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AGGRESSOR

Name: AGGRESSOR
Author: Nick Cook
ISBN: 0-312-07623-1

by Nick Cook ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 24, 1993

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A terrorist hijacking in Lebanon forces Americans and Russians to collaborate on a rescue mission and brings a British journalist back to the Middle East and the scene of his wife's murder. Techno-gimmicks support rather than overpower this second thriller by the author of Angel, Archangel (1990). The story opens with a bang. Someone, an Islamic fundamentalist, we are to assume, blows up a huge, brand-new, Syrian natural-gas pump just as its Russian builders turn over the keys to the new owners. The project's designer, one of the few survivors at the scene, is kidnaped. Within days, hijackers, again presumably Islamic fundamentalists, grab a 747 containing an American ambassador and his staff. A recently signed Russo-American protocol calls for a bilateral rescue effort. But the protocol was signed with more than the usual cynicism, and the American team assigned to the job is the Pathfinders, a special operations group that was disgraced in its last outing. Colonel Ulm, the Pathfinder commander, smells a rat but is happy to work with his Russian oppo, the hard-as-nails Colonel Shabanov, if the supersecret operation means redemption for his men. Meanwhile, Tom Girling, science editor for a British newsweekly, has become exceedingly interested in the case. An old colleague in Cairo has uncovered a connection between the terrorists and the mob that stoned Girling's Egyptian wife to death in front of him several years earlier. Editorial treachery and the disappearance of the Cairene reporter bring Girling back to Egypt and his previous role as a crack investigative journalist. While the commandos train for their mission in the desert beyond the pyramids, Girling combs the markets and hashish dens of Cairo, looking for clues that will tie together the explosion, the kidnapings, his wife's death, and the pervasive influence of the supposedly benign Russians. Extremely entertaining. The two plots, rescuers and reporters, come together in the most astounding way. Wonderful Egyptian scenery.

Pub Date: Feb. 24, 1993

ISBN: 0-312-07623-1

Page Count: 336

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.