Preserves its Christian sensibilities without failing to entertain as a thriller.
In Allcut’s debut Christian-themed thriller, a widow believes that her late husband, an FBI agent near retirement, has faked his death, possibly for a Special Forces operation.
Bootsie Martini refuses to accept the death of her husband, Gunter, whose boat exploded during a 1987 hurricane in South Carolina but whose body was never found. She thinks the former spy is still alive, but the cops seem certain that Bootsie had something to do with Gunter’s disappearance. Her fingerprints were on gas cans that she filled for the boat, and she failed a polygraph. Bootsie finally gets confirmation on Gunter’s fate when he calls to tell her to make her way to the Soviet Union, where his life may be in danger—for real, this time. The spy novel devotes few pages to actual espionage, opting instead, as the title says, to focus on the spy’s wife. In the first half, Bootsie contends with the cops’ suspicions, while in the second, Bootsie and Gunter reunite in the Soviet Union. The KGB’s distrust of Gunter (supposedly its double agent) and the couple’s attempt to flee the country drive suspense. Christian ideals such as marriage are highlighted: Bootsie questions whether Gunter puts his job before her but is determined to stay with the man she loves. She prays often and avoids cursing. Even readers who aren’t Christian may appreciate Bootsie’s prayers, which become her solace, since she’s mostly alone. Her two daughters have their own lives and families; she’s wary of her friend Bevin’s obvious attraction to Gunter; and small-town gossip has essentially deemed her a murderer. The book does falter with a timeline that’s a bit jumbled: There’s mention of a DVD prior to the format’s existence and an October date given for an event is noted as May in later pages. But Allcut maintains the intrigue—someone follows Bootsie while she’s still in the U.S.; a shady neighbor may be a Russian spy; there’s a plot to assassinate the president—all the way until the shocking ending, which, if another book is in the works, can pass for a cliffhanger.
Preserves its Christian sensibilities without failing to entertain as a thriller.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1491845677
Page Count: 252
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2014
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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