A brisk and highly entertaining technothriller with a diverse cast.
Brilliant young adults from around the world use their gear and abilities to thwart an international threat in this prospective New Adult series-starter.
Adam Eberhardt, a 20-something German chemistry researcher at a Swiss research university, clumsily knocks over a row of flasks while assisting with the presentation of 24-year-old fellow researcher Margot Czarnecki. That’s not so unusual, especially for him, but he’s alarmed when, shortly afterward, he spots some men abducting Margot. Then a U.S. Army general suddenly shows up and puts Adam on a jet, with little explanation. Adam soon meets six talented people around the same age as he is, including French fighter pilot Jacki Schulté; soccer player Hala El-Mallawany from Cairo; and skilled chess player Guowei Zhang from Shanghai. The group winds up in a training facility in an undisclosed location, where they meet a man they all know well: a former geneticist who’s now working with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Task Force. To Adam, he’s Baba, who’s like a surrogate father to him, but the others each know him “by a different name or in a different way.” Apparently, the young people are clones of notable historical figures; Adam, it’s revealed, is the clone of Albert Einstein (with a bit of genetic enhancement for increased muscle development, among other traits). The man Adam knows as Baba asks the group to use their skills to take down a terrorist organization called the Allied Rebel Koalition, which has recently been kidnapping nuclear scientists, including Margot. The seven new teammates start training in hand-to-hand combat and the use of weaponry, but it’s not long before ARK targets them; they’re also after a mysterious 4-year-old named Yusef. The seven aim to protect the boy and decipher ARK’s ultimate plan.
Clark’s tale moves at an impressive pace, quickly and skillfully introducing the immensely likable Adam, who’s admiration of Margot over the last three years gives him plenty of incentive to find her. Each of the seven cloned youngsters gets snippets of backstory, and their individual personalities shine. Computer-savvy American Brandon Freeman, for example, provides comic relief with his endearingly half-baked remarks (“Yeah, but it makes you think….And he who thinks is a penny earned,” he muses at one point). This opening series installment is loaded with mysteries, such as how all the lab-created characters ended up with their respective families, and why Yusef is an important part of ARK’s nefarious plan. The villains behind ARK are revealed early on, but even they have surprising secrets. There are copious action scenes throughout, featuring Adam and the others engaging in fisticuffs, gunfights, and car chases. Clark keeps the violence from getting too graphic and never lingers on its aftermath. The Task Force also uses an assortment of chic tech, including pliable boron carbide armor; lightning-rod tasers that cause temporary paralysis; and iGlasses, contact lenses that allow easy, hands-free internet access; various players employ these gadgets to great effect. The story ends with gratifying and welcome resolution, although a sequel is in the works.
A brisk and highly entertaining technothriller with a diverse cast.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 367
Publisher: Quark Legacy
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
An addictive psychological thriller.
When a mysterious novel appears on her bedside table, a successful documentary filmmaker finds herself face to face with a secret that threatens to unravel life as she knows it.
Catherine Ravenscroft has built a dream life, or close to it: the devoted husband, the house in London, the award-winning career as a documentary filmmaker. And though she’s never quite bonded with her 25-year-old son the way she’d hoped, he’s doing fine—there are worse things than being an electronics salesman. But when she stumbles across a sinister novel called The Perfect Stranger—no one’s quite sure how it came into the house—Catherine sees herself in its pages, living out scenes from her past she’d hoped to forget. It’s a threat—but from whom? And why now, 20 years after the fact? Meanwhile, Stephen Brigstocke, a retired teacher, widowed and in pain, is desperate to exact revenge on Catherine and make her pay for what happened all those years ago. The story is told in alternating chapters, Catherine's in the third-person and Stephen's in the first, as the two orbit each other, predator and prey, and the novel moves between the past and the present to paint a portrait of two troubled families with trauma bubbling under the surface. As their lives become increasingly entangled, Stephen’s obsession grows, Catherine’s world crumbles, and it becomes clear that—in true thriller form—everything may not be as it seems. But how much destruction must be wrought before the truth comes out? And when it does, will there be anything left to salvage? While the long buildup to the big reveal begins to drag, Knight’s elegant plot and compelling (if not unexpected) characters keep the heart of the novel beating even when the pacing falters. Atmospheric and twisting and ripe for TV adaptation, this debut novel never strays far from convention, but that doesn’t make it any less of a page-turner.
An addictive psychological thriller.Pub Date: May 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236225-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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