As usual, FitzSimmons provides nonstop action and a high body count, though it’s hard to maintain a consistent rooting...
Portugal may be a paradise for some, but for soldier of fortune Gibson Vaughn and his mates, it turns out to be an exceptionally bad spot to hide out from the FBI.
The problem isn’t with Albufeira but with Baltasar Alves, the gang leader who’s imposed a “Pax Algarve” on the region by suppressing the worst kinds of crimes, organizing the others with ruthless efficiency, and conscientiously repaying favors. An unnamed debt he owes Gibson’s ex-boss George Abe has cast him as the long-term host of George, Gibson, ex–LAPD officer Dan Hendricks, and Jenn Charles, Gibson’s sometime squeeze, as they recuperate from their most recent injuries (Cold Harbor, 2017) and wait for the feds to lose interest in them. While they’re still waiting, somebody hijacks a shipment of drugs from one of Baltasar’s many subcontractors, seriously miffing his Mexican suppliers impatient for their money. Baltasar initially suspects the subcontractor, neophyte skipper João Luna, but there’s every chance the guilty party was someone closer to home, someone like trusted lieutenant Anibal Ferro, or Fernando Alves, the son who runs his father’s legal activities, or Luisa Mata, the niece who runs all the others. Soon after Baltasar insists that the very unwilling Gibson repay his hospitality by recovering his stash double-quick, Luisa leads Gibson to the hijacked drugs, which a fiendish plotter calling himself Dol5 (dolphin—get it? "You know how a five-dollar bill is called a 'fin'?") has booby-trapped, taking a page from Auric Goldfinger, so that he can threaten to blow them up without taking the trouble to actually steal them. An unexpected offer Dol5 makes Gibson complicates the pattern of thrust and counterthrust still further, and soon nearly everyone involved is engaged in negotiating and renegotiating deals with escalating stakes, unreliable allies, and murderous adversaries.
As usual, FitzSimmons provides nonstop action and a high body count, though it’s hard to maintain a consistent rooting interest when the ground is so constantly shifting beneath his stalwart hero’s feet.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5039-5164-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days...
In 1876, professor Edward Cope takes a group of students to the unforgiving American West to hunt for dinosaur fossils, and they make a tremendous discovery.
William Jason Tertullius Johnson, son of a shipbuilder and beneficiary of his father’s largess, isn’t doing very well at Yale when he makes a bet with his archrival (because every young man has one): accompany “the bone professor” Othniel Marsh to the West to dig for dinosaur fossils or pony up $1,000, but Marsh will only let Johnson join if he has a skill they can use. They need a photographer, so Johnson throws himself into the grueling task of learning photography, eventually becoming proficient. When Marsh and the team leave without him, he hitches a ride with another celebrated paleontologist, Marsh’s bitter rival, Edward Cope. Despite warnings about Indian activity, into the Judith badlands they go. It’s a harrowing trip: they weather everything from stampeding buffalo to back-breaking work, but it proves to be worth it after they discover the teeth of what looks to be a giant dinosaur, and it could be the discovery of the century if they can only get them back home safely. When the team gets separated while transporting the bones, Johnson finds himself in Deadwood and must find a way to get the bones home—and stay alive doing it. The manuscript for this novel was discovered in Crichton’s (Pirate Latitudes, 2009, etc.) archives by his wife, Sherri, and predates Jurassic Park (1990), but if readers are looking for the same experience, they may be disappointed: it’s strictly formulaic stuff. Famous folk like the Earp brothers make appearances, and Cope and Marsh, and the feud between them, were very real, although Johnson is the author’s own creation. Crichton takes a sympathetic view of American Indians and their plight, and his appreciation of the American West, and its harsh beauty, is obvious.
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days of American paleontology.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-247335-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
