Another solid thriller with the always welcome and dexterous hero.
Terrorists may impede recreational time at a volleyball tournament for a Navy SEAL/CIA-trained pastor in this 10th installment of a series.
Long Island Lutheran Pastor Stephen Grant has the opportunity to dig his toes into the sand of Manhattan Beach. He and his wife, Jennifer, have VIP tickets for the Bedlam on the Beach Tour. But Stephen hasn’t even sipped his first piña colada when he recognizes members of CDM International Strategies and Security. This includes CDM head Paige Caldwell, Stephen’s former CIA partner. Stephen, who was also a SEAL, learns that the security team has its eyes on tourney participant Ranya Khan. As she’s the daughter of a Saudi prince, Ranya already has a personal bodyguard in the U.S. But Prince Hkim Khan hired CDM for extra protection during the event. However, Stephen later spots Elon Mizrah, a Mossad agent he worked with more than two decades ago. Mizrah is watching Ranya as well, as the prince’s attempts “to open up Saudi society” has likely incited Islamic militants. Unfortunately, terrorists are indeed at the tournament and waiting to strike while intelligence from a secret contact known as “11” may put the villains at a frightening advantage. Keating’s (Heroes and Villains, 2018, etc.) short story dives right into the action, with the proficient CDM team identifying suspicious individuals on the beach. As in preceding installments, this tale provides enough details about recurring characters that readers new to the series won’t be lost. Accordingly, the scene of Mizrah referencing Stephen’s history and past lovers (in Jennifer’s presence) is understandably awkward, though equally funny. Stephen is a well-rounded protagonist who’s skilled in combat but likewise vulnerable: He faces a bulky assailant who hardly acknowledges the pastor’s stranglehold. There’s an impressive mystery this time around, as readers may not easily discern the terrorists’ ultimate motivation or who exactly 11 is. Resolutions come to light during the rousing final act, rife with explosives, bullets, and a few bodies.
Another solid thriller with the always welcome and dexterous hero.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73095-686-7
Page Count: 119
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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