A keen labyrinthine plot sprinkled with moments of intrigue and humor.
The CIA’s search for a mysterious, untraceable company blamed for the world’s unstable economy unravels a decadeslong string of conspiracies in this debut thriller.
Julianne Schuller transferred from the IRS to help CIA agent Eisenhower investigate insurance firms that went bust during the 2008 mortgage crisis. But when they connect the companies to seemingly invisible RASTEC (no digital trail, etc.), CIA Director Rosenberg takes the case away from them. Rosenberg already knows of RASTEC, which has backed numerous businesses tied to “suspicious buying patterns” on the stock market. Declaring RASTEC a potential terrorist organization, the director puts an investigative team together. It isn’t long before the group catches a lead: people from RASTEC-associated companies have encrypted laptops with a self-destruct fail-safe. Schuller, meanwhile, is unhappy with her mundane task of locating the U.S. president’s unknown father and even more upset that Eisenhower’s secretive about his latest gig, which she assumes is her original case. She initiates her own investigation, eventually stumbling upon the name Theonydas—though it’s unclear if it’s a person or something else. Some agents are worried about possible traitors in their midst, but that’s merely a hint of the nefarious deeds that have been covertly taking place for years. Patel’s story thrives on keeping readers in the dark, teasing an imminent global crisis before a flashback slowly reveals details about the present-day plight. The plot weaves in copious real-world events (like 9/11), often to explain who or what may have been truly responsible. It’s complex but undeniably engrossing and, despite various double-crossings and murder, sometimes comical. A drunk Eisenhower, for example, to ensure he makes it to a surveillance job, opts for a wobbly bicycle ride. The story’s credibility is occasionally diluted by instances of European parlance: American characters say mobile instead of cellphone and drop a “bloody” or two. But the twist-laden narrative practically guarantees that even if some of it is predictable, readers will find surprises awaiting them.
A keen labyrinthine plot sprinkled with moments of intrigue and humor.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-84765-7
Page Count: 362
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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