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
Although it’s as shallow as the grave an inconvenient body is buried in, this thriller does offer some nastily entertaining...
A marital thriller aspiring to the Gone Girl model offers some dark surprises.
Scott is a pen name for two collaborators, one a publishing professional, the other a screenwriter, and they seem to have done their homework. The book, already optioned for a TV series, is squarely aimed at a slot in the growing list of he-said, she-said mysteries. The novel focuses on spouses Paul and Rebecca, whose almost two-decade-long marriage flounders after his contracting business fails. She’s thriving as a pharmaceutical sales rep—a convenient job for a woman with Rebecca’s raging opioid addiction. They are not a likable pair. Both are inveterate liars, Paul about his adultery, Rebecca about her drug abuse. They swing wildly between intricate, amoral scheming and profound naiveté—at several points, the only thing more incredible than one character’s lies is that the other believes them so readily. Paul’s affair with an unhappy neighbor goes sideways about the same time Rebecca’s boss faces legal problems and the disappearance of his beautiful wife, whom Rebecca detests. Someone ends up dead, of course, and Paul and Rebecca must dispose of a body. But when a hidden corpse is found, it’s not the one they buried. The book has multiple first-person narrators and a plot that weaves strands through various timelines; through its middle portion it bogs down under the weight of all that but tightens up for a fast-paced final third that accelerates past some less than believable elements.
Although it’s as shallow as the grave an inconvenient body is buried in, this thriller does offer some nastily entertaining twists.Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4452-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
A soapy and fun woman-centric thriller.
The enigmatic founder of an exclusive female-only co-working space suddenly disappears, stirring up a maelstrom of secrets in Bartz’s (The Lost Night, 2019, etc.) new thriller.
The Herd, emphasis on “her,” is the hottest, most sought-after co-working space in New York City—there’s even a waiting list. Founder Eleanor Walsh prides herself on her exclusive yet inclusive safe space for “women and marginalized genders” and seems genuinely dedicated to nurturing and inspiring creativity and joy. She’s hired her most trusted friends to keep the wheels turning, including publicist Hana Bradley, whom Eleanor has known since their Harvard days. Now Hana’s sister, Katie, a journalist, has come to New York after a failed book deal and a yearlong stint caring for their sick mother. Katie would love to score a spot at the Herd with Hana’s help, but Eleanor won’t hear of Katie jumping the waitlist, and meanwhile someone has been defacing the Herd offices with misogynistic (to say the least) graffiti. While Eleanor and Hana juggle that crisis, Katie sells her agent on a book about Eleanor, but everything blows up when Eleanor disappears. It turns out that Eleanor is hiding a closetful of skeletons which soon come tumbling out. But, of course, Eleanor isn’t the only one with secrets. Katie, who is white, and Hana, who is adopted and is described as having dark skin, have a fraught history, which is revealed via alternating narratives. This tension fractures them at a time when they need each other the most, adding a heavy dose of angst to the central mystery. Bartz whips up a fast pace and adequate suspense, though character development suffers a bit in the process. However, once the dominoes begin to fall in the twisty finale, readers will likely be turning pages too quickly to mind.
A soapy and fun woman-centric thriller.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984826-36-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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