A sometimes-intriguing but awkwardly executed conspiracy thriller.
Ruff’s (Sh*tty Beijing Bike, 2016) archaeological thriller tells the story of an American writer who gets caught up in an international incident involving China’s famous Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.
The story begins at Austin’s South by Southwest festival in an unspecified year when Texas secedes from the United States. There, Arthur Biers meets Wyatt Waller, a rich tech guru who has a plan to disrupt the archaeology world by using drones. Wyatt has just returned from Xi’an, China, where his assistant died under mysterious circumstances, and he’s looking for a replacement. That’s where Arthur, a Mandarin-speaking blogger, comes in; he has an interest in historical mysteries, and the unopened Tomb of the First Emperor in Xi’an—best known for the thousands of terra-cotta warriors who “guard” it—is one of the biggest. “All you really have to do is write about the people, and places you see,” explains Wyatt; he’ll be assisting the popular and controversial author Bruce Philips, who’s dead-set on discovering what’s inside the sealed tomb—and verifying Chinese claims that the tomb has never been opened before. Arthur will later be called a grave robber by Chinese newspapers, detained at the Austin airport, and forced to explain to an ambassador how he came to be inside the tomb. Ruff’s thriller does a fine job of mixing ancient mysteries with contemporary geopolitics, and it’s the latter element that gives this thriller a consistently sinister atmosphere. The author’s overall vision is poorly served by his writing, however, which doles out information in a confusing manner. The pacing is also criminally slow throughout, and even the occasional sharp-sounding lines can feel overwritten: “For his family, the Wallers, making money was a science, making a lot of money was an art, and making more money than you’ll ever know what to do with a civic duty.” In the end, the novel feels more like a slog than a lightweight caper.
A sometimes-intriguing but awkwardly executed conspiracy thriller.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-973416-17-3
Page Count: 414
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
