Further plot pointers would benefit readers new to the series, but the appealing protagonists will pique interest for the...
The assassination of the U.S. president gradually exposes a secret organization that spans the globe in Healy’s (Intersection, 2014) second thriller to feature lovers Alexis Toles and Cassidy O’Brien.
Before he succumbs to an assassin’s bullet, President John Merrow rather cryptically tells his friend Alex that she needs to follow Brackett and Krause. Krause is CIA, but Brackett could be either the mysterious and powerful Adm. Brackett or his daughter, FBI agent Claire Brackett. Alex, just returned to her job at the NSA, learns that the president’s assassination may be the result of his working against an enigmatic group known as the Collaborative, which includes politicians, military members, etc., from various countries. Alex plans to infiltrate the organization for answers and to retrieve info on the Collaborative’s latest venture—a potential biological weapon. The world of political intrigue is amply detailed and gleefully convoluted; Alex’s lesbian lover, Cassidy, had a one-time fling with the president, who fathered her 7-year-old son, Dylan, unbeknownst to her ex-husband and the presumed dad, Christopher, a congressman in a sexual relationship with Claire. Healy keeps the myriad characters in line with frequent references to job titles, such as NSA Director Michael Taylor, which helps make the endlessly shifting alliances easier to follow. In lieu of descriptive passages, the story progresses mostly through dialogue but still manages solid visual cues, such as Alex’s tendency to pinch the bridge of her nose when frustrated or conflicted and the introduction in several scenes of Claire by her notable red hair. Healy writes the novel assuming readers have read the series’ first book, so particulars on Christopher’s car accident (that may not have been an accident) and Cassidy’s abduction, which have ties to the main plot, are regrettably lacking. Just as much of the narrative is devoted to Alex and Cassidy’s romance as it is to the espionage. They make an endearing couple who certainly face dramatic hurdles along the way, especially Alex’s small-minded father, who doesn’t hide his disapproval of the women’s relationship and their desire to, along with Dylan, be a family. But their repeated professions of love to one another can be excessive, especially because their embraces and caresses are far stronger expressions.
Further plot pointers would benefit readers new to the series, but the appealing protagonists will pique interest for the preceding book.Pub Date: June 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692213544
Page Count: 482
Publisher: Bumbling Bard Creations
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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