Hill, author of the fine Dalziel/Pascoe mysteries, is less sure-footed when it comes to espionage thrillers—this is his weakest effort in that genre: a hectic yet talky spy/revenge/chase tale that begins with a certain far-fetched vigor, then becomes gnarled in increasingly tiresome convolutions. The sardonic, near-obnoxious narrator is aristocrat Lem Swift, 40, "the well-known charity embezzler, illegal arms dealer and fugitive from justice," who's enjoying the expatriate life in Venezuela. . .until he's informed that he has terminal stomach cancer. So, determined to see his estranged daughter Angle before dying, Swift sneaks back home to England—only to be grabbed immediately by British intelligence. Why so? Because they want Swift to go to Italy to kill his famous father-scientist Billy, who defected to Moscow 20 years ago after allegedly killing Swift's mother. Now, it seems, Billy intends to re-defect, stand trial, and Tell All—which would include some secrets sure to embarrass the British establishment (and the USSR). Swift, under ruthless pressure and full of hate for his father, grudgingly agrees, arrives in Rome, seeks out his half-sister Teresa (a likely contact for fugitive Billy), and is soon deep in mayhem. His ex-wife turns up dead; Teresa is tortured; KGB agents are everywhere. Eventually there's a family reunion within a KGB stronghold—followed by a father/son escape by boat, with fatal results for Billy (semi-reconciled with Swift at last). And now Swift, who isn't really dying of cancer (it's all been an elaborate hoax, of course), sets out to take revenge—and to learn the whole, murky truth about his parents' assorted espionage/sex affiliations. Swift's acerbic delivery provides some initial zest, with crisply nasty dialogue galore. This tone soon palls, however—especially in the jokey sex-and-violence relationship between Swift and a tough female British agent. More crucially, the plot—despite knots of visceral action—slides into long-winded explanations and over-familiar twists. . .while plausibility (marginal to begin with) fades progressively. Unsympathetic hero, frenetic doings: disappointing suspense—even if stylish reminders of Hill's considerable talent abound.
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1986
ISBN: 1934609188
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Countryman
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
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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