A historically astute and powerful account of a world fractured by war.
In this thriller, a Canadian regiment joins the fight in the thick of World War II.
Nicolas Bekenbaum, a descendent from a long line of German Hussars who deserted and were absorbed into a Cossack community in Russia, is sent to Libya in 1938 to block any access Italian forces have to oil pipelines, a major blow to their operations. He heads an elite regiment of his own, some of it comprising his family, though he nominally answers to a Canadian command. After earning a sterling reputation for battlefield success, he’s trained by British paratroopers to attack a German communications and intelligence base, and scores another resounding and impactful victory. But when a reconnaissance mission in Sicily produces casualties—the result of a surprise attack from an armored car—Nicolas holds himself personally responsible, and requests that he be demoted, relieved of his command, and sent back to Canada for retraining. A review of the mission finds that, in general, the casualty rate his regiment has suffered is laudably low, but Nicolas is depleted from years of perpetual combat, and sent to Montana to train three battalions. There he meets a woman—Katherine Engelmann—and the two are immediately smitten with each other and attempt to conduct a romance by epistle after Nicolas returns to war, this time in northern England. He’s then deployed deep into German-controlled territory in France, and his regiment provides valuable support for the invasion of Normandy. Nicolas is wounded while fighting in Bastogne, and again sent back home, but his respite from combat is a temporary one once the Korean War commences. This is the fourth installment in a series from Wollbaum (Eagle’s Talon, 2016, etc.); while the reader would surely benefit from tackling the first three volumes, the author provides enough summary background for the latest to be read on its own. Wollbaum’s command of military history is astounding, and the action proceeds briskly and cinematically. The deep bond between Nicolas and Katherine blossoms so quickly it seems more contrived than romantic. But the author’s discussion of women in combat is refreshing and skillfully rendered. Wollbaum blends artful fiction and rigorous scholarship with unusual aplomb.
A historically astute and powerful account of a world fractured by war.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9940249-8-5
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Midar and Associates Ltd.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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