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OPERATION DELILAH

This insufficiently edited but smart, current, and intricate tale of espionage will appeal to fans of John le Carré, John...

A plot hatched by Iranian Intelligence to destroy U.S. oil reserves, assassinate key Saudis, and overthrow the Saudi King takes on a life of its own in this multifaceted spy thriller.

There are no good guys in the spy game. Certainly not in Knowles’ debut novel where no one can be trusted. Whatever side, whether agent, terrorist, soldier, or politician—all are in it solely for money, personal gain, or revenge. It starts when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi agrees to an idea, seeing it as a possible way to rid himself of the plan’s proponent, General Hashemi, head of Iranian Intelligence Service—a man hated seemingly by everyone in Iran. For the plot to work, the assassination must be pinned on the CIA. Enter Gordon Draper, a disgruntled CIA employee who agrees to assemble the hit team from mercenaries previously employed by the agency. The hope is blame will fall on the boss who demoted him. In due course, jihadists succeed in blowing up and contaminating oil pumping stations in Texas and Louisiana; various people are used, double-crossed, or disposed of; CIA operative Bill Barone and Mossad’s Washington Chief of Station Ben Zev are deployed to investigate the unauthorized hit squad; and a plethora of screw-ups, betrayals, and payoffs somehow continue to breathe life into the scheme long after it should have expired. Knowles’ serpentine plotline makes for solid spy suspense laced with dark humor and cynicism. The book is a page-turner despite containing nearly as many typos and grammatical snafus as plot twists, some as obvious as shifting from third person to first person in the course of a single paragraph: “Bill Barone had been married to a girl named Margo. While we were dating, everything was better than perfect.”  In the end, however, the sheer power of Knowles’ intricate narrative, faultless characterizations, and snide wit carry the day.

This insufficiently edited but smart, current, and intricate tale of espionage will appeal to fans of John le Carré, John Altman, and Phillip Kerr.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 295

Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher

Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2018

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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IT ENDS WITH US

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.

At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

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