A thriller with an intriguing central idea that could have been more skillfully fleshed out.
While investigating a major earthquake in Iran, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist and his graduate assistant learn of a terrorist plot to poison drinking water in this debut novel.
Orsini’s thriller jumps into the action quickly, as Dr. Roger Rogers, his assistant Teresa Marchetti, and Dr. Bjorn Arnarson, a Norwegian science attaché, are forced to make an emergency helicopter landing at a biological weapons installation in Iran. They’re quickly met by armed guards and charged with espionage. While awaiting trial in jail, Rogers is approached by Mustafa, a laboratory worker, who tells him of a plan to contaminate the water supplies of several U.S. cities with anthrax. Mustafa, a member of a group called Soldiers of Islam, helps Rogers and his companions effect a harrowing escape through Iran and Afghanistan. During their flight, Arnarson is killed, but Rogers and Marchetti get away. Meanwhile, back in Mountain View, California, a mysterious Middle Eastern man follows Rogers’ teenage daughter, Julie. Later, someone tries to kill Rogers by running him off the road in Norway, where he’s visiting to pay respects to Arnarson’s family. Soon, the seismologist and his team, with the aid of the Defense Intelligence Agency, return to Iran in an attempt to save the United States from imminent threat. At times, Orsini’s prose offers sharp descriptions: “The application of the brakes rocked the big plane slowly back and forth like a huge rocking chair.” More often, however, the book suffers from stilted dialogue that keeps readers from seeing the characters as realistic and sympathetic: “ ‘Hi, Pam,’ said Roger at curbside. ‘Gosh it’s good to see you again,’ he said while giving her a big hug. ‘Oh, meet my grad assistant, Teresa Marchetti.’ ” In addition, the story front-loads most of the action scenes, following them with a number of events that initially seem relevant but are never tied into the rest of the story. It all leads to an anticlimactic conclusion.
A thriller with an intriguing central idea that could have been more skillfully fleshed out.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64151-218-3
Page Count: 214
Publisher: LitFire Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
