Patriotic liberals will gag at the tone of this novel, while their conservative counterparts will likely love it. Apolitical...
A political thriller that may try the patience of left-leaning readers.
A man and woman are taken hostage after a terrorist attack on a "peaceful trade mission" by the U.S. in Chechnya. Our government wants them back, of course, but only as long as the issue doesn't derail the president's re-election bid. Then the acting CIA director is murdered. The prez is a lefty in a government that’s overrun with lefties. The characters to root against are easy to identify: liberals with names like Fauhomme (false man?), Malovo (bad egg?) and Faust (devilish defense attorney?). Fauhomme, "the man who put the president in office," is cartoonishly bad—not only does he routinely abuse women and commit crimes to get the president re-elected, but we are repeatedly told that he's fat. The party in power and the president aren’t identified, but the author surely looks as though he’s targeting the current administration. Most thrillers don't come across as so blatantly partisan—usually the threat is external, or at least the bad guy doesn't personify half the U.S. population. The terrorists are al-Qaida, by the way, striking after the president has lied about their total defeat. The press is no better, as the lazy lap-dog liberal lackeys lap up whatever gruel the administration feeds them. A senator tells Fauhomme there's "not much the president can do except more character assassination." Readers who ignore (or appreciate) the narrator’s gratuitous comments will find a well-constructed novel underneath, including solid courtroom scenes. Prosecutor Butch Karp, who has a personal interest in the kidnapping case, is a talented and likable hero.
Patriotic liberals will gag at the tone of this novel, while their conservative counterparts will likely love it. Apolitical thriller junkies will probably enjoy it today and forget it tomorrow.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4516-3557-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Cancel your plans for the weekend when you sit down with this book, because you won’t want to move until it’s over.
Suspense queen Ware's (The Woman in Cabin 10, 2016, etc.) third novel in three years introduces four women who have been carrying a terrible secret since their boarding school days, a secret that is about to be literally unearthed.
Isa Wilde, happy in her life as a new mother, receives a text one morning that simply reads, I need you, and hours later, she boards a train bound for the coastal village of Salten with her infant daughter in tow. She has come at her friend Kate’s summons, and soon they are joined by two other women who received the same text, Thea and Fatima. Fifteen years earlier, all four were best friends at Salten House, sneaking off campus on the weekends to spend time with Kate’s father, an art teacher, and her handsome, mysterious brother, Luc. Their school days ended in tragedy and scandal, however, and the four haven’t been back to Salten since they were expelled. Now, a bone has been found in the marshes, and Kate has called the others back in a panic. They know more about the body than they should, but even they don’t know the truth. Ware’s third outing is just as full of psychological suspense as her earlier books, but there is a quietness about this one, a slower unraveling of tension and fear, that elevates it above her others. Though there's still a fair dash of drama, it doesn’t veer into the realm of melodrama, developing consistently with the characters and with their personalities and pasts. Isa is a sympathetic narrative voice though her obsession with the concerns of new parenthood may put some readers off.
Cancel your plans for the weekend when you sit down with this book, because you won’t want to move until it’s over.Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5600-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Another success for the publishing phenom.
An abused boy fights back, escapes, then returns as an attorney to his beloved hometown, but just as he’s falling in love with a transplanted landscaper, a series of attacks from shadowy enemies jeopardizes their happiness.
“From the outside, the house in Lakeview Terrace looked perfect.” Which of course means that it wasn't. We're introduced to the horrifying Dr. Graham Bigelow, who beats his wife and, increasingly as the boy gets older, his son, Zane. On the night of Zane’s prom, a particularly savage attack puts him and his sister in the hospital, and his father blames Zane, landing him in jail. Then his sister stands up for him, enlisting the aid of their aunt, and everything changes, mainly due to Zane’s secret diaries. Nearly 20 years later, Zane leaves a successful career as a lawyer to return to Lakeview, where his aunt and sister live with their families, deciding to hang a shingle as a small-town lawyer. Then he meets Darby McCray, the landscaper who’s recently relocated and taken the town by storm, starting with the transformation of his family’s rental bungalows. The two are instantly intrigued by each other, but they move slowly into a relationship neither is looking for. Darby has a violent past of her own, so she is more than willing to take on the risk of antagonizing a boorish local family when she and Zane help an abused wife. Suddenly Zane and Darby face one attack after another, and even as they grow ever closer under the pressure, the dangers become more insidious. Roberts’ latest title feels a little long and the story is slightly cumbersome, but her greatest strength is in making the reader feel connected to her characters, so “unnecessary details” can also charm and engage.
Another success for the publishing phenom.Pub Date: July 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-20709-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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