by Avanti Centrae ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 2020
Strong, skillful female warriors headline this rousing sequel.
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A computer geek teams up with a black ops group to recover superconductive material in this second installment of a thriller series.
After spotting an intruder in her San Francisco loft, Maddy Marshall first protects 10-year-old AJ, the boy she hopes to adopt. Unfortunately, the culprit absconds with the ancient star chart she had been keeping safe. This chart may be the key to recovering a superconductive meteorite, which would fuel a quantum computer. As the thief may have been Russian, it’s a national security risk since the Russians would likely use such a computer for an American invasion. Alfred Bowman, director of VanOps, assigns Maddy’s boyfriend, Bear Thorenson, to find the meteorite as well as investigate the possibly related murder of an Indian ambassador. Joining Bear are VanOps members Jarmilla “Jags” Agiashvili and Maddy’s twin, Will Argones. Maddy becomes part of the team, too. Though only a civilian, she has an aikido black belt and belongs to the Order of the Invisible Flame, an ancient sect of royal spies that her family founded. This mission necessitates enlisting the help of archeoastronomer Anu Kumar; deciphering hieroglyphics on an important relic that Maddy possesses; and dodging tenacious assassins. Maddy and Jags are delightfully capable and convincingly vulnerable characters. But while the two women’s combat scenes are exhilarating, the story ultimately turns into a series of seemingly endless assaults or assassination attempts the team must face. Nevertheless, the final act is decidedly more intense while the brisk narrative traverses the globe to such places as Turkey, Egypt, and Africa. Centrae provides Maddy with numerous dilemmas, as she debates an offer to officially join VanOps (she’s concerned it would put AJ in persistent danger) and deals with Bear’s envy over her ex-fiance, Vincent, who, to some extent, is still in her life.
Strong, skillful female warriors headline this rousing sequel. (author’s notes, acknowledgements, author bio)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73496-625-1
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Thunder Creek Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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New York Times Bestseller
by John Grisham ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2024
Fine Grisham storytelling that his fans will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
A descendant of enslaved people fights a Florida developer over the future of a small island.
In 1760, the slave ship Venus breaks apart in a storm on its way to Savannah, and only a few survivors, all Africans, find their way safely to a tiny barrier island between Florida and Georgia. For two centuries, only formerly enslaved people and their descendants live there. A curse on white people hangs over the island, and none who ever set foot on it survive. Its last resident was Lovely Jackson, who departed as a teen in 1955. Today—well, in 2020—a developer called Tidal Breeze wants Florida’s permission to “develop” Dark Isle, which sits within bridge-building distance from the well-established Camino Island. The plot is an easy setup for Grisham, big people vs. little people. Lovely’s revered ancestors are buried on Dark Isle, which Hurricane Leo devastated from end to end. Lovely claims the islet’s ownership despite not having formal title, and she wants white folks to leave the place alone. But apparently Florida doesn’t have enough casinos and golf courses to suit some people. Surely developers can buy off that little old Black lady with a half million bucks. No? How about a million? “I wish they’d stop offering money,” Lovely complains. “I ain’t for sale.” Thus a non-jury court trial begins to establish ownership. The story has no legal fireworks, just ordinary maneuvering. The real fun is in the backstory, in the portrayal of the aptly named Lovely, and the skittishness of white people to step on the island as long as the ancient curse remains. Lovely has self-published a history of the island, and a sympathetic white woman named Mercer Mann decides to write a nonfiction account as well. When that book ultimately comes out, reviewers for Kirkus (and others) “raved on and on.” Don’t expect stunning twists, though early on Dark Isle gives four white guys a stark message. The tension ends with the judge’s verdict, but the remaining 30 pages bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.
Fine Grisham storytelling that his fans will enjoy.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9780385545990
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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by Daniel Silva ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2024
A novel that delivers pretty much everything Silva’s fans want.
Silva takes his hero to where this bestselling series began.
Fans have gotten used to a new Gabriel Allon book every summer. Anyone wondering what the former head of Mossad might be doing during the war in Gaza will not find an answer here. This is bad news, maybe, for readers who appreciate Silva’s engagement with real-world politics, but it’s good news for those looking to this series for escape. This narrative is set in motion by the death of an art historian trying to reconnect a Picasso painting stolen by the Nazis with its rightful owner. Allon is drawn into this mystery by an old acquaintance from Cornwall, the place where he tried to escape his past and where readers first met him in The Kill Artist (2000). As he did in The Collector (2023), the author focuses on Allon’s connections to the art world, rather than his tenure as an assassin and intelligence operative. None of this is to say that Allon doesn’t make use of spycraft and his network of powerful international contacts. Although longtime fans may miss their favorite members of his old crew, there are plenty of familiar characters here. Allon enlists the help of hacker and master thief Ingrid Johansen and violin virtuoso Anna Rolfe. And it’s Timothy Peel—all grown up—who asks Allon for help investigating a seemingly simple case of murder that isn’t simple at all. All of this is fun enough, but it also feels a bit static. In Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022), Allon whipped up passable forgeries of works by Renaissance masters like Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese in a matter of days. Here, his plan for recovering a Picasso requires him to produce convincing lost paintings by modernists and postmodernists with wildly different styles. The glimpses into Allon’s family life also feel rote. Silva’s fans know that Chiara can do much more than cook and smile while her husband goes off on his adventures.
A novel that delivers pretty much everything Silva’s fans want.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780063384200
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
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