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THE MEMORY CHURCH

Name: THE MEMORY CHURCH
Author: Tim Sebastian
ISBN: 0-688-11447-4

by Tim Sebastian ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 20, 1993

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The sudden and surprising collapse of the Berlin wall sends spies scuttling in all directions. Old wounds bleed again in the latest moody thriller from the author of Saviour's Gate (1991), etc. East Germany's Stasi aren't the only intelligence agents to run from the light as the lid comes off the collapsing communist state. British agent James Martin, who posed as a defector and came to live in the workers' state four years ago after someone betrayed Her Majesty's East German spy ring, is now dangerously exposed. There's still a traitor in place back home in MI-5 whose existence is threatened by the new openness and by Martin. As the Soviets pull out, taking their nastiest files with them, the uncontrolled Stasi are like so many unfenced Dobermans, running loose and taking bites out of anyone who moves. With old associates and enemies dropping like flies, Martin takes the first available plane back to Britain and looks up his masters, who wish he'd stayed away. So much has changed since he left. Martin is a messy remnant of the Old World Order, an embarrassment. Is that why there is attempt after attempt on his life even in England? Dodging a bullet from a fake nun at Heathrow and a bomb in placid Oxford, Martin flees to America, where he's reunited with the CIA agent he loved, then lost, when the he took the fall for the German mess. But the East Germans have followed him to Washington. To set himself free once and for all, Martin must root out the traitor, and to do that he must go back to the city of his nightmares, East Berlin. Classically grim thriller. Sebastian's cold war ghosts are still more frightful than any number of petro-terrorists.

Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1993

ISBN: 0-688-11447-4

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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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...

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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

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.