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Night of the Bonfire

Name: Night of the Bonfire
Author: Kevin Scott Olson
ISBN: 978-0-615-97015-8

A MICHAEL QUINN NOVEL

by Kevin Scott Olson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2015

This appealing spy is more than capable when shots are fired, and he’s about ready for his own series, too.

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In Olson’s debut thriller, an independent contractor for the CIA looks into the murder of an operative undercover in the California art scene.

Former Navy SEAL Michael Quinn’s latest job for the CIA revolves around the late Lloyd Blackwell, an agent whose Laguna Beach art gallery had been his cover. Blackwell was clearly on to something, but all the CIA knows is that someone was moving drug money to secure a “legendary painting.” The case also involves a blood feud between Russian and Italian families, making shady art collectors Viktor Orlov and Marco Leone targets for Quinn. Posing as an art dealer, Quinn catches the eye of Leone’s girlfriend, Sienna, before tying the Italian to a new brand of heroin. Locating the painting could link its current owner to Blackwell’s murder, and it isn’t long before Quinn is dodging baddies in both Italy and the United States. Olson’s espionage story is loaded with action sequences. Quinn shares a few characteristics with a certain British spy: he starts his mission at a casino, dons a tuxedo when necessary, and even uses a gadget called a quiver, an outfitted tube for carrying and safeguarding the painting. But Olson wisely focuses on scenes befitting the ex-SEAL. Setting a limpet mine, for example, all while underwater, requires the stealth and skills his old occupation afforded him. He also excels at hand-to-hand combat and ultimately finds himself in a high-speed pursuit with a helicopter thrown into the mix. The ex-SEAL is far from impassive, earning sympathy during his opening assignment when his anonymous phone call allows members of a drug cartel to escape a cantina before he blows it up. Unfortunately, Sienna, the only significant female character, barely registers. She doesn’t seem to have any intel or association with Leone’s criminal activities. The narrative instead lingers on her physical attributes because Quinn spends much of his time ogling her, though he at least does it covertly.

This appealing spy is more than capable when shots are fired, and he’s about ready for his own series, too.

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-615-97015-8

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Roseblood Publications

Review Posted Online: March 7, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.