A complex tale with plenty to say about a complicated era.
Doulis (The Iron Storm, 2011, etc.) quickly thrusts readers into the far-reaching political tensions and fears of the 1970s in this conspiracy thriller.
Lee Straton, Mona Paterson, and Holly Laver find their friend, professor Josh Andrews, in a grisly state following a break-in and assault at his house. But although Lee could obsess over his own impending breakup with Holly, or the apparent romantic feelings between his sister-in-law Mona and the injured professor, he’s determined to get to the bottom of the strange crime instead. This clearly isn’t just a random rural act of violence, as the police assume, although Lee isn’t certain what his own instincts, honed by military training and a stretch in prison, are telling him. With the country becoming increasingly divided over the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the fallout from the Watergate scandal, it’s no wonder Lee suspects that the professor, with his radical political leanings, might have a target on his back. As paranoia over government surveillance mounts, Straton’s investigation yields more questions, and it begins to seem that the attack on Andrews was just the beginning of something far more sinister. Overall, the novel takes its twists and turns hard and fast. However, Doulis also accentuates the workings of Lee’s keen analytical mind with thorough, highly detailed descriptions, such as this one of a stack of mail: “The mail had come an hour before his nap and he had put it all on the large platter near the door. There was a card from his daughter, Helen; they were back in Paris and would stay there for the last two weeks. Among the other post was an over-size envelope marked ‘insufficient postage.’ ” The sheer volume of such observations can be overwhelming, but the novel’s brisk pace keeps readers guessing about just how important any specific detail will be. This keeps the events moving forward, even in the sections of the book that contain less action. Above all, the story succeeds at creating feelings of uncertainty and anxiety, and the mystery gives Lee plenty of reasons to give in to his own doubts.
A complex tale with plenty to say about a complicated era.Pub Date: March 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4808-1467-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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