An intense political thriller that should attract House of Cards fans waiting for the next season.
In this tale of politics and betrayal, a Secret Service agent must do everything within his power to protect the president of the United States from forces that are conspiring to destroy him.
President Thomas Walters finds himself backed into a corner by an aggressive and ambitious U.S. senator from New Jersey, Tyler Rumson, who is armed with blackmail that would ruin the head of state’s life. So Walters decides to end it all, abruptly throwing Vice President David Kendall into the highest job in the land with the added responsibility of guiding a nation that is mourning a fallen leader. As his vice president, President Kendall chooses Rumson, unaware of the senator’s major role in his predecessor’s demise. Kendall also doesn’t know that Rumson is willing to do whatever it takes to push this final obstacle to the presidency out of his way. Meanwhile, Secret Service agent Matthew Richter is tortured by what he witnessed the day Walters died and can’t stop wondering if there was anything he could have done to save him. When Rumson and a few carefully chosen allies orchestrate a disaster designed to take President Kendall down, Richter finds himself with a second chance to save the commander in chief—but it will take all of his intelligence, bravery, and fortitude to survive the dangerous road ahead. Beyer packs his debut novel with just enough information about Washington, D.C., and its various institutions’ dueling agendas to make his wild tale feel grounded in reality without being weighed down by minutiae. Richter and Kendall are both noble, likable heroes, while Rumson is a deliciously evil villain in the mold of Frank Underwood of House of Cards. There is also a diverse cast of supporting characters, including two 20-something backpackers who find themselves tangled up in the fate of the president, that should keep the reader engaged in the human side of the story even as the plot gets dangerously close to flying off the rails. Richter is set to return in a second installment.
An intense political thriller that should attract House of Cards fans waiting for the next season.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9963857-0-1
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Old Stone Mill Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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