Frighteningly plausible, swiftly paced, and laden with suspense.
A wrongfully accused father fights to get his daughter back in McIntyre’s thriller debut.
Adam and Kate Grammaticus lead a happy married life in Oregon. Kate must use a wheelchair due to the effects of multiple sclerosis, but this is a difficulty they can manage as they dote on their 3-year-old daughter, Emma…until Child Protective Services drops a bombshell: Rachel Norwood, the Grammaticus’ nanny, alleges that Adam has hurt the couple’s daughter with a sharp tool. There’s no evidence whatsoever of abuse, but complications pile up, from a 23-year-old secret regarding a double homicide that Adam doesn’t want coming out to the accuser being found stabbed to death. After CPS places Emma in the foster care system, Adam believes his only options are to flee or be tried for murder. He turns to childhood friend and former military man Tugg Morgan, who shares Adam’s buried secret, for help. Compellingly complex characters populate the novel; Tugg’s loyalty never falters, but he also hides a grim past, and an apparent villain’s narrative perspective shows that the character is more misguided than malevolent. The author sets an exhilarating pace as Adam and Kate face copious hurdles, and motorcycle club duties (Tugg is a prospect) send the men all over Oregon, including to a Native American reservation. Concise prose (“Tugg snorted. ‘Don’t look for trouble. It’ll come or it won’t.’ ”) drives the story, especially in tense moments, such as confrontations with rival bikers and CPS’s unwelcome social calls. While McIntyre highlights flaws in the U.S. foster care system, it’s clear that specific corrupt individuals are the book’s true evil. It’s disappointing to see winsome, razor-sharp Kate’s appearances wane in the latter half, but Adam’s burner-phone calls back home and flashes of memories are blissful reminders of the family he’s fighting for.
Frighteningly plausible, swiftly paced, and laden with suspense.Pub Date: July 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1640620889
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Braveship Books
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
