Old virtues collide with a new world order's bottom-line values in another of Thomas's classy, cautionary tales of big-time business (Black Money, 1994, etc.) The securities markets are baffled when GIA, a high-flying multinational run by John (Jack) Mannerman, acquires Baker Extractive Engineering Corp., a failing manufacturer. The takeover, it develops, is an expedient favor done during an election year for an influential congressman in whose district BEECO is based, but H.A. Baker, the archetypal WASP whose family has undermined the firm's competitiveness with overly paternal policies, takes Mannerman at his word when he pledges to revivify the company. The slippery conglomerateur's commitment soon proves inch-deep; he simply charges Lucy Preston, his VP for investor relations, with explaining the dubious deal to Wall Street. While easing the financial community's anxieties, Lucy drifts into an affair with Baker, a charmer from the old school whose prowess as a globe- trotting hunter far exceeds his managerial talents. When Mannerman pulls the plug on BEECO, however, the aging preppie dumps her in a rage. Word eventually comes from Africa that Baker has been eaten by crocodiles. Thereafter, two of GIA's superstar TV personalities- -the executive overseeing its media enterprise, and the investment banker who engineered the sale of BEECO—meet gruesome ends. Her suspicions aroused, Lucy begins digging into Baker's demise. Soon convinced that her ex-lover is alive, well, and killing off those whom he believes betrayed his trust, she resolves to stop him. With help from a handful of unlikely allies, Lucy finally puts paid to the crazed Baker (who's assumed a most clever disguise) on a Christmas Eve in Venice, where he hopes to slaughter a number of fat cats gathered to celebrate Mannerman's 15th anniversary as CEO of GIA. A vastly entertaining—if less than credible—tale of socioeconomic crimes and punishment, leavened as usual with the author's sharp asides on contemporary commerce and tastes.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-374-10857-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sure to be a bestseller, but the guy’s phoning it in.
A lukewarm would-be potboiler of uninvolving intrigue about a kooky quartet of conspiracy theorists—one by the name of “Oliver Stone”—who witness the murder of a federal agent.
Almost 8,000 Americans have died in attacks on U.S. soil. Rocket-propelled grenades have pierced the White House, there’s been another prison fiasco in Afghanistan, a dozen soldiers are dying every day and the war has opened a new front on the Syrian border. Thus the author’s bleak imagining of the near future. Throughout, Baldacci (Hour Game, 2004, etc.) drops reliable twists, revealing the federal agent murder to be—surprise—a minuscule piece of a much bigger plot involving snipers, nukes, a presidential kidnapping and an even gloomier vision of the future. Baldacci is not a particularly graceful writer, e.g., “Like all Secret Service agents, his suits were designed a little big in the chest, to disguise the bulge of the weapon.” Worse is the author’s chronic inability to draw convincing characters. Scooby-Doo had villains more complicated than these; distinctive quirks of the characters, such as one wearing 19th-century clothing, make them only mildly interesting. Baldacci himself seems only partly engaged in the task here. He writes as if he imagines his typical reader to be a business traveler staring down a long layover.
Sure to be a bestseller, but the guy’s phoning it in.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2005
ISBN: 0-446-57738-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
A mind-bending mystery, an insightful exploration of parent-child relationships, and a cautionary tale about bitterness and...
A young man seeking catharsis probes old wounds and unleashes fresh pain in this expertly crafted stand-alone from Edgar finalist Gaylin (If I Die Tonight, 2018, etc.).
Quentin Garrison is an accomplished true-crime podcaster, but it’s not until his troubled mother, Kate, fatally overdoses that he tackles the case that destroyed his family. In 1976, teenagers Gabriel LeRoy and April Cooper murdered 12 people in Southern California—Kate’s little sister included—before dying in a fire. Kate’s mother committed suicide, and her father withdrew, neglecting Kate, who in turn neglected Quentin. Quentin intends for Closure to examine the killings’ ripple effects, but after an interview with his estranged grandfather ends in a fight, he resolves to find a different angle. When a source alleges that April is alive and living in New York as Renee Bloom, Quentin is dubious, but efforts to debunk the claim only uncover more supporting evidence, so he flies east to investigate. Renee’s daughter, online film columnist Robin Diamond, is preoccupied with Twitter trolls and marital strife when Quentin calls to inquire about her mom’s connection to April Cooper. Robin initially dismisses Quentin but, upon reflection, realizes she knows nothing of Renee’s past. Before she can ask, a violent home invasion hospitalizes her parents and leaves Robin wondering whom she can trust. Artfully strewn red herrings and a kaleidoscopic narrative heighten tension while sowing seeds of distrust concerning the characters’ honesty and intentions. Letters from April to her future daughter written mid–crime spree punctuate chapters from Quentin's and Robin’s perspectives, humanizing her and Gabriel in contrast with sensationalized accounts from Hollywood and the media.
A mind-bending mystery, an insightful exploration of parent-child relationships, and a cautionary tale about bitterness and blame.Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-284454-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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