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DEEP BLUE

An often engaging tale, but stronger editing might have turned it into a gem.

Two adrenaline junkies meet during a shark-research expedition in McCaffrey’s (The Bluebird, 2016, etc.) adventure novel with more than a hint of romance.

At 26, Grace Mann has a doctorate, works as a researcher for the California Marine Institute, and is famous, to boot, after a photograph of her free diving with a great white shark goes viral. Her latest expedition takes her to Guadalupe Island, near the Baja California peninsula, to tag great whites and test out a sonar array to track them; Grace also looks forward to free diving with sharks some more. Alec Galloway joins the team as a documentary filmmaker, and immediately, he and Grace are drawn to each other. But as Alec’s feelings for Grace grow, so does his concern for her safety. And as the danger of her underwater encounters ramps up, so do tensions on the boat. Meanwhile, a film distributor linked to the expedition wants more footage of bloody shark encounters; Grace’s ex-boyfriend, Brad Michaels, who’s now her boss, tries to steal her work; and a graduate student, Mackenzie, flirts with Alec and stirs Grace’s jealousy. McCaffrey effectively increases the tension every time Grace enters the water; readers will never know what will happen next. She also draws out the sexual tension between Grace and Alec at length. McCaffrey has clearly done her research, noting that sharks are “notoriously bashful” and showing Grace using a technique called “tonic immobility” to calm a shark; at another point, she notes that when Grace free-dives, “her spleen—in response to the lack of air—release[s] fresh, oxygen-rich blood into her system.” The author tells the story from a close third-person perspective, shifting between Alec and Grace, making readers privy to their true feelings. At times, though, this gets a little repetitive, as does all the minutiae regarding meals and clothes.

An often engaging tale, but stronger editing might have turned it into a gem.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-9980907-5-7

Page Count: 316

Publisher: K. McCaffrey LLC

Review Posted Online: April 30, 2018

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

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JURASSIC PARK

Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990

ISBN: 0394588169

Page Count: 424

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990

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