Thriller lovers will enjoy this one for its fast pace, colorful locale and satisfying conclusion. There’s never a doubt as...
A swashbuckling thriller from Coonts.
The Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa sees heavy commercial traffic as ships ply their way to the Suez Canal. Given the great poverty on the continent, some men take to piracy—they commandeer a cruise ship or freighter and hold cargo, passengers and crew for ransom. One such victim is the Sultan of the Seas, a luxury liner with almost 900 souls aboard. Sailing the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, it catches the attention of Muslim pirates operating out of Mogadishu, Somalia. Once they board the unarmed vessel, they kill a few infidels to frighten the rest, then issue their demand to the world: $200 million, or everyone dies. Meanwhile, passenger Mike Rosen secretly sends emails to his employer about deteriorating conditions on the ship, and his messages become worldwide news. The CIA and Navy SEALs get involved, since the U.S. thinks the pirates may intend to kill everyone onboard regardless of whether they get the ransom. Former Navy pilot Coonts expertly builds the tension as plans develop to take back the ship, conflicts brew between pirate factions, copious blood flows and an old coastal fortress turns into a potential bomb. Coonts’ fans will welcome back series characters Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini, who see to it that readers have fun while lots of bad guys take the express route to Paradise. Meanwhile, readers considering an Indian Ocean cruise might want to pick something less adventurous.
Thriller lovers will enjoy this one for its fast pace, colorful locale and satisfying conclusion. There’s never a doubt as to which side will win, of course, but Coonts takes us on a heck of a good ride.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-312-37284-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
Greed, love, and extrasensory abilities combine in two middling mysteries.
Coulter’s treasured FBI agents take on two cases marked by danger and personal involvement.
Dillon Savitch and his wife, Lacey Sherlock, have special abilities that have served them well in law enforcement (Paradox, 2018, etc.). But that doesn't prevent Sherlock’s car from hitting a running man after having been struck by a speeding SUV that runs a red light. The runner, though clearly injured, continues on his way and disappears. Not so the SUV driver, a security engineer for the Bexholt Group, which has ties to government agencies. Sherlock’s own concussion causes memory loss so severe that she doesn’t recognize Savitch or remember their son, Sean. The whole incident seems more suspicious when a blood test from the splatter of the man Sherlock hit reveals that he’s Justice Cummings, an analyst for the CIA. The agency’s refusal to cooperate makes Savitch certain that Bexholt is involved in a deep-laid plot. Meanwhile, Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith is visiting friends who run a cafe in the touristy Virginia town of Gaffers Ridge. Hammersmith, who has psychic abilities, is taken aback when he hears in his mind a woman’s cry for help. Reporter Carson DeSilva, who came to the area to interview a Nobel Prize winner, also has psychic abilities, and she overhears the thoughts of Rafer Bodine, a young man who has apparently kidnapped and possibly murdered three teenage girls. Unluckily, she blurts out her thoughts, and she’s snatched and tied up in a cellar by Bodine. Bodine may be a killer, but he’s also the nephew of the sheriff and the son of the local bigwig. So the sheriff arrests Hammersmith and refuses to accept his FBI credentials. Bodine's mother has psychic powers strong enough to kill, but she meets her match in Hammersmith, DeSilva, Savitch, and Sherlock.
Greed, love, and extrasensory abilities combine in two middling mysteries.Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9365-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Striking a far less hysterical tone than in The Shining, King has written his most sweeping horror novel in The Stand, though it may lack the spinal jingles of Salem's Lot. In part this is because The Stand, with its flow of hundreds of brand-name products, is a kind of inventory of American culture. "Superflu" has hit the U.S. and the world, rapidly wiping out the whole of civilization—excepting the one-half of one percent who are immune. Superflu is a virus with a shifting antigen base; that is, it can kill every type of antibody the human organism can muster against it. Immunity seems to be a gift from God—or the Devil. The Devil himself has become embodied in a clairvoyant called Randall Flagg, a phantom-y fellow who walks highways and is known variously as "the dark man" or "the Walking Dude" and who has set up a new empire in Las Vegas where he rules by fear, his hair giving off sparks while he floats in the lotus position. He is very angry because the immune folks in the Free Zone up at Boulder have sent a small force against him; they get their message from Him (God) through a dying black crone named Abigail, who is also clairvoyant. There are only four in this Boulder crew, led by Stu Redman from East Texas, who is in love with pregnant Fran back in the Free Zone. Good and Evil come to an atomic clash at the climax, the Book of Revelations working itself out rather too explicitly. But more importantly, there are memorable scenes of the superflu spreading hideously, Fifth Avenue choked with dead cars, Flagg's minions putting up fresh lightbulbs all over Vegas. . . . Some King fans will be put off by the pretensions here; most will embrace them along with the earthier chilis.
Pub Date: Nov. 3, 1978
ISBN: 0307743683
Page Count: 1450
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1978
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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