Gripping action that’s not for the fainthearted.
In Richard Sharpe’s 23rd adventure, he and his fellow British riflemen fight the French in Spain.
In the spring of 1812, General Hill sends Major Sharpe on a reconnaissance mission to check out key bridges across Spain’s wide River Tagus. One French army needs to cross it to regroup with Napoleon’s army to the north, so stopping that connection is crucial to the British. Sharpe is ordered “not to poke the wasps’ nest,” and his subordinate Lieutenant Love notes that the mission “calls for subtlety and forbearance.” But Sharpe sees the need for immediate action, so, like the daring commander he is, he disobeys orders. Blood flows aplenty as his riflemen and members of the Spanish resistance wreak havoc on the Crapauds (pardonnez-moi, that means Toads) with muskets, rifles, and cannons, while the French retaliate fiercely. On a broad scale, the story is about real events, but the layer of fictional characters brings it to life. First, Sharpe’s fans will remember that he’s the son of a prostitute and is a “natural killer, whether with musket, rifle, bayonet or sword.” He’s married to Teresa, a beautiful and ferocious resistance fighter nicknamed La Aguja, or The Needle. Lieutenant Love, nicknamed Cupid, speaks tentatively and looks like he’ll be a liability but grows into his job. After a dramatic success, he cries out to Saint Barbara in heaven, “Oh Babs!…You glorious bitch!” Most colorful is the resistance leader El Héroe, who strains credulity with his windbaggery. “They fear me!…They stay in their forts and I rule the land!” Apparently no one has ever seen him fight, and Sharpe’s men refer to him as El Cobarde, or The Coward. “I have the blood of kings and nobles,” he brags to Sharpe, who retorts, “Then I’m glad I’ve got the blood of the gutter in me.” Oh yes, and there’s El Sacerdote, the priest who “gives his French prisoners the last rites before he cuts their throats.”
Gripping action that’s not for the fainthearted.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063219298
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet bedtime story.
A boy and his stuffed bear head into the woods.
Having captured readers’ attention with Born a Crime (2016), his bestselling memoir of growing up in South Africa, comedian and television host Noah has written a parable about decision-making. As he puts it in a brief prologue, “It’s about disagreements and difference—but it’s also about how we bridge those gaps and find what matters most, whether we’re parents or kids, neighbors, gnomes, or political adversaries. It’s a picture book, but it’s not a children’s book. Rather, it is a book for kids to share with parents and for parents to share with kids.” With plentiful illustrations by Hahn and in language aimed at young listeners, it tells the story of a small boy so impatient to start his Saturday adventures that he rebels against the rules of his household and heads out without brushing his teeth or making his bed, despite the reminders of his stuffed bear, Walter. “We can’t just run away,” protests the bear. “Your mother will miss you. And where will we sleep? And who will make us waffles?” “We’ll build our own house,” the boy responds. “And we’ll grow our own waffles!” From there, the pair go on their walkabout, encountering a garden gnome, a pair of snails, and a gang of animated coins who have lessons to offer about making choices. Though the author suggests in the introduction that adult readers might enjoy the book on their own, those looking for a follow-up to the memoir or a foray into adult fiction should be warned that this is not that book.
A sweet bedtime story.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593729960
Page Count: 128
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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