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KNIGHTLIGHT

Name: KNIGHTLIGHT
Author: M. D. Rossi
ISBN: 978-1452572222

PRELUDE TO THE DARK MESSIAH - BOOK ONE

by M. D. Rossi ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2013

This thriller can’t decide if it wants to entertain or convert.

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This bold Christian thriller sees a covert organization go to war against the supernatural.

In 1994, Dominic “Nick” Moreau’s wife and child were killed by what he described as a werewolf. The authorities, though, believed him to be the true murderer and locked him up. Enter Christopher Griffin, who interviewed Nick in prison, posing as an FBI agent, and explained his work for Knightlight—a group in God’s service that battles supernatural evil. Griffin invited Nick—himself a dedicated Christian with military experience—to join. Now codenamed Rock, Nick leads a Trinity squad that eliminates vampires, werewolves and other demonic hybrids fallen from God’s grace. Rock’s latest mission involves investigating Malcolm Carson, a famous sasquatch hunter who has assembled a massive hunting party to find his quarry in Montgomery County, Ind. The area has suffered a rash of grisly slayings that remind Rock of the beast that killed his family. Responsible for the chaos is Darlene, the mild-mannered leader of a satanic cult who helps foment the darkness that’s been brewing since Israel became a nation in 1947. Rock’s squad intends to shine a light on Darlene while protecting the misguided Carson and his lovely daughter, Crystal. Debut author Rossi brings clean action and humor to the adventure, which occasionally pops with one-liners: “Whatever Hell spat out, Knightlight was there to engage and return to its pit.” But much of the prose can be stilted: “The broad-brimmed hat that covered his head had absorbed much sweat in the heat of the day and was finally drying in the slight night breeze of the still very warm evening.” The largest problems, though, are the defensive political screeds that interrupt the narrative. For instance, a discussion on terrorism is full of bolded, italicized phrases, such as: “Freedom itself was shamed that day.” There’s also a tendency toward intellectual blandness, culminating in the line: “Artists, Crystal thought, who can understand them?”

This thriller can’t decide if it wants to entertain or convert.

Pub Date: April 26, 2013

ISBN: 978-1452572222

Page Count: 498

Publisher: BalboaPress

Review Posted Online: March 17, 2021

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.