The inexplicable meltdown of a nuclear power plant in Arizona, which kills 15,000 and exposes 400,000 more to potentially lethal doses of radiation, gets this taut damsel-in-distress entertainment from Pineiro (Retribution, 1995) off to a bang-up start. Four months after the reactor disaster, Pamela Sasser (a Ph.D. candidate in computer engineering) discovers flaws in the design of the Perseus microprocessor used in the control systems at the plant and shares the knowledge with her mentor, Professor Eugene LaBlanche. He informs Microtel, the chip's manufacturer, that its prize product has a bug. Determined to avert disclosures that could wipe out the multinational electronics company he founded, Preston Sinclaire begins masterminding a bloody cover-up. An influential member of the military/industrial complex, the venal CEO calls on the Defense Intelligence Agency for help. It arrives in the person of Harrison Beckett, a contract hit man who quickly dispatches LaBlanche and takes out after Pam (whose backup diskette is the last bit of evidence that could incriminate Sinclaire). Unbeknownst to the principals, FBI agent Esther Cruz (who's pursuing leads on another matter) becomes a player. Her presence upsets several applecarts, and Harrison (an assassin with a heart of gold) becomes privy to Pam's knowledge of the Perseus defects. Now a marked man himself, he joins forces with his erstwhile prey in a meandering but eventful flight. The two escape assaults by state troopers, as well as Sinclaire's vicious goons, and eventually reach the nation's capital, where Harrison is able to make contact with Cruz. The streetwise G-woman enlists the aid of her superiors in prosecuting Sinclaire. In a last-gasp effort to avoid ruin, however, Sinclaire abducts Pam, and Harrison must run one final and fearsome gauntlet before he can make a new life with his true love. A fast-paced thriller that cuts to the chase often and effectively enough to hustle most readers past the less plausible features of its road-race plot.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-85982-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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