequence, readers don’t always know what the hijackers are planning, which leads to a superb twist and a delightfully memorable ending when the ransom drop doesn’t go quite as expected. Those unfamiliar with nautical terms, however, might be confused by the abundant seafaring jargon.
A sometimes-clinical narrative relays a smart, unquestionably regaling tale.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1502323712
Page Count: 316
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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