An intelligently written techno-thriller that’s reminiscent of the late Tom Clancy’s work.
In Ratcliffe’s debut thriller, Russia launches a pre-emptive nuclear attack, and the United States must defend itself at sea, on land and in the air.
In 1994, after learning that the U.S. military has a space shuttle–based laser to target intercontinental ballistic missiles, Russia’s leader decides to launch a pre-emptive strike against the United States. The American president quickly retaliates, and in no time, both countries are in the middle of a nuclear war. The novel views the conflict from many points of view, including that of a patrolling U.S. submarine crew, a B-1B bomber pilot flying through hostile skies, and a U.S. Army Special Forces unit on a suicide mission to infiltrate Russia and take out its missile silos. The main character, however, is Gen. Robert Thomas, who, with the U.S. government literally on the run, is given the difficult job of negotiating with surviving Russian leadership to secure a cease-fire. Ultimately, he makes a personal sacrifice reminiscent of the one the bomber pilot makes at the end of Eugene Burdick’s Fail-Safe (1962), the novel that, along with Peter George’s 1958 novel Red Alert (the basis for Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove), helped kicked off this genre. The author, a former U.S. Navy captain, presents a persuasive depiction of how a nuclear war might actually be fought, including all the strategizing by the president and his argumentative military staff. That said, among the large cast of characters, only one, Gen. Thomas, truly stands out; with his family left behind in the Washington, D.C., blast zone, he carries the emotional brunt of the story. Although it’s intriguing that the author set his story in 1994, before the events of 9/11 drove home new realities, it’s also strange that a book about nuclear war has no discussion about the long-term consequences of atomic radiation, making such a war seem winnable. For red-meat military-thriller fans, however, there’s action aplenty, all excitingly described and cogently dramatized.
An intelligently written techno-thriller that’s reminiscent of the late Tom Clancy’s work.Pub Date: April 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481998079
Page Count: 470
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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