by Robert Polevoi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2012
A dense, engrossing read for those who love to unravel the gossamer threads of a political mystery.
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Polevoi’s debut period piece uncoils intersecting narratives about 17th-century political intrigue, naval warfare and love in the West Indies.
Sir Henry Morgan, a legendary privateer, is elevated to the position of Royal Governor of Jamaica. Apoplectic with resentment over the indignities heaped upon him by his King, Morgan conspires to consolidate control over the lucrative but illicit privateering trade by assembling a military force that answers only to him. He sends Captain Michael Scot to Darien country, a remote jungle territory in Panama ruled by Indians but recently overtaken by Spaniards because of its reported abundance of gold. Morgan’s hope is that the glory and financial windfall of the expedition will aggrandize his political clout. Meanwhile, he enlists the help of Jamaica’s Chief Justice Roger Dawkins to parry with his political adversary, the formidable Sir John Black. Dawkins quickly becomes embroiled in a shadowy world of misdirection, subterfuge and murder. To further muddy already turbid waters, Dawkins is courted by wealthy sugar plantation heiress Lily Barton, whose interest in him is both romantically and politically motivated. Dawkins, however, ends up sexually entangled with Barton’s most trusted slave. All these intertwined narratives lead to an explosive and unpredictable skein of conclusions. Polevoi provides stirring depictions of naval combat and a thoughtful meditation on the complexities of martial honor. The book is painstakingly researched and it vividly portays the historical and cultural milieu crucial to its telling. However, the arresting story is too often weighed down with gratuitously baroque prose and excursions into distracting psychoanalysis of its characters. Rather than allow the reader to draw his own inferences, Polevoi insists on coupling every moment of narrative significance with his own protracted commentary. An edit for brevity would be useful. Nevertheless, the story itself is a compelling one and the writing is sometimes nimbly and inventively descriptive. Impressive reflections on the relations between men and women and the tempestuous issue of slavery manage to be insightful without descending into the didactic.
A dense, engrossing read for those who love to unravel the gossamer threads of a political mystery.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2012
ISBN: B00700A6I4
Page Count: 618
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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