An uneven but enjoyable debut that should appeal to faithful thriller aficionados.
In Williams’ gritty debut thriller, the lives of drug dealers, organized criminals, political revolutionaries and marketing executives intertwine in spectacular fashion.
In the novel’s opening, the Eighth Precinct police department in the fictional city of Salento is making security preparations for a parade to honor billionaire Russian Pyotr Ptushko. Ptushko successfully smuggled American soldiers out of a dangerous region in South Central Asia, yet his motives are dubious. At the same time, several grow houses operated by ruthless marijuana magnate Otis M. Gaverill are pilfered by a mysterious team of seven men who act with stealth and military precision. Det. Sgt. Sal Mitchell and his partner Eddie “Sandman” Sandovan are the lead investigators in the fallout of the ensuing encounters between the factions. In an adrenalin-fueled subplot, Mitchell’s girlfriend, Mya Laing, a high-level marketing executive at a prestigious advertising firm, is tasked with creating a brilliant yet inexpensive word-of-mouth campaign for a designer jean label. Mya and her team develop an intricate alternate-reality game to garner attention for the brand—a tactic that’s at the forefront of contemporary advertising strategy. This subplot provides entertaining respite from the graphic violence and language in the main storyline, yet readers may wish the two narratives intersect earlier and more completely than they do. Williams also offsets his explicit depictions with well-placed humor that only occasionally leans toward the prosaic. While this may distract some readers, the overall effect, especially in combination with the bright, lively dialogue, is refreshing. There is a well-articulated juxtaposition between the honor and restraint of the military team and the repulsive bloodlust of Otis’ group. Williams’ main characters are engaging, but, with the exception of Otis, they fail to reveal flaws or make mistakes, an omission that challenges believability. Williams leaves unanswered questions and more than hints at a sequel (a sample chapter of his next book is included). Devotees of the genre may conclude that he has provided enough to entice them back into his vivid universe.
An uneven but enjoyable debut that should appeal to faithful thriller aficionados.Pub Date: July 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461044840
Page Count: 458
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.
Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
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