This tale’s sharp focus on imperfect but appealing characters sets it apart from standard genre fare.
In Hunt’s debut thriller, a forest ranger races across the United States with his daughter to reunite with his wife after a solar flare wreaks havoc worldwide.
Alex Robinson is a disaster “prepper” who’s often worried about riots, food shortages, or mad cow disease, so news reports of an unusually large solar flare have him on edge. After his preteen daughter Piper’s out-of-state swim meet in New York City, he wants to forgo sightseeing and quickly get home to his wife (and Piper’s mother), Cameron, in Seattle. But before he and his daughter can leave, there’s a statewide power outage, and it turns out that other parts of the country are facing the same problem. Alex opts to hit the road with Piper, which proves to be an arduous undertaking involving shoddy cellphone service, raging storms, and even falling planes. In the meantime, former Army medic and current emergency room nurse Cameron takes refuge at the family’s cabin in the mountains of Washington state. The relatively small cabin community, however, isn’t immune to unrest, and she and her friend Wade, who also served in the Army, try to maintain order. Meanwhile, she hopes that her family members make it home or, at least, find a way to communicate with her. Hunt’s narrative is epic in scope, but he aptly zeroes in on his main characters to tell the story. Readers don’t know any more about the ongoing catastrophes than the Robinsons do, although one scientific explanation is offered—as a minor character’s conjecture. Hunt further elevates the suspense by adding personal obstacles (diabetic Piper needs insulin, for example) and character flaws (Alex must overcome his trust issues). It’s familiar terrain; as in other disaster or apocalyptic novels, people—including car thieves and trigger-happy survivors—are invariably worse than the calamity they face. But the author delivers it all in easygoing, steadily paced prose, resulting in an ending that thoroughly wraps things up—although a sequel would be feasible.
This tale’s sharp focus on imperfect but appealing characters sets it apart from standard genre fare.Pub Date: July 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-91671-1
Page Count: 477
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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