by Leonid Heifets ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2014
An abundance of information, little intrigue and even less drama.
Murder at a Montana-based laboratory exposes the private grievances and fraternizations of the lab’s employees as well as a Russian plot to acquire biological weapons.
At the annual summer picnic for the Research Institute for Applied Immunology, Dr. Derek Meyer, the laboratory’s director of operations, is found dead in his car, the cause of death a mystery. Less than six months later, Dr. Jim Dellinger, the executive director of the same facility’s Department of Diagnostic Laboratories, is also found dead, shot in the back on the Institute’s grounds in Greeneville, Mont. Unequipped to deal with even the possibility of murder, the lab calls in the FBI to investigate, and agents find themselves immersed in a seemingly unremarkable workplace, where interoffice romances abound; even the genius scientists have the typical disdain for their bosses, whom they see as little more than financial officers and bureaucrats. Research at the lab is far from commonplace, however, and the feds soon find out the unassuming laboratory is ground zero for stem cell research, gene therapy and even the study of biological agents, making it a target for both industrial and international espionage. Heifets (African Exposure, 2010) uses the FBI’s questions to delve deeper into these subjects and numerous others ranging from Russian history to genetically modified foods as he attempts to use the veneer of a murder mystery to introduce these wide-ranging subjects. However, the dialogue they are presented in feels unnatural, more like dense lectures than conversations, with each lab employee just a little too polite, a little too cordial, especially for people dealing with the deaths of their co-workers while they themselves are possibly suspects. Though these long-winded discourses are frequently informative, well-researched, even timely, they dominate the novel so as to overpower its narrative, leaving little room for character development. When it is finally revealed that Russian spies are targeting the lab, the specifics seem anticlimactic because they have been given no more emphasis than anything else.
An abundance of information, little intrigue and even less drama.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-1480909397
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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