A nerdy, conspiracy-addled romp through the intelligence agencies of East and West. Code-breaking is the thinking man's rush—at least, that's what Harrison (Thunder of Erebus, 1991, etc.) would have his readers believe. And cryptographer Faisal Shaikh, a Briton of Pakistani extraction, is the slickest cipher-junkie in England's Government Communications Headquarters, a secluded compound dedicated to monitoring and deciphering the endless buzz of clandestine messages emanating from the world's espionage organizations, military machines, and political offices. Elegant, smooth, and fearsomely cerebral, Shaikh leads a monastic, albeit well-appointed, existence, comfortably chipping away at any government's attempt to keep a secret—until an uncrackable ``Black Cipher'' comes under his scrutiny. With assistance from various spook buddies, Shaikh unknots the code and traces the series of transmissions from its source inside the former Soviet Union, through Tehran and the IRA, right back to England. After a Saudi prince is murdered as part one of the Black Cipher plot, Shaikh's corrupt superiors run him off the trail and out of a job, but the intrepid code wizard assembles his own freelance team to stay on the chase. While he saves England, Shaikh also manages to make a killing in the stock market, clean house at a gaming club, and get engaged. The codemaster's appetite for justice is as substantial as his deciphering talent, but even his formidable intellect and network of secret-agent-man connections can't prevent him from becoming a fugitive by the novel's end, racing against the clock to thwart a coup at No. 10 Downing Street. Shaikh is an alluring character (sequel alert), but not nearly alluring enough to keep the air in this one. Littered with postCold War paranoia, tipsy with Tory sympathies, and stuffed with enough acronyms to keep Alexander Haig happy forever. Even a late-plot zinger can't dispel the feeling that we've seen it all before.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-517-58753-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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