A meticulously drawn-out caper that retains suspense even during the planning stage.
To make up for the bungled heist of a priceless artifact, a special police officer agrees to swipe a 15th-century manuscript for a ruthless businessman in this thriller.
Lt. Norman Blalock has accepted a hefty sum to steal a historic item from his place of employment, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The theft doesn’t go as planned, resulting in an injured Norman stashing the artifact. Suspecting that his partner-in-crime, Kavitha Netram, attempted a double cross on their side deal, a bedridden Norman’s distrustful, even as his cohort is caring for his Great Dane, Bruno. The two, meanwhile, are certain the Englishman behind the deal, Rupert Whyte, is out of the picture, especially because his powerful boss didn’t get what he paid for. But when Whyte shows up in Washington, Kavitha makes a “peace offering”: the Voynich Manuscript will be on loan to the Folger, a book that trillionaire collector Wolfgang Von Essen desperately wants. Norman enlists his private investigator pal, Luther Kane, to research enigmatic Von Essen while devising a caper to retrieve the manuscript as well as the original artifact. Unfortunately, an Iranian assassin, for a reason back in London, is gunning for Whyte and may target anyone he believes is working with the businessman. Peterson’s (Nativity, 2016, etc.) story drops readers right into the plot, at the tail end of the botched heist. It’s initially baffling though exhilarating (at least one person’s dead before the night’s over), but enlightening specifics on Norman, Kavitha, etc. do slowly emerge. Recurring scenes in the Folger are highly evocative; the author himself works there and hilariously appears as a character to give Norman sound advice. Details, however, are occasionally excessive: Norman explains to Kavitha the card game Tonk in a dry, formal language, akin to instructions. (And Norman’s description of Tonk is nearly identical to the game’s Wikipedia entry.) But there’s plenty more to savor, from romance between Norman and Kavitha to the latter’s possible deceit—and all before the manuscript heist is under way.
A meticulously drawn-out caper that retains suspense even during the planning stage.Pub Date: April 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9891369-1-4
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Ram Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 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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