In their third outing, Marcinko and his roguish warriors do violent, imaginative battle with America's home-front enemies. Following retirement as a US Navy SEAL, Marcinko embarked on an active if fictive career as a handyman for the military (his vastly entertaining exploits are chronicled in such blood-and- thunder opera as Rogue Warrior: Green Team, 1995). This time around, the salty Vietnam vet and his handpicked crew are detailed to staunch the illicit flow of heavy weapons and ammunition from government arsenals. Thanks to the cyberspace talents of a young petty officer who can hack into Pentagon computers, Task Force Blue soon learns its ageless leader is the designated fall guy in a power struggle pitting would-be usurpers against constituted authority. Despite the best efforts of their establishment foes, Marcinko and his merry men track a truckload of stolen arms from Detroit to Tampa, from whence it is shipped to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. They storm the offshore drilling platform, which is owned by billionaire L.C. Strawhouse, and learn that the rig is used to supply ordnance to disaffected militia groups and drug gangs throughout the country. Back on dry land, the seagoing irregulars also discover that the ultraconservative Strawhouse (who tries to enlist Marcinko in his mad cause) has been equipping domestic terrorists in hopes their lethal rampages might permit a reactive putsch that could put him in the White House. While by no means taken with the incumbent chief executive or his wimpy underlings, Marcinko pursues the man who would be America's king to a heavily guarded command post in the southern California desert. In a climactic confrontation inside the fortress, he exposes and foils Strawhouse's sinister plot before dispatching its architect in decidedly imaginative fashion. Another walk on the wild side with the Marcinko mob. (Military Book Club main selection; author tour)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-671-79958-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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