BETRAYAL

Name: BETRAYAL
Author: Nancy Ann Healy
ISBN: 978-0692213544

by Nancy Ann Healy ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2014

Further plot pointers would benefit readers new to the series, but the appealing protagonists will pique interest for the...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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.