An earnest but formulaic story of religious radicalization and its effects.
Five lives are profoundly transformed by a terrorist attack on a Brussels airport in Hamilton’s novel.
Ibrahim’s family departs Morocco for Brussels in 1998 in search of a better life, but full integration into Belgian life proves elusive. His family settles into Mollenbeek, a hardscrabble neighborhood. Ibrahim is indifferent to his Muslim heritage and, like many teens, is infatuated with girls, money, and football; he also engages in casual drug use. After a botched armed robbery attempt, Ibrahim is sentenced to 10 years in prison, and during the first year he undergoes a radical transformation into a devout Muslim under the tutelage of Mohamed, an Algerian fellow prisoner. Eventually, he enthusiastically joins the Islamic State group and becomes their foot soldier in Syria and Iraq, finally returning to Europe. Hamilton powerfully captures his protagonist’s anger: “Dark revenge was in Ibrahim’s heart. Revenge against the West that bombed and gassed his brothers and Arab children, while their own children slept safely in ignorance of the daily terror inflicted against the Caliphate.” After participating in successful attacks on Paris, he plans a major assault on an airport, while staying a step ahead of intelligence services. The author explores the ramifications of terrorism by chronicling the overlapping lives of five people whose lives are waylaid by it: Nena, a DJ from Antwerp; Philippe, a philandering restauranteur; Mark, an elite British soldier; Roxy, a diving instructor engaged to a Turkish oligarch; and Tom and Meena, both IT professionals and colleagues—the former meek and incompetent, the latter ruthlessly ambitious. However, the resulting scope of the narrative is simply too grand, and the proliferation of subplots becomes a distraction; readers may wish that that author had devoted more time to more deeply developing a pared-down cast of characters. Moreover, this is an overly familiar tale at its core, and one that’s been told so many times that it feels like the rehearsal of a formula. For all its undeniable intelligence, this novel may fail to sustain readers’ attention to the end.
An earnest but formulaic story of religious radicalization and its effects.Pub Date: April 30, 2023
ISBN: 978-0957489462
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Cambria Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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