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
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
Fast-moving fun from start to finish.
A hijacked laser weapon threatens to ignite World War III.
The U.S. is testing the EAGL, or Enhanced Aerial Gunnery Laser, an airborne defense system that annihilates anything it hits. It’s so fast it “can shoot down a hundred ballistic missiles before they leave enemy territory,” it never runs out of ammunition, and it will “make ballistic missiles obsolete.” But a traitor named Ridley Wiles hijacks the plane that carries it, and he kills the crew. Radar contact is lost, and National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) salvage experts Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala undertake an urgent mission to find or destroy the EAGL before Russia or China lay their hands on it. Meanwhile, a smuggler named Ahab who specializes in dumping toxic waste is dying. He blames Kurt and Gushan, an officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and would like nothing better than to cause World War III before he dies. The action and excitement are damn near constant. The U.S. and China have begun joint operations on certain projects, and Kurt and Joe save Gushan’s life—barely—in the prologue. But Gushan’s superiors may later order him to hunt Americans down and kill them. He knows he owes his saviors a debt, but he is also loyal to his country and to the PLA, so he has a dilemma. The heroes are all that NUMA series readers have come to expect—smart, honorable, and resourceful under life-and-death pressure. They face attacks on the NUMA vessel Lyra, try to save a sinking ship, commandeer a cargo plane—Joe can fly it, but isn’t so sure about landing it—and hope Ahab doesn’t blow it out of the sky. As always in this series, the story is a high-stakes, brace-yourself adventure with admirable heroes who don’t shy away from the next challenge.
Fast-moving fun from start to finish.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217184972
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
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