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THE IRRELEVANT TALES

Overlong, somewhat rough and barely Victorian, but it’s still an appealingly jumbled adventure with a good final twist.

In the 1800s, a young Irish artist meets a mysterious Englishman and becomes involved in his search for lost treasure.

William O’Brien, 19, is scrambling for survival as a penniless artist in Paris when he meets “a strange sort of chap” who calls himself Dr. Irel E. Vant. William helps him fend off an attack by masked assailants, and Dr. Vant offers him a job: caretaker of his English manor while he’s off chasing an ancient treasure, the location of which is known only to him. The house is filthy, tenanted by a pet vulture named Victor, and it comes with Dr. Vant’s Bluebeard-like proscription: “That door there, the northeast tower, must never be opened….I can assure you that if you should open that door and enter that room you forfeit the offer that I have extended to you and infinitely more.” As William cleans up with the help of a Mrs. Gillian, he also gets to know lovely young Cara, the daughter of a village shopkeeper. Meanwhile, Dr. Vant’s escapades include treasure hunting in a booby-trapped cave and meeting an ancient Atlantean—though Vant’s true agenda won’t become clear until the end. Jones provides an entertaining adventure with a varied cast and much pleasing paraphernalia, from a Victorian hovercraft to the curious muddle in Vant’s study: “charts, scrolls, notebooks, inkwells, hundreds of broken pen nibs.” William’s good heart and good humor help lighten the tone. William’s Irish brogue is as unconvincing as Jones’ idea of a French accent: “Ze Ztonehenge?” Some portions, particularly the cave expedition, are needlessly lengthened or repetitive, and the book would benefit from a cleanup to rid itself of goofs like “the massive canapé bed.”

Overlong, somewhat rough and barely Victorian, but it’s still an appealingly jumbled adventure with a good final twist.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 442

Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher

Review Posted Online: May 22, 2014

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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IT ENDS WITH US

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.

At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

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