A religion-imbued story with a solid tempo and a bevy of surprises.
A wealthy retired colonel with strong Christian beliefs supports his brother-in-law’s presidential candidacy, but ulterior motives may prove lethal in the author’s debut novel, the first in a proposed series.
Rev. Robert Strong, Independent presidential hopeful who had a good showing in the 2016 election, may have an even greater chance in 2020. His Christian-driven campaign is backed by Col. Sherman Gale, who has covertly initiated The Plan, under the rigid belief that God has spoken to him. After FBI agent Derrik Chu fails at gaining access to The Ranch—Gale’s 300,000-acre Christian community—the colonel seems to have a vested interest in him. But does Gale’s promise to get a Christian president elected at any cost necessitate the release of biological warfare? Andison rolls out an admirable thriller, one that’s propelled by plotlines that, like Gale himself, avoid predictability. The colonel’s Plan is frighteningly ingenious and leads to many impressive twists, most saved for the book’s final act. Christianity takes center stage, but the story’s treatment of religion is neither sanctimonious nor irreverent. There are fanatics as much as there are people with genuine faith and a persistent dichotomy—Gale’s erratic behavior versus Robert’s empathetic disposition. The first third of the book, as Chu is incorporated into the lives of Gale and his family, feels more like exposition than story, but this makes it all the more shocking when a narrative bombshell is dropped—courtesy of CIA agent Dr. Audrey Kunitz, who claims that all contacts and agencies are likely compromised. From that point, the book is decidedly more volatile, as Chu and Kunitz don’t know whom to trust. Chu is a flawed character—he has a short temper and doesn’t always make the right decisions—but he’s likable enough to garner sympathy. An open (and memorable) ending sets the groundwork for a sequel.
A religion-imbued story with a solid tempo and a bevy of surprises.Pub Date: May 6, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461001188
Page Count: 330
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.
A successful Vermont podcaster who’s elicited confessions from dozens of criminals finds herself on the other side of the table, in the hottest of hot seats, over her own troubled past.
Poe Webb was only 13 when she saw her mother, Margaret McMillian, get stabbed to death by the man she’d picked up for a quickie. Poe had vowed revenge, but how could a kid find and avenge herself on a stranger who’d vanished as quickly as he appeared? In the long years since then, Poe’s made a name for herself as a top true-crime podcaster who routinely invites her guests to tell her audience exactly what they did. Now, she’s being pressed, and pressed hard, by Ian Hindley, whose fake name echoes those of England’s Moors Murderers, to join him in a livestream her fans will find riveting because, as Hindley tells her, he’s actually Leopold Hutchins, the pickup who stabbed her mother 14 times when she failed to use her safe word. Skeptical? Hindley knows endless details about the killing that were never released by the police. If Poe won’t do the broadcast, Hindley threatens to harm everyone she loves: her father; her producer and lover, Kip Nguyen; and her black Lab, Bailey. And there’s one more complication that makes the pressure on Poe even more unbearable. Seven years ago, against all odds, she succeeded in tracking Leopold Hutchins from Burlington to New York and killing him herself. In fact, it’s that murder that Hindley most wants her to talk about. Which bully is more fearsome, the man who’s threatening her or the man she killed?
Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781464226229
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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