A taut storyline with familiar characters facing new challenges.
The story of former CIA officer—and current president—Jack Ryan continues with the threat of North Korea building a nuclear arsenal.
After co-authoring a number of political thrillers with the late Clancy, Greaney (Tom Clancy Support and Defend, 2014, etc.) continues the author's legacy by creating a realistic portrayal of political, corporate and private espionage. Jack Ryan is in the midst of his second term as president but remains as focused on sifting through critical intelligence data as ever; in this novel, it is the lurking problem of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea going nuclear that is at the center of the action. The president’s oldest son, Jack Ryan Jr., also faces the North Korean threat while working for the privately funded Campus, alongside standby Clancy characters Domingo ''Ding'' Chavez, John Clark and Dominic ''Dom'' Caruso. When a former CIA case officer is stabbed to death in Vietnam, the Campus operators start digging into the circumstances and soon find themselves squaring off with former FBI Counterintelligence officer Wayne “Duke” Sharps, now running Sharps Global Intelligence Partners. In Duke’s employment are former intel operators from England and France who are helping the DPRK develop an outlaw rare earth mine which could potentially be worth trillions of dollars and provide the necessary financial base for developing a nuclear cache. The DPRK is willing to do anything to obtain nuclear weapons, even attempt an assassination of President Ryan. With all these elements in play, Greaney delivers a story reminiscent of the older Clancy novels by showing evidence of a deep understanding of spycraft, current events, and the natures of the people who work in the shadows, at the desk and on the front lines.
A taut storyline with familiar characters facing new challenges.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-17335-6
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and...
In Pinborough’s (Behind Her Eyes, 2018, etc.) twisty, decade-spanning, multivoiced thriller, everyone has secrets: teenager Ava; her mom, Lisa; and Lisa’s best friend, Marilyn.
On the surface, all three women fulfill the roles expected of them, and they support and love one another, but they don’t truly know each other. Ava, a competitive swimmer, is finishing up her exams and sneaking around with her first boyfriend while overly protective mom Lisa is about to clinch a big contract at work—and maybe even go on a date with a handsome millionaire client. Marilyn has been dealing with headaches at home, but she’s still game for a shopping trip to outfit Lisa for that big date. Soon, however, they will discover that someone else in their lives has a secret much darker than any they carry. This person is a murderer who is stalking a childhood friend who, they believe, betrayed their deepest trust. There are a lot of plot twists and reveals within the novel, some of which are surprising, some of which are expected. Pinborough weaves several different time periods and several different narrative voices to create layers of character and conflict, but the characters are types often found in psychological thrillers, and while their problems are often relatable, at least at first, they aren’t particularly engaging. It’s clear which decisions, and which silences, are going to get them into trouble, and yet, as people do, they carry on anyway. The one element that sets Pinborough’s novel apart from the slew of similar thrillers is the emphasis on female empowerment and the power of female relationships. These women need no one to save them, no knights in shining armor or handsome cops. As Marilyn succinctly puts it, “Fuck. That. Shit.”
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and turns along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-285679-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Colorful, but best for those who don't mind Picoult's heavily sentimental style.
Teenaged witches, DNA evidence, Megan's Law, belladonna-laced tea, and an honest ex-con addicted to Jeopardy!, all mixed up in a well-researched if slightly disappointing small-town legal drama by veteran Picoult (Plain Truth, 2000, etc.).
Honest prep-school teacher and soccer coach Jack St. Bride has just completed an unjust sentence for statutory rape, to which he pleaded guilty only because a lazy lawyer persuaded him to hedge his bets. Somewhat unbelievably, he managed to escape being raped in prison by telling the brutal Mountain Felcher, "You're not going to break me." When he stops in Salem Falls, New Hampshire, to begin anew, things start looking up as he falls swiftly in love with his employer, fragile diner-owner Addie Peabody. The fact that she "tasted of coffee and loneliness" upon first kiss does not hinder Jack, but the law does: as a convicted sexual offender, he's required to register with the local police, and of course they can't keep a secret. Before long, there's widespread paranoia about the "dangerous rapist" on the loose in Salem Falls. Foremost of the alarmists is Amos Duncan, head of Duncan Pharmaceuticals, the town's only major corporation. His ire is exacerbated when his weird daughter Gillian, a devoted Wiccan, sets into action a chain of events that snares Jack in another rape charge—this time not merely statutory. One-third of the way in, the story turns into a courtroom battle between civil-liberties eccentric Jordan McAfee and sanctimonious prosecutor Matt Houlihan. Picoult's depiction of the legal process is excellent, especially her intriguing and thorough explanation of DNA evidence, and the narrative is impressively complicated, with a couple of eye-opening surprises. A few of the resolutions, however, seem contrived, and when the language turns lyrical or metaphorical, it falls flat.
Colorful, but best for those who don't mind Picoult's heavily sentimental style.Pub Date: April 10, 2001
ISBN: 0-7434-1870-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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