Butterworth’s good-natured buffoonery and hyperbole work far better than Butterworth-as-Griffin adding repartee to Hazardous...
Butterworth drops his W.E.B. Griffin nom de plume and shifts from spy/soldier/police derring-do to produce a romantic adventure novel fueled by sly, sometimes arch, humor.
Two narrative threads follow Philip Wallingford Williams III, a rich boy expelled from more than one of the right prep schools. In the first, World War II has just ended, and young Phil decides to forge a birth certificate and join the military. He takes "to the Army like a duckling to water," and Butterworth’s tale becomes a Forrest Gump–like story of right place, right time. Names are dropped—Schwarzkopf, Colby—as Phil joins a military intelligence detachment in occupied Berlin. Soon he's working for the German-American Gospel Tract Foundation, a CIA cover that unearths Russian spies like beautiful Legs Benidik. Berlin characters include ring-knockers, ticket punchers, hard-drinkers, and refugees from mental institutions and Fort Leavenworth prison. A lusty weekend results in Phil’s shotgun wedding to Brunhilde Williams, a Viennese ballerina who later earns the sobriquet "AA," the Angry Austrian. Marriage to a foreigner costs Phil his security clearance, so out of the Army he goes, to settle in Muddiebay, Mississippi, and begin a career as a novelist. Surreptitious notes he made of military officers’ sexual peccadilloes become the foundations for bestsellers. The second thread, circa 1975, follows successful novelist Phil among Muddiebay’s oversexed dilettantes, trust fund babies, and nouveau riche pretenders as they organize a pheasant-hunting trip to Scotland, a beard for adulterous liaisons and aristocratic hobnobbing. Throughout there’s bed-hopping; arch, referential, smug, sometimes supercilious humor; some bits of outright funny stuff; "Expletive Deleted!!" employed by the dozens; a quirky homage to the late Tom Clancy; and some lamentable anachronisms—but Phil finds true love.
Butterworth’s good-natured buffoonery and hyperbole work far better than Butterworth-as-Griffin adding repartee to Hazardous Duty (2014).Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-17623-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and...
In Pinborough’s (Behind Her Eyes, 2018, etc.) twisty, decade-spanning, multivoiced thriller, everyone has secrets: teenager Ava; her mom, Lisa; and Lisa’s best friend, Marilyn.
On the surface, all three women fulfill the roles expected of them, and they support and love one another, but they don’t truly know each other. Ava, a competitive swimmer, is finishing up her exams and sneaking around with her first boyfriend while overly protective mom Lisa is about to clinch a big contract at work—and maybe even go on a date with a handsome millionaire client. Marilyn has been dealing with headaches at home, but she’s still game for a shopping trip to outfit Lisa for that big date. Soon, however, they will discover that someone else in their lives has a secret much darker than any they carry. This person is a murderer who is stalking a childhood friend who, they believe, betrayed their deepest trust. There are a lot of plot twists and reveals within the novel, some of which are surprising, some of which are expected. Pinborough weaves several different time periods and several different narrative voices to create layers of character and conflict, but the characters are types often found in psychological thrillers, and while their problems are often relatable, at least at first, they aren’t particularly engaging. It’s clear which decisions, and which silences, are going to get them into trouble, and yet, as people do, they carry on anyway. The one element that sets Pinborough’s novel apart from the slew of similar thrillers is the emphasis on female empowerment and the power of female relationships. These women need no one to save them, no knights in shining armor or handsome cops. As Marilyn succinctly puts it, “Fuck. That. Shit.”
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and turns along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-285679-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Colorful, but best for those who don't mind Picoult's heavily sentimental style.
Teenaged witches, DNA evidence, Megan's Law, belladonna-laced tea, and an honest ex-con addicted to Jeopardy!, all mixed up in a well-researched if slightly disappointing small-town legal drama by veteran Picoult (Plain Truth, 2000, etc.).
Honest prep-school teacher and soccer coach Jack St. Bride has just completed an unjust sentence for statutory rape, to which he pleaded guilty only because a lazy lawyer persuaded him to hedge his bets. Somewhat unbelievably, he managed to escape being raped in prison by telling the brutal Mountain Felcher, "You're not going to break me." When he stops in Salem Falls, New Hampshire, to begin anew, things start looking up as he falls swiftly in love with his employer, fragile diner-owner Addie Peabody. The fact that she "tasted of coffee and loneliness" upon first kiss does not hinder Jack, but the law does: as a convicted sexual offender, he's required to register with the local police, and of course they can't keep a secret. Before long, there's widespread paranoia about the "dangerous rapist" on the loose in Salem Falls. Foremost of the alarmists is Amos Duncan, head of Duncan Pharmaceuticals, the town's only major corporation. His ire is exacerbated when his weird daughter Gillian, a devoted Wiccan, sets into action a chain of events that snares Jack in another rape charge—this time not merely statutory. One-third of the way in, the story turns into a courtroom battle between civil-liberties eccentric Jordan McAfee and sanctimonious prosecutor Matt Houlihan. Picoult's depiction of the legal process is excellent, especially her intriguing and thorough explanation of DNA evidence, and the narrative is impressively complicated, with a couple of eye-opening surprises. A few of the resolutions, however, seem contrived, and when the language turns lyrical or metaphorical, it falls flat.
Colorful, but best for those who don't mind Picoult's heavily sentimental style.Pub Date: April 10, 2001
ISBN: 0-7434-1870-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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