An enjoyable first novel that never bogs down as it races to a satisfying finish. Bring on the next installment of Max...
A fast-moving and well-researched debut thriller filled with intrigue, conspiracies, and Japanese culture.
American Max Travers teaches English in Tokyo, working for an unpleasant woman named Yoko. Her father, Mr. Murayama, possesses an old diary written by Prince Takeda during World War II, and the yakuza will gladly kill to get their hands on it. If the entries in the diary are true and become public, “the effect on Japan would be terrible and the royal family would be ruined.” A former Japanese diplomat is murdered, and then the killings continue. Meanwhile, Max tries to quit his job and go back to the U.S., but for nefarious reasons, Yoko withholds his passport. When he breaks into an office in an attempt to retrieve it, the yakuza are already there, looking for the diary—which Max somehow winds up with, putting himself and his girlfriend, Tomoko, in grave danger. He's “unable to shake the feeling that both his and Tomoko’s lives, their fate, had somehow become fused with that of Prince Takeda himself.” Like it or not, it seems the accursed diary will become Max’s destiny. In a Dan Brown–ian touch, an anagram of an American character’s name is a key plot detail. Max and Tomoko are a likable duo facing plausible, scary situations that will keep readers turning the pages. The plot is filled with action, the details are rich and colorful—not many stories include a Shinto priest who owns a video game company—and the writing is by and large decent. The ending leaves enough uncertainty to invite a sequel.
An enjoyable first novel that never bogs down as it races to a satisfying finish. Bring on the next installment of Max Travers adventures, please.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-940610-33-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Polis Books
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days...
In 1876, professor Edward Cope takes a group of students to the unforgiving American West to hunt for dinosaur fossils, and they make a tremendous discovery.
William Jason Tertullius Johnson, son of a shipbuilder and beneficiary of his father’s largess, isn’t doing very well at Yale when he makes a bet with his archrival (because every young man has one): accompany “the bone professor” Othniel Marsh to the West to dig for dinosaur fossils or pony up $1,000, but Marsh will only let Johnson join if he has a skill they can use. They need a photographer, so Johnson throws himself into the grueling task of learning photography, eventually becoming proficient. When Marsh and the team leave without him, he hitches a ride with another celebrated paleontologist, Marsh’s bitter rival, Edward Cope. Despite warnings about Indian activity, into the Judith badlands they go. It’s a harrowing trip: they weather everything from stampeding buffalo to back-breaking work, but it proves to be worth it after they discover the teeth of what looks to be a giant dinosaur, and it could be the discovery of the century if they can only get them back home safely. When the team gets separated while transporting the bones, Johnson finds himself in Deadwood and must find a way to get the bones home—and stay alive doing it. The manuscript for this novel was discovered in Crichton’s (Pirate Latitudes, 2009, etc.) archives by his wife, Sherri, and predates Jurassic Park (1990), but if readers are looking for the same experience, they may be disappointed: it’s strictly formulaic stuff. Famous folk like the Earp brothers make appearances, and Cope and Marsh, and the feud between them, were very real, although Johnson is the author’s own creation. Crichton takes a sympathetic view of American Indians and their plight, and his appreciation of the American West, and its harsh beauty, is obvious.
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days of American paleontology.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-247335-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Slaughter (Cop Town, 2014, etc.) is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that...
Twenty-four years after a traumatic disappearance tore a Georgia family apart, Slaughter’s scorching stand-alone picks them up and shreds them all over again.
The Carrolls have never been the same since 19-year-old Julia vanished. After years of fruitlessly pestering the police, her veterinarian father, Sam, killed himself; her librarian mother, Helen, still keeps the girl's bedroom untouched, just in case. Julia’s sisters have been equally scarred. Lydia Delgado has sold herself for drugs countless times, though she’s been clean for years now; Claire Scott has just been paroled after knee-capping her tennis partner for a thoughtless remark. The evening that Claire’s ankle bracelet comes off, her architect husband, Paul, is callously murdered before her eyes and, without a moment's letup, she stumbles on a mountainous cache of snuff porn. Paul’s business partner, Adam Quinn, demands information from Claire and threatens her with dire consequences if she doesn’t deliver. The Dunwoody police prove as ineffectual as ever. FBI agent Fred Nolan is more suavely menacing than helpful. So Lydia and Claire, who’ve grown so far apart that they’re virtual strangers, are unwillingly thrown back on each other for help. Once she’s plunged you into this maelstrom, Slaughter shreds your own nerves along with those of the sisters, not simply by a parade of gruesome revelations—though she supplies them in abundance—but by peeling back layer after layer from beloved family members Claire and Lydia thought they knew. The results are harrowing.
Slaughter (Cop Town, 2014, etc.) is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that she makes most of her high-wire competition look pallid, formulaic, or just plain fake.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-242905-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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