bookshelf

Meltdown

Name: Meltdown
Author: Susan Mills Wilson
ISBN: 978-0-9911691-2-2

by Susan Mills Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2015

Staunch characters and an unmistakable threat from a sniper make for a stirring page-turner.

bookshelf

In this intense thriller, a woman becomes a person of interest when cops link her friend to a mass murder in North Carolina.

An Independence Day celebration turns tragic when dishonorably discharged Army sniper Jared Bolten repeatedly fires rounds into a crowd. Federal agents identify Bolten from a boastful letter he leaves at the scene, but it’s a possible second shooter that gets local detective Chris Lagoni on the case. During the shooting spree, witnesses spotted one-armed Sam Briggs near Col. Gerald Mahoney, dead from a .38-caliber bullet. Briggs’ lost cellphone call leads Chris to Megan Moore, Briggs’ pal/neighbor, who insists that the former soldier, burdened with post-traumatic stress disorder, has no ties to Bolten. She likewise belittles Bolten when reporters question her. Megan doesn’t want cops hurting her friend, but she may have to worry about herself, once a still-free Bolten hears what she’s said about him to the media. Wilson (Her Lying Eyes, 2014, etc.) emphasizes suspense, with a perspective from detestable killer Bolten, and a touch of romance between the two leads. The story generates a great deal of tension throughout, most of it stemming from Chris. The detective, for example, hates working with the FBI (particularly Special Agent Hank Calhoun), may resent partner Nick Pulaski for Nick’s upcoming promotion to sergeant, and remains constantly vexed by largely uncooperative Megan. More insight into Megan and Briggs’ relationship would have benefited the story. It’s a bit confusing that Megan goes out of her way to help a man whom she admits once tried to sexually assault her. Nevertheless, the mutual but restrained attraction between Chris and Megan becomes a treat, and their arguments often come across as bickering. A highlight: Chris acknowledges that he’s fantasizing about the annoying Megan—with duct tape over her mouth. Bolten remains an unquestionably ever-present menace, especially once the plot delves into his past and previous transgressions. And when Megan suddenly vanishes, it’s unclear to cops (and readers) whether she’s snuck away of her own volition or has been abducted by Bolten. Wilson, for good measure, inserts a twist at the end that’s both startling and darkly humorous.

Staunch characters and an unmistakable threat from a sniper make for a stirring page-turner.

Pub Date: May 27, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-9911691-2-2

Page Count: 220

Publisher: Code 3 Publications

Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

LAST ORDERS

by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996

bookshelf

Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.