There's merry hell to pay when a high-level CIA plot to gather illegal intelligence at a conference on the global trade in endangered species comes undone—in a bizarre but lively sixth thriller from Goddard (Wildfire, 1994, etc.), currently the director of the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory . To the despair and frustration of agency officials, one of their prized assets has gone into business for himself. Known only as Digger, the rogue operative is greatly esteemed for his ability to break into almost any building or computer system. Unfortunately, though, Digger (whose sobriquet derives from his tunneling expertise) is also a sociopath who delights in killing pets and people while burgling upscale homes in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Arrested for murdering a German Interpol officer and his family, Digger is sent to a mental institution for observation. In the course of the commitment proceedings, he becomes convinced that Henry Culver, the Fairfax County criminalist whose testimony has kept him in custody, did not play fair with the evidence. When CIA mercenaries spring Digger from the asylum, his twisted sense of equity sets him on a vendetta. Meantime, Culver's new boss, a bent cop named Theodore Gauss, has purloined Digger's PC, cracked its software codes, and assumed command of the housebreaking crew the artful dodger directed via computer. Then Digger begins taking revenge on those he believes have done him wrong. Despite leaving a bloody trail, the fugitive psycho keeps at bay both his erstwhile masters at the CIA and the local police force (confused by the unsuspected perfidy of Gauss). With an assist from Charles L'Que (a French colonel assigned to security duties at the wildlife conference), the cerebral Culver eventually tracks Digger to his lair in a subterranean cavern and arranges appropriate comeuppances for other villains of the piece. A wealth of violent action, outer-edge plotting, and authentic detail on what lab guys really look for at a crime scene.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-85945-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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