A fast-paced DEA tale with a social conscience that should have many readers looking forward to more of Jason Kraft.
In this debut thriller launching a new series, an undercover drug enforcement agent becomes embroiled in shady dealings in the tobacco industry.
Pot is the new tobacco. Hardly anybody knows this better than the greedy folks at Connecticut’s Treadwell Farms, where efforts are secretly underway to somehow cash in on the hot ticket that is marijuana. Marco Pinto, a scientist at the farm, busily spends his waking hours manipulating a new strain of tobacco with THC, the compound in marijuana that delivers the high. Since tobacco farms are already outfitted to work with what was once a booming cash crop, having a similar product become the new darling will work in their favor. There’s only one slight problem: marijuana is still illegal in most of the country, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, in the form of Jason Kraft, must make sure this genetic hybrid doesn’t surface on the streets. Complicating Kraft’s mission is the gorgeous Alondra Espinoza, a Puerto Rican native who packs a mean punch under that Miss Congeniality exterior. Espinoza is an FBI agent assigned to the case by bosses convinced that the DEA is not doing its job. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase between different characters with conflicting interests in a plot that is tightly paced, if occasionally confusing. Bombard reveals the unfair labor practices in Connecticut’s tobacco industry—operations with no unions, no health benefits, deficient working conditions, and poor pay but which remain legal. It’s difficult to reconcile the land of hedge fund managers, one of the richest states in the U.S., with this kind of inequity. Unfortunately, Kraft’s romantic relationship with the beautiful Espinoza becomes a distraction at times, especially since it stalls the story frequently. And the many twists and turns may confound inattentive readers. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of action and fun to keep devoted fans of the thriller/spy genre satisfied.
A fast-paced DEA tale with a social conscience that should have many readers looking forward to more of Jason Kraft.Pub Date: July 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5150-8064-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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