Drugs, politics, a bit of sex, and a lot of archaeology provide the international thrills in an international thriller by the author of The Missing Sixth (1992), etc. Crossing the English Channel on a clapped-out ferry, mysterious pilot and international femme fatale Jaymin Bartel is witness to highly suspicious behavior on the part of a Middle Eastern passenger. The young man accosts an attractive preteen and forces her to accept a metal cylinder, which, following orders, she tucks into her backpack. Following that odd bit of business, the potential terrorist proceeds to sink the ferry by opening the doors several hundred yards short of Dover. After dramatically rescuing numerous passengers, Jaymin pairs up with renowned American archaeologist Stephen Kaine, the understandably distressed father of Angela, the girl with the metal tube in her backpack. Together, Stephen and Jaymin and a gruff but kindly Scottish tugboat skipper effect the rescue of Angela from the ferry's submerged loo. In the beginning of a seemingly endless string of eerie coincidences, it turns out that Jaymin, to whom Stephen is powerfully attracted, is working for people who want very much for Stephen not to have that metal tube that was rescued along with Angela. The tube contains an ancient map of the long-lost Turko-Persian city that Stephen found and from which he was removed under shocking circumstances. If the map is to be believed, Stephen could clear up some 3000-year-old hanky-panky on the part of the Persian monarchy. But any clearing up of mysteries will be dependent on Stephen and Angela's survival in the face of relentless, murderous pursuit by Jaymin's employers- -a team of wickedly bent American spies and diplomats who have been working a deal to swap antique gold for present-day opium. Jaymin's flying skills will eventually become crucial. A rousing beginning degenerates into a long and not very exciting series of well-timed and eventually predictable coincidences amidst some attractive scenery.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-670-84870-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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