A fast-paced, exuberant outing for the virtuoso clergyman and his numerous comrades.
In this 11th installment of a thriller series, a combat-trained pastor helps protect a Chinese golfer and his cleric father.
Xin Chen is a talented golfer currently on his first PGA Tour and admirably representing his home country of China. But some in the Chinese government are upset that he told the American media about the “hostility” his father, Ho Chen, has faced as a Lutheran pastor. Police officers later arrest Ho at his Shanghai church. Believing Xin is now in danger, United States President Adam Links recommends that CDM International Strategies and Security, a team run by former CIA operative (and his secret fiancee) Paige Caldwell, protect the golfer. Shockingly, Chinese Ministry of State Security agents target and critically wound Xin’s friend and caddy, Les Donaldson. As no one at CDM knows much about golf, Paige enlists pastor Stephen Grant, an old CIA pal, as Xin’s new caddy and bodyguard. Chinese President Bo Liang already has Xin in his sights but now has further incentive, as two decades ago, Stephen and Paige were part of a CIA operation in Taipei that killed the leader’s half brother. While Paige wants to send CDM members to China to extract Ho from prison, covert MSS teams in America become assassins aimed at Stephen, Xin, and any loved ones in their proximity. As in preceding volumes, this book is jam-packed with characters, most of whom are returning players. Keating (Shifting Sands, 2018, etc.) proficiently manages them along with appealing new faces, such as the Chens and Donaldson. Correspondingly, there are intimidating foes, including MSS officer Kang Wu, who survived the Taipei mission and is just as tenacious as Liang. But while the author churns out his typically tight, enjoyable action sequences, stretches of the narrative center on golfers in the field. These brisk scenes are never tedious, but they probably won’t attract new fans to the sport. Nevertheless, when the action does hit, it’s exhilarating, and Stephen proves once again he’s as capable in fights as he is in quieter times of prayer and worship.
A fast-paced, exuberant outing for the virtuoso clergyman and his numerous comrades.Pub Date: July 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-308843-0
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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