A winding but well-told historical drama.
An ambassador for a fictional Soviet bloc country gets in trouble for going off-message in Polevoi’s novel.
As a young boy, Gabriel Ash saved the life of King Josef of the small (fictional) European nation of Keshnev; now, 40 years later, he’s accused of trying to kill that nation’s dictator. He’s spent decades as the Keshnevan ambassador to the United Nations, parroting the Soviet line against the West while partaking liberally of the West’s decadent delights in New York City. Then, during the Falkland Islands conflict in 1982, he speaks his mind in front of the U.N. Security Council. The ramifications of his anti-colonial speech prove troublesome for him and deadly for others. Soon, he’s sitting in secluded imprisonment in a castle deep in the “Lesser Alps” of the Warsaw Pact satellite state. There, the menacing Comrade Pavel gives him the chance to record his “confessions” before facing a tribunal. How did it come to this? Ash is the American-born son of missionaries who moved to Europe after his younger brother Willy died of tuberculosis, and they eventually found their way to the village of Rogvald in Keshnev. During the king’s brief visit to that town in 1936, 12-year-old Gabriel saved him from assassination, which gives the youngster celebrity status. Over the course of this novel, Polevoi shows that he knows how to spin out a tale that delivers on all its promises while continuing to surprise to the very end. Readers learn Ash’s story through statements he records for his “confessions,” and in moments when the recorder is off, readers get Ash’s observations of his private imprisonment—and how he plans to escape. In a narrative choice that’s effectively reminiscent of the tall tales of Mark Helprin, Polevoi relates other parts of Ash’s life as the protagonist tells them to a rapt audience—one that’s enamored with the story of the boy who saved the king: “They all want to know what happens next….So do I, and I’ve already lived it.”
A winding but well-told historical drama.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781955062589
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Running Wild Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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