The familiar protagonist, along with sensational new and recurring characters, drives an energetic political tale.
A pastor who’s a former SEAL and CIA operative tries to protect a potential candidate for the Russian presidency from assassins in this eighth installment of a thriller series.
Pastor Stephen Grant is leaving behind his Long Island Lutheran church—temporarily—for a conference at the Reagan Library in California. He’ll be supporting his wife, Jennifer, who’s promoting her debut book on economic policy. Also attending the conference is Russian businessman Vitaly Orlov, whose political presence is so strong in his own country that some believe he may run for president. This has sparked criticism from incumbent Russian President Nestor Petrunin, who calls into question Orlov’s loyalty to his homeland, as his respect for Ronald Reagan is well-known. Orlov has clearly amassed enemies, evidenced by the two assailants that target him and his wife, Maya, in California. Luckily, Grant thwarts the assassination, and at the pastor’s recommendation, Orlov hires the security firm CDM. CEO Paige Caldwell, Grant’s old CIA partner and ex-lover, and the CDM team are on full alert, as there are further attempts on Orlov’s life. Tensions only escalate when political assassinations in Russia suggest that someone is staging a coup. It seems Orlov is not safe in either country, even with Grant and CDM as his guardians. Keating (Lionhearts, 2017, etc.) has accumulated an impressive assortment of characters in his series, and he gives each of them ample opportunity to shine. Caldwell, for example, is formidable both in action and business and has a (mostly) secret relationship with U.S. President Adam Links. As in the preceding novels, the author skillfully blends Grant’s sermonizing with intermittent bouts of violence. It creates a rousing moral quandary for readers to ponder without either side overwhelming the storyline. Tight action scenes complement the suspense (uncertainty over when the next possible attack will be), though a later plot turn is too predictable. The villains, meanwhile, are just as rich and engrossing as the good guys and gals.
The familiar protagonist, along with sensational new and recurring characters, drives an energetic political tale.Pub Date: April 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-979463-51-5
Page Count: 324
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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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