A stellar desert setting reinforces this entertaining tale in which a group of bus passengers struggles to survive.
A Green Beret’s return to civilian life isn’t an easy transition, as a band of murderous drug suppliers hijacks his bus ride to Las Vegas in this energetic thriller.
Sgt. Kris Klug thinks his court-martial is a setup. During a mission in Iraq, he and his team are attacked by mercenaries from PeaceMaker Corporation, after which he inexplicably faces charges of, among other things, disobeying orders. Dishonorably discharged, Klug heads to Los Angeles, where Uncle Fred gives his nephew his trucking business and houses in Malibu and Vegas. Fred’s inching toward retirement, but unbeknownst to Klug, he’s also hoping to sell off his drug dealing business. Fred makes the sale but is double-crossed by the buyer, Bill Bradley, who steals his money back as well as a bag of cocaine. Now drug suppliers Fat Mike and El Chito want their cash and drugs, and they hijack a shuttle bus that they know Bradley and his wife, April, are riding in. Klug’s on the same bus, worried about Fred in Vegas. When it’s clear that the gang’s planning on murdering everyone and leaving them in the desert, Klug and the other passengers run, taking refuge in Fred’s nearby cabin. But Fat Mike and the rest are determined to find and kill them, if the desert heat doesn’t get the passengers first. Though the bulk of the story is a tense desert actioner, Biskeborn (A Sufi’s Ghost, 2013, etc.) sprinkles suspense throughout. Klug, for one, is twice attacked by (possibly) PeaceMaker mercenaries. This also cleverly ties into the main plot: Fat Mike, et al., contractors for PeaceMaker, contemplate a proffered contract to kill a Green Beret. Some of the story belongs to Fred, and it’s hard not to cheer him on as he and girlfriend Gina race to the airport to flee the country. Then again, Fred outclasses his appropriately vile associates, most notably cokehead Bradley. The desert sequences are exceptional: Klug’s group is in danger from both dehydration and armed killers, and the gang may be stashing the makings of a dirty bomb. The inner turmoil, too, augments the story; people suggest ditching April, who takes blame simply for being married to Bradley.
A stellar desert setting reinforces this entertaining tale in which a group of bus passengers struggles to survive.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4810-2698-7
Page Count: 390
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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