by Ward Carroll ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001
Written by a man who spent 15 years flying Tomcats, and who has also served as a consultant on such films as The Hunt for...
A rousing debut tale about the jet-flying set in which heroism, high-tech expertise, and a warts-and-all look at the Navy get equal measure.
It’s that uneasy period post–Desert Storm—the US (under the UN banner) and Iraq continuing to view each other gimlet-eyed. Lieutenant Rick Reichert (“Punk” affectionately), an F-14 Tomcat pilot, is stationed in the northern Arabian Gulf, on the three-billion-dollar carrier Arrowslinger—“The Boat” in Navy parlance. And he’s disenchanted. He hates being separated from the woman he loves, particularly since he’s begun to sense that her willingness to play Penelope to his Ulysses is on the wane, distance taking its toll. Also, he distrusts and despises his Queeg-like skipper, Commander “Soup” Campbell, whose ambition is boundless and whose path to promotion is littered with the outmaneuvered, the exploited, and the more deserving. What Punk loves is the flying, and the fliers—the good people in his squadron—though embarrassing words to that effect would never cross his 25-year-old lips. After months of unproductive wariness and enervating stalemate, there’s suddenly an incident. Iraqi jets are in the sky, in the no-fly zone, and Punk and his squadron-mates are ordered to confront them. Sensing an opportunity for glory—the kind of grandstanding he’s become famous for—Commander Campbell preempts one of the junior pilots, disrupting the orderliness and efficiency of the mission. Once aloft, he quickly compounds his ineptitude, crashing his plane and almost causing the death of the RIO (radio intercept officer) flying with him. Punk, on the other hand, performs valiantly, but in one of those painful ironies that Carroll clearly regrets and just as clearly appreciates, Campbell’s career turns out to be disaster-proof.
Written by a man who spent 15 years flying Tomcats, and who has also served as a consultant on such films as The Hunt for Red October: a convincing, often amusing, surprisingly unflinching account of those who go up in the air in ships.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-55750-236-6
Page Count: 235
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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