A rousing, well-researched thriller by an author who should be encouraged.
A debut novel features Las Vegas casinos, the Russian mob, and a greedy sex worker.
The first part of this tale exemplifies the grim adage that if hapless heroes didn’t have bad luck, they’d have no luck at all. Jennifer Williams is in Vegas for a commercial real estate convention. Having caught her lover in bed with another woman, she rushes blindly out of town only to stumble onto a robbery in progress at a convenience store in Pahrump, Nevada. Enter Matt Crocker, an impromptu hero, who kills three thugs who work for Russian mobster Vladimer Dudka. Now the Russian mob is after the duo to recover some serious money and wreak vengeance. The Russians have also managed to kidnap Ashley Thomas, Jennifer’s co-worker. Rescuing her involves a very complicated scam to be pulled off at the Stratosphere Tower on the Strip. And it works. In the meantime, the protagonists are hiding out at the Prickly Pear Ranch, where they meet Vegas and Scarlett, two sex workers who enhance and advance the plot. Just when it seems that Jennifer and Matt are getting a break, Scarlett, in it for herself, betrays them, and they are back in Dudka’s murderous hands. More troubles ensue, including shootouts and desperate escapes that are quickly thwarted. This is a very impressive first novel, offering rigorously researched details. Some of the ingredients—Las Vegas, the Russians, a hunky hero who blushes on cue, lawmen who pepper their speech with acronyms—are clichéd but to be expected in a thriller. Fortunately, Lewis knows how to deliver plot twists, things most astute readers will not see coming. His prose style fits a caper set in Vegas. Call it hard-boiled (think Raymond Chandler and John D. MacDonald) and street-smart with a fillip of flipness (“ ‘It’s an awesome plan.’ Scarlett’s tone was indignant. ‘The FBI has no jurisdiction in Mexico. I have a friend who’s been down there since she was indicted for selling ecstasy. She turns tricks at this dive bar in Ensenada. I’m going to buy the bar…and spend my days drinking piña coladas on the beach’ ”). Vegas—the sex worker—deserves special mention. She is an appealing character: sweet as a favorite sister, perky as a cheerleader, strangely innocent, and an expert in cool stuff like parachuting and casino security.
A rousing, well-researched thriller by an author who should be encouraged.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73401-570-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Red Granite Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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