This novel, packed with action, intrigue, sexual chemistry, and a lot of archaeological research, gets its series off to a...
This first volume of a new fantasy series sees a renowned scientist looking into the mysterious death of his archaeologist uncle.
After earning a fortune in the biochemical industry, 42-year-old Anlon Cully is enjoying early retirement on Lake Tahoe, where he spends his days on his yacht and his nights at a local watering hole. There, he’s developed a close friendship with an edgy, young bartender, Eleanor Marie “Pebbles” McCarver. When Anlon’s uncle, the famed archaeologist Devlin Wilson, dies while hiking in the mountains, Anlon travels to Devlin’s home in upstate New York to take care of his affairs. However, Devlin’s colleague Matthew Dobson is convinced that Devlin’s death wasn’t a tragic accident, but murder. When Dobson is also found dead, local detective Jennifer Stevens brings Anlon in for questioning. Anlon soon summons Pebbles to his side, and they dig deep into Devlin’s controversial research regarding a set of artifacts known as the Life Stones. Each of the stones possesses different powers, and they provide evidence that ancient civilizations were actually far more technologically advanced than we are today. It turns out that there are other people who will do whatever it takes to obtain these legendary objects. Anlon, Pebbles, and Jennifer must figure out which of these various nefarious characters is responsible for Devlin’s death, even as Anlon becomes their next target. Debut author Donoghue ably creates three very distinct protagonists in Anlon, Pebbles, and Jennifer. However, the repeated mentions of Pebbles’ stunning looks, and her ability to eat epic amounts of food while remaining supermodel slim, grow tiring. Jennifer’s sharp tongue, quick thinking, and fearless behavior, though, will make her a reader favorite. The archaeology-driven mystery, while difficult to unravel at times, will appeal in equal measures to fans of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon novels and History’s theory-filled Ancient Aliens TV series. Donoghue leaves enough loose ends hanging to make readers feel compelled to pick up the next volume.
This novel, packed with action, intrigue, sexual chemistry, and a lot of archaeological research, gets its series off to a promising start.Pub Date: May 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9973164-0-7
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Leaping Leopard Enterprises
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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
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