An often compelling adventure, built around the premise of an international manhunt.
In Maitland-Lewis’ thriller sequel to Legacy of Atonement (2023),a married couple in Argentina confronts a Nazi conspiracy.
This explosive novel is built around an unlikely premise: Given the opportunity, who could pass up capturing a fugitive Adolf Hitler, and his wife, Eva Braun? However, this is exactly what stay-at-home mom Giselle and her husband, Felipe, want to do after a harrowing confrontation with the former dictator at his Paraguayan compound, “where he was medically experimenting on children no older than my daughter,” she recalls. Now re-established in cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Giselle and Felipe simply want to live their lives and raise their daughter, even though a plan is apparently in the works to re-establish Hitler and the Nazis. The appearance of Karen Fegel, the nanny of Giselle’s friend, upends the family’s plans. Giselle’s uncle, Daniel Lavy—a former agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service—suspects that the nanny is actually Karen Fegelein, the daughter of Gretl Braun (Eva’s sister) and a notorious SS commander who was shot for desertion. Gisele, Daniel, and Felipe rapidly find themselves pulled into a nerve-wracking international chase that drives them to their limits, “as though the war had never ended for them.” They’re also haunted by the knowledge that failure is simply not an option. Over the course of this thriller, Maitland-Lewis does an exceptional job of weaving historical details into a narrative that unfolds at a brisk pace within its tightly written framework. Although readers will see a particular cameo coming, they likely won’t expect the final twist, which raises an unsettling final question: At what point is it necessary to settle for less than total justice? Aficionados of alternative history and World War II fiction will enjoy pondering such notions.
An often compelling adventure, built around the premise of an international manhunt.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The youngest Ryans will please fans of the genre.
The U.S. president’s son lands in the middle of a West African coup in this latest Clancy thriller.
Kyle Ryan is part of a three-man Defense Intelligence Agency team covertly installing cyber communications in Luanda, Angola. His two colleagues are murdered, and he must “run or die.” The Naval Academy grad isn’t a warrior like his older brother, Jack Junior, who sits out this story. President Ryan doesn’t even know his son is in Africa, let alone how much trouble Kyle is in. Then the unit of Navy Lieutenant Commander (and big sister) Katie Ryan gets the call to rescue Americans as an Angolan man, Victor Baptista, tries to overthrow the current democratically elected president. “Fear was the most powerful weapon in Angola,” and Baptista inspires a great deal of it. Too bad for him that the Ryan family never knuckles under to fear. Captured, hooded, and in danger of execution, Kyle has a steadfast bravery that reflects the Ryan DNA. Baptista doesn’t realize at first that among his American prisoners is President Ryan’s son. Oops. Well, with U.S. warships fast approaching Angolan shores, he thinks he can strike a deal with the “fickle and feckless Americans.” A more tuned-in advisor lets Baptista know that President Ryan will never negotiate, even with his son’s life on the line. So this isn’t just the United States the terrorist is dealing with, but the Ryan family. Katie and Kyle use their intelligence, not brute force, while a pissed-off papa bear wields his awesome executive power from the White House. Meanwhile, Baptista’s murderous cruelty leaves his aides and lackeys trembling in fear. This novel looks like Katie and Kyle’s debuts as central characters, and they are Ryans through and through—they run toward trouble, and they have no faults worth mentioning. Parental and filial loyalty mix well with the action and add interest to an otherwise standard (but good) Clancy thriller.
The youngest Ryans will please fans of the genre.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593718063
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days...
In 1876, professor Edward Cope takes a group of students to the unforgiving American West to hunt for dinosaur fossils, and they make a tremendous discovery.
William Jason Tertullius Johnson, son of a shipbuilder and beneficiary of his father’s largess, isn’t doing very well at Yale when he makes a bet with his archrival (because every young man has one): accompany “the bone professor” Othniel Marsh to the West to dig for dinosaur fossils or pony up $1,000, but Marsh will only let Johnson join if he has a skill they can use. They need a photographer, so Johnson throws himself into the grueling task of learning photography, eventually becoming proficient. When Marsh and the team leave without him, he hitches a ride with another celebrated paleontologist, Marsh’s bitter rival, Edward Cope. Despite warnings about Indian activity, into the Judith badlands they go. It’s a harrowing trip: they weather everything from stampeding buffalo to back-breaking work, but it proves to be worth it after they discover the teeth of what looks to be a giant dinosaur, and it could be the discovery of the century if they can only get them back home safely. When the team gets separated while transporting the bones, Johnson finds himself in Deadwood and must find a way to get the bones home—and stay alive doing it. The manuscript for this novel was discovered in Crichton’s (Pirate Latitudes, 2009, etc.) archives by his wife, Sherri, and predates Jurassic Park (1990), but if readers are looking for the same experience, they may be disappointed: it’s strictly formulaic stuff. Famous folk like the Earp brothers make appearances, and Cope and Marsh, and the feud between them, were very real, although Johnson is the author’s own creation. Crichton takes a sympathetic view of American Indians and their plight, and his appreciation of the American West, and its harsh beauty, is obvious.
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days of American paleontology.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-247335-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
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