Sprightly characters propel this tense story of dark secrets and duplicity.
The hunt for stolen Nazi treasure quickly turns deadly in Beck’s debut historical thriller.
Frank Reid is sad to lose his best friend and billionaire business partner Henry Weddell. Suspecting foul play, Frank enlists a security team in California to protect his own family as well as Henry’s, who may be targeted by diabolical types pursuing a fortune in Nazi-pilfered gold and cash. It seems that back in 1944, two American soldiers were captured by an SS officer, who made a deal with them: They’d get to live (“You’ve managed to avoid a firing squad”), and would even be comfortably rich, if they helped with a valuable haul. In 2008 Alaska, former CIA operative Jim Bennett keeps a close eye on three dubious individuals in his village: a wealthy oil producer, a recently-hired cop with a questionable past, and a nosy self-proclaimed writer. These potentially-linked men, along with Nazi artifacts that a local man unearthed decades ago, may all have ties to the search for the World War II–era loot. As the story progresses, Beck effortlessly adds characters to the perpetually growing cast; they include pilot Dale Olsen, Jim’s personable, 20-something kids Danny and Audra, and several highly-skilled members of security team Dark Star. There’s ample mystery at the beginning, as it’s unclear how the dual time eras, the action in two U.S. states, and the bevy of individuals will possibly connect. However, readers will be mostly caught up before the halfway point and way ahead of the characters piecing together what they’ve learned and concocting theories. There are still plentiful surprises and suspense as people double-cross one another or suddenly die (and trusting an SS general isn’t easy, even when he claims to despise Hitler). Facing off against greedy villains precipitates some entertaining action, and more than one pair among the cast may find a romance more rewarding than whatever the Nazis stole.
Sprightly characters propel this tense story of dark secrets and duplicity.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781886591363
Page Count: 418
Publisher: Blue Creek Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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