Some intriguing elements, but this sometimes-off-putting adventure lacks the zip a thriller needs.
In this debut thriller set in the early 2000s, an IT expert searches for a tomb explored by his Egyptologist grandfather and discovers startling revelations.
Fifty-eight-year-old computer tech Steve Fisher comes across a mention of his archaeologist grandfather, Clarence Stanley Fisher, in an Elizabeth Peters novel and becomes intrigued. Curious, Steve gets in touch with Tina Gilbert, a doctoral candidate in Egyptian archaeology, who fills in some blanks about his grandfather’s history, which only raises further questions. For example, was Clarence a spy, as many archaeologists were during wartime? And does a map that he drew contain clues to the location of King Solomon’s treasure and the Ark of the Covenant? Meanwhile, a new concordance of the Dead Sea scrolls shockingly suggests that the Pharaoh of Exodus gave the Jews “only a one-hundred-year covenant to the Kingdom of Israel,” which a character says could lead to war in the Middle East. Then Steve’s brother, Glenn, brings up another wrinkle: could Moses have been Akhenaten, the Pharaoh who briefly introduced monotheism to Egypt, as Sigmund Freud once suggested? (In real life, this idea has been disproven by archaeological evidence.) Steve, Tina, and Glenn travel to Egypt to learn more, retracing Clarence’s steps; meanwhile, terrorists who have learned of the trio’s goals, follow them. Steve gets to do his best Indiana Jones impression, effecting two brave escapes and making an important find. Debut novelist Fisher makes good use of selected details from his family history to underpin this adventure; Steve, Clarence, and Glenn, for example, are based on real people, but the story is fictional. Overall, the setting is exciting and there are a few tense scenes. However, the story moves too slowly, bogged down by inessential details and repetition. The character of Steve sometimes comes across as stodgy; for example, he refuses to eat Egyptian food, preferring Pizza Hut. Also, just hours after Tina is nearly raped by an Egyptian captor, he enjoys a chance to spoon with her—naturally, their refuge has only one twin bed—and creepily jokes, “And to think, we’re both dead tired and I don’t have any Viagra!”
Some intriguing elements, but this sometimes-off-putting adventure lacks the zip a thriller needs.Pub Date: July 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5331-3649-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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