The author of the seven-volume Brotherhood of War series takes time out from his ongoing saga of US Marines in the Pacific theater (Close Combat, Line of Fire, etc.) for an urbanely twisty and well- told tale of derring-do in a WW II backwater. In the fall of 1942, leatherneck fighter pilot Cletus Howell Frade (who became an ace in the unfriendly skies over Midway and Guadalcanal) is abruptly recalled to the States. The OSS has picked him to lead an undercover team posted to neutral Argentina, whose coastal waters are being used by vessels from other noncombatant nations to refuel and revictual German U-boats. Raised on a Texas ranch by an uncle and aunt, young Clete is a natural for the dangerous, politically sensitive mission: he's fluent in Spanish, was born in Argentina (to a long-dead American mother), and (through his maternal grandfather) is heir to a sizable petroleum enterprise that does business south of the border. Once in Buenos Aires, Clete gains immediate access to the city's clubby, privileged haut monde on the strength of his family and commercial connections. He also makes peace with his estranged father, an immensely wealthy grandee and former colonel who (though plotting against the Castillo regime with the likes of Juan Peton) agrees to help Clete take out a supply ship as an object lesson to the Third Reich's covert allies. Even so, before he can get aloft to guide the US sub that sends his target to the bottom, the rookie saboteur must evade the clutches of a Nazi se§orita who's developed a potentially fatal attraction for him. In the end, thanks to the ties of honor that bind officers from any country's military, Clete comes through with flying colors while the villains of the piece get approximately what's coming to them. Absorbing, well-written entertainment that's evocatively detailed as to time and place.
Pub Date: Jan. 4, 1994
ISBN: 0-399-13862-5
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1993
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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