This novel, packed with action, intrigue, sexual chemistry, and a lot of archaeological research, gets its series off to a...
This first volume of a new fantasy series sees a renowned scientist looking into the mysterious death of his archaeologist uncle.
After earning a fortune in the biochemical industry, 42-year-old Anlon Cully is enjoying early retirement on Lake Tahoe, where he spends his days on his yacht and his nights at a local watering hole. There, he’s developed a close friendship with an edgy, young bartender, Eleanor Marie “Pebbles” McCarver. When Anlon’s uncle, the famed archaeologist Devlin Wilson, dies while hiking in the mountains, Anlon travels to Devlin’s home in upstate New York to take care of his affairs. However, Devlin’s colleague Matthew Dobson is convinced that Devlin’s death wasn’t a tragic accident, but murder. When Dobson is also found dead, local detective Jennifer Stevens brings Anlon in for questioning. Anlon soon summons Pebbles to his side, and they dig deep into Devlin’s controversial research regarding a set of artifacts known as the Life Stones. Each of the stones possesses different powers, and they provide evidence that ancient civilizations were actually far more technologically advanced than we are today. It turns out that there are other people who will do whatever it takes to obtain these legendary objects. Anlon, Pebbles, and Jennifer must figure out which of these various nefarious characters is responsible for Devlin’s death, even as Anlon becomes their next target. Debut author Donoghue ably creates three very distinct protagonists in Anlon, Pebbles, and Jennifer. However, the repeated mentions of Pebbles’ stunning looks, and her ability to eat epic amounts of food while remaining supermodel slim, grow tiring. Jennifer’s sharp tongue, quick thinking, and fearless behavior, though, will make her a reader favorite. The archaeology-driven mystery, while difficult to unravel at times, will appeal in equal measures to fans of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon novels and History’s theory-filled Ancient Aliens TV series. Donoghue leaves enough loose ends hanging to make readers feel compelled to pick up the next volume.
This novel, packed with action, intrigue, sexual chemistry, and a lot of archaeological research, gets its series off to a promising start.Pub Date: May 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9973164-0-7
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Leaping Leopard Enterprises
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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