Even a good friend can stay too long, but that doesn’t mean the visit wasn’t fun.
Best friends support each other when one of them is set up to take the fall for a robbery that evolves into a caper of their own.
Simi Chopra’s the kind of ride-or-die friend who’s always there with bleach and gloves for emergencies like the potential death of her octogenarian landlady Rose’s latest “gentleman caller” in the midst of some extracurricular activities. So when Simi’s bestie, Chloe, calls with her own emergency, Simi’s ready to help. In this case, Chloe’s trapped in a small museum on Chicago’s Gold Coast, and Simi knows it must be a true emergency because Chloe even phones. Chloe seems to have been set up in some sort of million-dollar necklace heist by her mysterious employer, Michael P., who’s used Chloe for her computer expertise to break into the museum’s security while telling her that he works for the museum and is trying to enhance their security. When she gets to the museum, Simi tries to convince Chloe to take an actual fall from the second story in a bid to avoid the police who will surely arrest her. But Simi’s help is neutralized when a man puts a hand over her mouth and drags her into the bushes. Oliver Twist, or maybe Jack Danger, informs Simi that he's just saved her from arrest. Whether or not she believes him, Simi can’t stay upset at a captor and/or rescuer who’s so handsome. So begins a jam-packed heist with the requisite slowly assembled team of misfits, from a life coach who’s more of a gigolo to a drone-loving nerd determined to rebrand himself “The Butcher.”
Even a good friend can stay too long, but that doesn’t mean the visit wasn’t fun.Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780593548509
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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