Hill, author of the fine Dalziel/Pascoe mysteries, is less sure-footed when it comes to espionage thrillers—this is his weakest effort in that genre: a hectic yet talky spy/revenge/chase tale that begins with a certain far-fetched vigor, then becomes gnarled in increasingly tiresome convolutions. The sardonic, near-obnoxious narrator is aristocrat Lem Swift, 40, "the well-known charity embezzler, illegal arms dealer and fugitive from justice," who's enjoying the expatriate life in Venezuela. . .until he's informed that he has terminal stomach cancer. So, determined to see his estranged daughter Angle before dying, Swift sneaks back home to England—only to be grabbed immediately by British intelligence. Why so? Because they want Swift to go to Italy to kill his famous father-scientist Billy, who defected to Moscow 20 years ago after allegedly killing Swift's mother. Now, it seems, Billy intends to re-defect, stand trial, and Tell All—which would include some secrets sure to embarrass the British establishment (and the USSR). Swift, under ruthless pressure and full of hate for his father, grudgingly agrees, arrives in Rome, seeks out his half-sister Teresa (a likely contact for fugitive Billy), and is soon deep in mayhem. His ex-wife turns up dead; Teresa is tortured; KGB agents are everywhere. Eventually there's a family reunion within a KGB stronghold—followed by a father/son escape by boat, with fatal results for Billy (semi-reconciled with Swift at last). And now Swift, who isn't really dying of cancer (it's all been an elaborate hoax, of course), sets out to take revenge—and to learn the whole, murky truth about his parents' assorted espionage/sex affiliations. Swift's acerbic delivery provides some initial zest, with crisply nasty dialogue galore. This tone soon palls, however—especially in the jokey sex-and-violence relationship between Swift and a tough female British agent. More crucially, the plot—despite knots of visceral action—slides into long-winded explanations and over-familiar twists. . .while plausibility (marginal to begin with) fades progressively. Unsympathetic hero, frenetic doings: disappointing suspense—even if stylish reminders of Hill's considerable talent abound.
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1986
ISBN: 1934609188
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Countryman
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
A top-notch psychological thriller.
In Hoag’s (The 9th Girl, 2013, etc.) latest, talented young newscaster Dana Nolan is left to navigate a psychological maze after escaping a serial killer.
While recuperating at home in Shelby Mills, Indiana, Dana meets her former high school classmates John Villante and Tim Carver. Football hero Tim is ashamed of flunking out of West Point, and now he’s a sheriff’s deputy. After Iraq and Afghanistan tours, John’s home with PTSD, "angry and bitter and dark." Dana survived abduction by serial killer Doc Holiday, but she still suffers from the gruesome attack by "the man who ruined her life, destroyed her career, shattered her sense of self, damaged her brain and her face." What binds the trio is their friend Casey Grant, who's been missing five years, perhaps also a Holiday victim, even if "[t]he odds against that kind of coincidence had to be astronomical." Hoag’s first 100 pages are a gut-wrenching dissection of the aftereffects of traumatic brain injury: Dana is plagued by "[f]ear, panic, grief, and anger" and haunted by fractured memories and nightmares. "Before Dana had believed in the inherent good in people. After Dana knew firsthand their capacity for evil." Impulsive and paranoid, Dana obsesses over linking Casey’s disappearance to Holiday, with her misfiring brain convincing her that "finding the truth about what had happened to Casey [was] her chance of redemption." But then Hoag tosses suspects into the narrative faster than Dana can count: Roger Mercer, Dana’s self-absorbed state senator stepfather; Mack Villante, who left son John with "no memories of his father that didn’t include drunkenness and cruelty"; even Hardy, the hard-bitten, cancer-stricken detective who investigated Casey’s disappearance. Tense, tightly woven, with every minor character, from Dana’s fiercely protective aunt to Mercer’s pudgy campaign chief, ratcheting up the tension, Hoag’s narrative explodes with an unexpected but believable conclusion.
A top-notch psychological thriller.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-525-95454-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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