by Ty Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2019
A swift, rousing, and first-rate detective series launch.
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A New York cop and recovering alcoholic works a murder case that stirs up a defunct organization of mercenaries and assassins in this debut novel.
More than a year after losing his wife and daughter, Brooklyn Detective Jake Penny is fighting to stay sober. So his boss, Lt. Trent Simons, sends him to upstate New York on a “low-threat task.” It’s the scene of a double homicide along with missing, presumably abducted children, but Jake’s job is to support the local police department. Yet once there, he discovers a hidden stash of money and passports. Now Jake has the attention of National Security Agency agent Ethan Parker, who informs the detective that Wei Pei, one of the deceased, is actually Liang Do Shen. He was the former leader of Veiled and Exclusive Nation of Organized Mercenaries and had been safely hiding in America with, allegedly, collateral. The news of the collateral and its likely location, Parker claims, is sure to bring out highly skilled and deadly ex-members of V.E.N.O.M. Parker and Jake work together to stop the group while the detective gets assistance from Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Zasha Avery, who’s itching for an exclusive. But as the inquiry deepens, Jake may have trouble trusting anyone. Mitchell’s series opener is filled with action scenes and, accordingly, moves at a steady clip. Still, there’s ample mystery brewing, from how Jake’s wife and daughter died to what exactly Liang’s collateral was. Though sequences of explosions and fisticuffs are exhilarating, the author doesn’t stylize them. They’re often quite brutal, and one scene in particular features a startling turn that puts the violence in perspective—for readers as well as the characters. Mitchell astutely plays with character expectations; at least one mercenary doesn’t seem villainous, and reputed good guys aren’t so wholesome. As the sole female representative, Zasha is formidable, intelligent, and only gets better as the narrative progresses. Despite a few predictable plot twists, the story offers numerous surprises and a sublime setup for Book 2.
A swift, rousing, and first-rate detective series launch.Pub Date: April 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73354-360-6
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Red Rope Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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