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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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