A foolish affair and a horrible war that will grab and hold readers’ attention.
A World War I novel of love, politics, and a continent gone mad.
In 1914, British prime minister H.H. Asquith, a 61-year-old married man, carries on an affair with 26-year-old Venetia Stanley. Those surrounding the two know of their friendship but not of its depth, though some wonder. Asquith harbors an obsession with Venetia—when they’re apart, he writes her letters up to three times a day, expecting and generally receiving prompt responses. Meanwhile, DS Paul Deemer investigates the accidental drowning of Asquith’s son. Since Venetia was listed as a witness, he questions her. But with a war in the offing, he’s told by higher-ups at Scotland Yard to also quietly investigate the odd relationship that some suspect. “Prime,” as Venetia calls her lover, feels the constant need to tell her what’s happening at the office. When war breaks out, he shares secret information with her: troop requirements, battle losses, ammunition shortages—all by regular mail, reminding her not to share what she learns. “The enclosed telegram from our Ambassador at Petersburg wh. came on Friday night will interest you,” one note says. The narrator notes: “A thin sheet of Foreign Office paper was a poor exchange for sweet verbena, but it was the only bouquet he had. What greater proof could he offer of his love, of his dependence on her, of his absolute confidence in her loyalty and discretion?” Never mind dependence; the man is nearly driven to distraction. Meanwhile, Deemer steams open the intercepted envelopes, reports to his boss, and sends the letters on their way. German spies are thought to be everywhere in Britain. Fortunately, Deemer is not one of them. A grisly war is on, to which politicians and generals send young men to die by the tens of thousands, to the benefit of no one. Over 100,000 soldiers on both sides perish at the Dardanelles in Turkey because of Churchill’s insistence on attacking there. The world has indeed gone mad, but Venetia hasn’t. She wants to become a frontline nurse, but to do that she must extricate herself from her needy lover. The pair are real historical figures, while Deemer is fictional. The letters from Asquith are genuine, while the author invented those from Venetia. Asquith apparently burned them.
A foolish affair and a horrible war that will grab and hold readers’ attention.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780063248052
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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
Exciting adventure that’s worthy of the Cussler name.
The Oregon crew takes on a villain who bears a long-festering grudge.
In 1945, a captured American soldier unwillingly took part in a ghastly experiment. In the current day, a malign force has built on that research and plans to wreak unholy vengeance on Guam and, ultimately, on the United States. A mysterious, much-feared man called the Vendor, an arms purveyor whose increasingly dangerous weapons have just slaughtered soldiers in Niger, is testing his killing craft in the Indian Ocean. The Vendor’s reach extends as far as Kosovo and the Celebes Sea off the Philippines, where North Koreans try out some of his handiwork. Luckily, a modest-looking cargo ship plies the seas. It’s the Oregon, with all the internal wizardry one might wish for. It has a Cray computer, Cordon Bleu–trained chefs, and plenty of amenities to keep a top-notch crew dedicated. The seawater-powered ship can even change its outward appearance to disguise itself as the lowliest third-world rust bucket. In charge of this marvel is Juan Cabrillo, the protagonist. The crew of the Oregon are independent contractors and undertake an urgent mission from the CIA to investigate arms trafficking by the Taliban. That leads to an inevitable collision with the Vendor, whose tentacles reach far and wide. This might spell the end for Cabrillo because the Vendor “had proven himself unequaled in unarmed combat.” The Oregon Files series is always fun, and this episode is no exception. Cabrillo is a terrific leader in top physical shape, but he and the ship itself are tested to their limits. Of course, some of Oregon’s features beggar belief, but never you mind. They fit in well with the now-and-then over-the-top writing: “A giant piece of red-hot aluminum sliced through Juan’s fragile canopy like a drunken samurai’s katana through a rice-paper wall.” It’s hard to read a simile like that and not stop and smile. And in the same action sequence, the hero hits an object “like a speeding hockey forward cross-checking a parked Zamboni.” Ouch. It all “hurt like the dickens,” which is about as salty as the language gets.
Exciting adventure that’s worthy of the Cussler name.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593719244
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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