Equipped for a special detective mission in the New World Order, a Navy sub-hunting plane goes to anarchic Afghanistan—in the latest technothriller by White (The Flight From Winter's Shadow, 1991, etc.). In the final few days of his command of an airborne patrol squadron in Japan, Navy Commander Richard Donovan gets last-minute orders to quash a minor mutiny. The pilot of a super-secretly modified P3 Orion patrol plane refuses to have anything further to do with his copilot, Lt. J.P. Harper, a pretty young woman who seems to attract accidents. But when Donovan takes Harper up for a test flight, he finds that she's a gifted flier who has accidents only because she flies aggressively. Donovan is perfectly happy to take Harper and her airplane, which has been rigged to ``sniff out'' radioactive emissions on yet another last-minute errand: The Russians have requested US assistance in retrieving a nuclear warhead stolen by a fanatic Afghani faction. Donovan, Harper, and crew fly into Kabul and meet liaison Pavel Markelov—a semi-suave ex-KGB officer who's gone into a lucrative line of international consulting. He has in tow Captain Aleksandr Belenko, still in the KGB and not very well reconstructed. Belenko saw a lot of action in Afghanistan, and he's keen to find out why his old Afghan flame would've involved herself with the hijackers. Meanwhile, Kabul, where everybody's staying, is the worst place on earth. Nothing works and no one governs. Rival warring gangs shoot anybody who moves; leftover stinger missiles still chase any plane trying to use the airport. But Harper, Donovan, and their magnificent turboprop have a job to do and they do it. Belenko has a job to do and he does it. Markelov, however, has more jobs than he has let on, and it would be better if he didn't do any of them. Gritty, occasionally outlandish, but fast-moving adventure in an intriguing setting.
Pub Date: March 17, 1993
ISBN: 0-517-58807-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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