A worthy thriller starring a tireless and always-reliable protagonist.
In this fourth installment of a series, a graduate student/amateur spy aids in an archaeologist’s risky quest to locate a religious site filled with valuable relics.
Travis Weld, who works for a secret government agency, has enlisted Chesney Barrett’s help in the past. He’s also extensively trained the grad student, who’s doing environmental research in the Louisiana Atchafalaya Basin. Her latest task is liberating archaeologist David Phillips from a leftist guerrilla organization in Mexico. She succeeds, also saving Dr. Tanadas, director of Mayan archaeological studies, in the process. But her work isn’t finished: David’s father, Jacob, wants Chesney to join his son in his newest archaeological trek. She can ensure Tanadas doesn’t take credit for the discovery while protecting David from potential treasure hunters and rebels. David is searching for God’s Domain, the legendary—and presumably relic-filled—dwelling site of Viracocha, god over all gods and the people in the Americas. In a search that takes them to Peru, David and Chesney will have to make alliances with dangerous individuals, including artifact smuggler Col. Montez. But unknown to anyone, awaiting them at the sacred site is something entirely unexpected, as a formidable guardian turns David’s hunt into a test of survival. As in the preceding novels in Gallant’s (Rob the Vatican, 2007, etc.) thriller series, Chesney is a vigorous protagonist; she’s unquestionably the muscle in David’s expedition. But while the rescue mission opens the story with searing action, the pace then slows down significantly, as David deciphers hieroglyphs and decodes maps. Still, the search is often riddled with tension; Chesney must constantly remind David to keep quiet about details of God’s Domain, with suspect, greedy men populating the narrative. The latter half takes a rather surprising turn as the group nears the religious site, but it also presents Chesney with a new, seemingly unbeatable challenge. Meanwhile, her attraction to the appealing David rivals her lingering feelings for the emotionally distant Travis, but unfortunately the story doesn’t fully explore the romantic quandary.
A worthy thriller starring a tireless and always-reliable protagonist.Pub Date: June 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73229-774-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Bookmark Publications
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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