by Peter S. Fischer ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
Persuasive romance perfectly suited to an authentic WWII backdrop.
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In Fischer’s (Pray for Us Sinners, 2013, etc.) historical thriller, a schoolteacher widowed in World War II becomes a liaison for a French patriot who, unbeknownst to her, is a Nazi spy.
When Nan Guthrie gets word that her husband, Nick, died in the Battle of Tarawa, she hopes to contribute to the war effort by enlisting in the Military Intelligence Service. But Lt. Col. Bertram Kelso, with close ties to the Office of Strategic Services, has other ideas for Nan. He wants her close to Frenchman Andre Le Valle, since Nan’s a dead ringer for Le Valle’s dead fiancee. Kelso tells Nan to retrieve info on French Resistance forces but fails to mention, quite intentionally, that Le Valle is one of Hitler’s most trusted agents. Meanwhile in the South Pacific, Nick wakes from his coma, misidentified as another officer. He goes AWOL and travels across the country to Washington, D.C., to find his wife, who’s apparently missing. Fischer’s novel solidifies its love/war theme in its opening: Nick, on Tarawa’s shore, recalls when he first met Nan, mere months before Pearl Harbor. Fischer quickly moves the story to Nan’s new gig, but the romantic prelude is effective, and Nick’s desperate search for Nan sears with dramatic intensity. The drama is further boosted by Le Valle’s genuine love for Nan, who may have reciprocal feelings as well. Everyone has a great deal at stake. Nan’s former boss, Lt. Carter Prescott, for example, complicates her predicament when, to make up for his prior mistreatment of Nan, he sets out to provoke some Nazis and prove that restaurateur Le Valle is shady. All of this happens against a backdrop of real-life events, and readers will immediately understand the importance of the bogus intel Nan feeds Le Valle—lest the Nazis learn the genuine date and location of D-Day.
Persuasive romance perfectly suited to an authentic WWII backdrop.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9960491-4-6
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Grove Point Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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