An exciting tale that offers an entertaining mix of action and romance.
An American archaeologist in Africa uncovers a dangerous conspiracy while investigating the discovery of a lifetime in Grant’s (Poison Evidence, 2016, etc.) thriller.
Dr. Morgan Adler is driving toward the U.S. military base Camp Citron in Djibouti. The base is the only place she knows that could protect the fossilized bones that she’s carrying—part of a stunning paleoanthropological discovery that could change evolutionary science. Cal Callahan and Pax Blanchard, two Green Berets, intercept her near the base, acting on a tip that a local warlord, Etefu Desta, has sent a “message” with her. As they question her, the soldiers discover that her car has been secretly rigged with a bomb. She manages to avoid the resulting explosion, but the bones are destroyed. Afterward, Adler wants to return to the United States; however, she also wants to ensure the remainder of the skeleton, which she calls “Linus,” is secure. The U.S. Navy also wants her to complete her contract, so she agrees to stay, and Blanchard is assigned to protect her. He’s impressed with her intelligence and resourcefulness, and they feel a mutual attraction; however, a romance is off-limits, as she’s a general’s daughter and under his protection. When Adler uncovers a conspiracy involving a missing geologist, Blanchard finds himself in a race against time to rescue the woman he’s grown to love. This first novel in Grant’s Flashpoint series offers a multilayered, suspenseful plot that’s strengthened by its appealing characters, strong attention to detail, and a healthy dose of romance. The story kicks off with a bang, literally and figuratively, and Grant keeps the momentum going through a series of plot twists and well-staged action sequences that plunge the heroes into the path of a vicious warlord who’ll stop at nothing to consolidate his power in the region. The author, a professional archaeologist herself, successfully draws upon her expertise to create a vivid portrait of Djibouti as well as of Adler’s work. The romantic relationship between the two main characters is similarly well-developed; it proceeds at a slow burn as they discover common ground and indulge in playful, erotic banter.
An exciting tale that offers an entertaining mix of action and romance.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-944571-06-1
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Janus Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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