A frightening, if flawed, tale about two mysterious plagues.
An employee works to save the world from a health crisis caused by his company in this debut eco-thriller.
In the near future, the world is beset by two strange and terrible plagues. The first, Idiopathic Infertility Syndrome, kills fetuses in the womb. The second, Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome, causes organ failure in otherwise healthy people. Veregro, a massive company that manufactures seeds and insect repellent, has offered a million-dollar reward to anyone who can discover the cause of these scourges, and someone does: a Veregro tech named Randy Hall. But the company probably won’t like what he finds, as the cause is Veregro itself. Randy takes his findings to Veregro’s vice president for communications, Walter Conroy, a former researcher whose work predicted these epidemics 18 years ago. Walter, who recently lost his wife to MODS, begins to look into the matter, only to find out soon after that Randy has been murdered. Walter seeks out Charlotte “Lottie” Winters, a former Veregro lawyer with a checkered past who lives on a Marin County commune where MODS has not yet appeared. Walter and Lottie will have to race to stop Veregro before its products lead to the death of millions—and before the company deals with them in the same manner as Randy. Roy Mankovitz and Alan Mankovitz (a father and son team) tell their story in breezy but urgent prose: “Walter returned, sat down and poured himself some tea. The way Lottie was frowning at him suggested he wouldn’t be staying long. But how could she be angry at him? They were both after the same thing, weren’t they?” The characters are generally believable, as is the book’s terrifying premise, and the authors maintain an admirably brisk pace. This verisimilitude—in terms of the setup, if not the full narrative—makes for a thriller that is pleasantly anxiety-inducing, even as it travels along a fairly predictable track. Readers will turn the pages with their stomachs in knots, hoping that some biological solution can be found, even if it is preceded by some rather silly plot developments.
A frightening, if flawed, tale about two mysterious plagues.Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9990994-9-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Weeping Willow Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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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