For all its political posturing, Gingrich's first entry in a new contemporary series is a competent thriller. But in a...
Faced with a dire threat from Russia, U.S. operatives attempt to sneak a disgruntled Kremlin official with knowledge of an impending attack out of Moscow.
The official is Deputy Foreign Minister Yakov Pavel, whose political standing is being whittled down by Putin-like President Vyachesian Leninovich Kalugin's coldblooded henchman, Gen. Gromyko. Since the mysterious death of Pavel's daughter and son-in-law, scientists who were working on a secret project, he has been open to overtures from the West. The Americans assigned to get Pavel are Brett Garrett, a wrongly dishonored former Navy Seal working as a private contractor, and FBI agent Valerie Mayberry, a rich girl who has no problem acting like one. Garrett, who sounds like John Wayne ("Listen to me and listen good"), is hooked on opioids; Mayberry takes Adderall for her ADHD. Driving the action are the gunning down of the U.S. ambassador in Kiev and violence perpetuated by Antifa protesters who some American officials insist are working with the Russians. Considering there is nary a mention of Russian meddling in U.S. elections, the title of the book seems cynical and exploitative. President Randle Fitzgerald, a former NFL quarterback, has a marginal presence (as does Kalugin). It's left to CIA director Harold Harris to voice his contempt of Congress.. As one might expect, Gingrich (with co-author Earley) tilts to the right in portraying liberals as misguided or naïve. The results can be laughable. "How dare you objectify me!" Mayberry shouts at a conservative congressman. "You're exactly what's wrong with Republicans and our government." Even though Mayberry is play-acting in the scene, you have to wonder who would buy such fakery.
For all its political posturing, Gingrich's first entry in a new contemporary series is a competent thriller. But in a crowded field of books inspired by current events, lacking top-drawer suspense, it fails to stand out.Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-285998-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Broadside Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: He’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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