Another stellar ride from Bond; checking out Pono’s first adventure isn’t a prerequisite, but this will make readers want to.
In Bond’s (Tibetan Cross, 2014, etc.) thriller, Hawaiian surfer Pono Hawkins books a flight to Maine to help a fellow Special Forces vet duck a murder conviction.
Pono doesn’t consider Bucky Franklin a friend. Years ago, Bucky left with Pono’s love, Lexie, and provided testimony in one of two cases that sent Pono to jail (although both convictions were overturned). But Bucky saved Pono’s life when they were in Special Forces, and he’s determined to help when Lexie tells him he’s been arrested for killing environmentalist Ronnie Dalt. It doesn’t look good for Bucky. The murder weapon was his, and his alibi is shaky. But Pono knows he’s on the right track when someone tries to shoot him. He starts a dangerous relationship with Dalt’s widow, Abigail, and gradually exposes a string of political unscrupulousness. Bond’s novel, the second to feature Pono, makes its protagonist credible as an amateur sleuth; Pono’s smart enough to enlist hacker pal Mitchell, whose skills draw more viable suspects than Pono can find on his own. And his beloved home is always on his mind as he suffers the Maine winter hoping to wrap everything up before an upcoming surfing festival, the Tahiti Tsunami. The story has an unusual villain, WindPower LLC, whose deafening, monstrous turbines are an incessant presence throughout the story. The political and financial muscle behind WindPower is abundantly clear from the beginning, immediately demonizing the company. The book, however, isn’t short on mysteries. Abigail, for one, inexplicably vanishes, a disappearance that the cops blame on Pono, and there are a couple of murders. As in Pono’s previous story, the surfer’s fondness for women creates a triad of drama: Abigail; lawyer Erica, a lover from back when Pono was a mere 14; and Lexie (Pono won’t sleep with her while Bucky’s in jail, but it’s obvious that he’s trying his hardest not to). Pono’s relationship with his Pa is the strongest; the most heartfelt moment is Pono rushing back to Hawaii, regardless of cops wanting him to stay in Maine, when Pa’s diagnosed with cancer.
Another stellar ride from Bond; checking out Pono’s first adventure isn’t a prerequisite, but this will make readers want to.Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62704-030-3
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Mandevilla Press
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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