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
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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
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