Further plot pointers would benefit readers new to the series, but the appealing protagonists will pique interest for the...
The assassination of the U.S. president gradually exposes a secret organization that spans the globe in Healy’s (Intersection, 2014) second thriller to feature lovers Alexis Toles and Cassidy O’Brien.
Before he succumbs to an assassin’s bullet, President John Merrow rather cryptically tells his friend Alex that she needs to follow Brackett and Krause. Krause is CIA, but Brackett could be either the mysterious and powerful Adm. Brackett or his daughter, FBI agent Claire Brackett. Alex, just returned to her job at the NSA, learns that the president’s assassination may be the result of his working against an enigmatic group known as the Collaborative, which includes politicians, military members, etc., from various countries. Alex plans to infiltrate the organization for answers and to retrieve info on the Collaborative’s latest venture—a potential biological weapon. The world of political intrigue is amply detailed and gleefully convoluted; Alex’s lesbian lover, Cassidy, had a one-time fling with the president, who fathered her 7-year-old son, Dylan, unbeknownst to her ex-husband and the presumed dad, Christopher, a congressman in a sexual relationship with Claire. Healy keeps the myriad characters in line with frequent references to job titles, such as NSA Director Michael Taylor, which helps make the endlessly shifting alliances easier to follow. In lieu of descriptive passages, the story progresses mostly through dialogue but still manages solid visual cues, such as Alex’s tendency to pinch the bridge of her nose when frustrated or conflicted and the introduction in several scenes of Claire by her notable red hair. Healy writes the novel assuming readers have read the series’ first book, so particulars on Christopher’s car accident (that may not have been an accident) and Cassidy’s abduction, which have ties to the main plot, are regrettably lacking. Just as much of the narrative is devoted to Alex and Cassidy’s romance as it is to the espionage. They make an endearing couple who certainly face dramatic hurdles along the way, especially Alex’s small-minded father, who doesn’t hide his disapproval of the women’s relationship and their desire to, along with Dylan, be a family. But their repeated professions of love to one another can be excessive, especially because their embraces and caresses are far stronger expressions.
Further plot pointers would benefit readers new to the series, but the appealing protagonists will pique interest for the preceding book.Pub Date: June 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692213544
Page Count: 482
Publisher: Bumbling Bard Creations
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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