Fun to read, as always with Moriarty's books, but try not to think about it or it will stop making sense.
Nine people gather at a luxurious health resort in the Australian bushland. Will they have sex, fall in love, get killed, or maybe just lose weight?
Moriarty (Truly Madly Guilty, 2014, etc.) is known for darkly humorous novels set in the suburbs of Sydney—though her most famous book, Big Little Lies (2014), has been transported to Monterey, California, by Reese Witherspoon's HBO series. Her new novel moves away from the lives of prosperous parents to introduce a more eclectic group of people who've signed up for a 10-day retreat at Tranquillium House, a remote spa run by the messianic Masha, "an extraordinary-looking woman. A supermodel. An Olympic athlete. At least six feet tall, with corpse-like white skin and green eyes so striking and huge they were almost alien-like." This was the moment when the guests should probably have fled, but they all decided to stay (perhaps because their hefty payments were nonrefundable?). The book's title is slightly misleading, since not all the guests are strangers to each other. There are two family groups: Ben and Jessica Chandler, a young couple whose relationship broke down after they won the lottery, and the Marconis, Napolean and Heather and their 20-year-old daughter, Zoe, who are trying to recover after the death of Zoe's twin brother, Zach. Carmel Schneider is a divorced housewife who wants to get her mojo back, Lars Lee is an abnormally handsome divorce lawyer who's addicted to spas, and Tony Hogburn is a former professional footballer who wants to get back into shape. Though all these people have their own chapters, the main character is Frances Welty, a romance writer who needs a pick-me-up after having had her latest novel rejected and having been taken in by an internet scam—she fell in love with a man she met on Facebook and sent money to help his (nonexistent) son, who'd been in a (nonexistent) car accident. How humiliating for a writer to fall for a fictional person, Frances thinks, in her characteristically wry way. When the guests arrive, they're given blood tests (why?) and told they're going to start off with a five-day "noble silence" in which they're not even supposed to make eye contact with each other. As you can imagine, something fishy is going on, and while Moriarty displays her usual humor and Frances in particular is an appealing character, it's all a bit ridiculous.
Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-06982-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Fun fare by a talented storyteller. Let's just hope Ricciardi's hero doesn't change his name again.
CIA agent Jake Keller’s drone nearly starts World War III, and he puts his life on the line to prevent it in this nonstop thriller.
Let’s get this out of the way first: Zac Miller, the hero of Ricciardi's Warning Light (2018), has changed his name to Jake Keller, but he’s still a badass. With colleague Curt Roach, they launch a drone called Drifter-72 against an al-Qaida terrorist in Saudi Arabia. But it escapes their control, flies to Mecca, and obliterates 3,000 Muslims on the last day of the Hajj at “the holiest site in all of Islam.” Suddenly, the whole world hates the United States. Keller convinces his bosses that the drone had been hijacked, but by whom? Apparently, by someone who wants to drive a permanent wedge between America and Muslims. The backlash is ferocious, with many small groups of terrorists infiltrating the U.S., shooting up civilians and blowing up fuel storage facilities. Bad guys hire an old freighter bound for Texas and load a container holding a nuke. Saudi Arabia’s king professes faith in America’s innocence, but that may get him killed. America’s strong suspicion for the Hajj attack turns to China, the only other country with the technical ability to reprogram someone else’s drone in flight. That could well mean a full-blown conflict between two big, angry countries with nukes. If the U.S. believes China “attacked another nation in their name, then there will be war,” states China’s President Chéng. Obviously, Keller and company had better sort this out PDQ. This yarn has a Category 5 hurricane in the Caribbean, a nasty sandstorm and a pitched battle in a Roman coliseum in Libya, and of course the proverbial ticking clock. Plenty of bodies fall from high-velocity lead poisoning, and the tension in this well-plotted thriller continues right to the end.
Fun fare by a talented storyteller. Let's just hope Ricciardi's hero doesn't change his name again.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-58576-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Here, she adapts the plot of Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, about a late-night California disc jockey whose life is...
With her latest, Brown (The Crush, 2002) passes fifty-some bongs on the New York Times bestseller list, though her score probably includes paperback reprints as well as hardcovers.
Here, she adapts the plot of Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, about a late-night California disc jockey whose life is threatened by a listener. Brown bows to Eastwood by having her DJ play the Johnny Mathis classic, “Misty,” but where Clint’s jock was menaced by a murderess, in this version Paris Gibson, a woman who has perfected a late-night voice for her callers and romantic disc-spinning in Austin, Texas, has to deal with a man who calls himself Valentino. He blames Paris’s rotten advice for all of his failures with the ladies, especially his latest, Janey. He’s already made Janey prisoner, raped her bloody (mercifully not described in detail), and plans to murder her in three days, then kill Paris herself for misleading him. The terrified DJ calls for help from her old lover, police psychologist Dean Malloy, but Valentino doesn't even wait three days to kill Janey. Ready for a remake? Play it again, Clint.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2003
ISBN: 0-7432-4552-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2003
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