Scarrow again provides a vivid sense of history and several believable scenes of maritime action, and his righteous but...
In their sixth adventure (The Eagle’s Prey, 2005, etc.), centurion comrades Cato and Macro go to sea to recapture stolen scrolls invaluable to the emperor Claudius.
After his crew takes control of three Roman ships, bloodthirsty Greek pirate Telemachus hones in on Caius Caelinus Secundus, a patrician who promises him a rich ransom. Inside the elegant chest Caius is transporting are scrolls whose importance he tries to play down. Telemachus isn’t fooled; he holds the patrician and the scrolls hostage, demanding ten million sestertians for their return. Meanwhile, back in Rome, seasoned centurion Macro and his young protégé Cato are adrift. Living in squalor while seeking a new commission, they wander into trouble because of their restlessness and anxiety. Salvation comes from an unexpected quarter. Claudius’s right-hand man, Narcissus, well-acquainted with the centurion duo, hires them to retrieve the scrolls. In a surprising twist, he puts Cato at the head of the rescue party and demands that the hotheaded but much more experienced Macro stay behind. Macro is unexpectedly reunited with his mother Portia, who abandoned him as a baby. (Their reunion and subsequent interactions are awkward, to say the least.) Cato’s meeting with Telemachus goes less well than expected. Not to be intimidated, the Greek speaks slickly of other bidders for the scrolls, which contain secret revelations from the famed Oracle at Delphi. Narcissus decides to seize them by force, putting Macro and Cato under the command of Vitellius, an old adversary with ruthless political ambition. Storms at sea weaken their fleet, making it more vulnerable to the battle-ready pirate force. The centurions almost immediately come to loggerheads with Vitellius, fearing that his inexperience and recklessness will make them easy prey for Telemachus.
Scarrow again provides a vivid sense of history and several believable scenes of maritime action, and his righteous but flawed protagonists are winning heroes.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-32454-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
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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