A sometimes-intriguing sequel that hits the ground running, but not every reader will wish to keep up with it.
Anti-terrorism agent Miguel Mejia is caught between his duty and the voices in his head in Walton’s (APOK, 2013) second political thriller in a series.
In the near future, the world has united under one government, but not everyone is content with this arrangement. Unemployment worldwide has reached a record high, and the anti-government terrorist organization Sons of Liberty has launched a bombing campaign against civilians. Col. Miguel “APOK” Mejia is a leader in the mission to root out the terrorist threat, but after he’s severely injured in a bombing in Beijing, he awakens in a hospital. The first-ever global election is about to take place—a crucial test for the new order—and, as investigative reporter Carrie Warren is discovering, certain parties are willing to manipulate reporters to see their preferred outcome. Miguel’s friends, including Capt. Paula Connie, want him back on his feet to meet whatever threats lurk in the shadows, but he’s been behaving strangely since his injury. He’s been hearing a hoarse, accented voice in his ear—one that no one else can hear—and it’s been whispering disturbing threats. When it gives him instructions to assassinate World Leader Reficuel Nomed, it looks like the planet’s greatest asset in the fight against terrorism may become the greatest threat to world democracy. Walton’s detailed prose has an urgent tone throughout, and the worldbuilding and plot are both highly complex. However, his use of the present tense makes some passages feel more like a screenplay than a novel: “As the dashboard lights begin to fade, the driver’s door opens. A near-bare feminine body enters the warm air. She closes the door using her hips and surveys the exterior of the vehicle.” Also, the author never quite strikes a consistent balance between delivering and withholding information, leaving the reader frequently confused despite moments of clunky expository dialogue. The resulting flat characters and messy structure may make it difficult for readers to become fully invested in the story.
A sometimes-intriguing sequel that hits the ground running, but not every reader will wish to keep up with it.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-3644-1
Page Count: 461
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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