Persistently riveting; should pique interest in the series’ follow-up—and the preceding 10.
In Neal’s (Bone Hook, 2015, etc.) latest thriller, Hawaiian cop Sgt. Lei Texeira returns to find the killer of a child, while her husband, Lt. Michael Stevens, struggles to escape captivity in Central America.
Lei’s the type of woman who’d go alone to save her husband when she learns probable terrorists kidnapped Michael during his overseas stint training military troops. But Capt. Cherry Joy Omura can’t spare Lei, opting to immerse her in a case—a child’s skull washing ashore in Hana. Simply trying to locate where a local woman discovered the skull, however, quickly intensifies Lei’s investigation. She stumbles onto a marijuana farm, where a man uses children for slave labor and ensures they’re armed and willing to kill. Michael, meanwhile, is imprisoned in a pit with several others working for Security Solutions. The captors separate Michael when he gets sick, and he discovers their plans: if the company doesn’t pay a ransom soon, they’ll start killing the abductees. He manages to escape and free fellow contractors, but now the group must brave a largely unfamiliar jungle with the hopes of making it safely to Nicaragua. While Michael and the rest face crocodiles and venomous snakes, Lei dodges bullets and hunts a dangerous man who may have murdered a child. There’s not much mystery in the novel—Lei’s investigation essentially unravels on its own—but plenty of action and suspense. Neal’s writing is tenacious, highlighted by her masterly crosscutting of two exhilarating scenes: Michael’s group running through the Honduran forest and Lei fleeing armed men in the Maui jungle. Dramatic repercussions are equally solid, including Lei being upset that Michael told her his deployment date only the day before he left. Neal knows how to tease her previous novels with panache, like “that other trip,” Lei’s personal mission targeting an enemy on the Big Island, resulting in an apparently less than cheery outcome. The story finally reveals the kidnappers’ identities in the midst of a twist ending. It’s an unquestionably startling turn, but while Neal keeps it sensible, the climax isn’t as strong as its lead-up and will likely disappoint some readers.
Persistently riveting; should pique interest in the series’ follow-up—and the preceding 10.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9967066-6-7
Page Count: 276
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2016
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
More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose...
Sparks (The Longest Ride, 2013, etc.) serves up another heaping helping of sentimental Southern bodice-rippage.
Gone are the blondes of yore, but otherwise the Sparks-ian formula is the same: a decent fellow from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches falls in love with a decent girl from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches—and is still suffering the consequences. The guy is innately intelligent but too quick to throw a punch, the girl beautiful and scary smart. If you hold a fatalistic worldview, then you’ll know that a love between them can end only in tears. If you hold a Sparks-ian one, then true love will prevail, though not without a fight. Voilà: plug in the character names, and off the story goes. In this case, Colin Hancock is the misunderstood lad who’s decided to reform his hard-knuckle ways but just can’t keep himself from connecting fist to face from time to time. Maria Sanchez is the dedicated lawyer in harm’s way—and not just because her boss is a masher. Simple enough. All Colin has to do is punch the partner’s lights out: “The sexual harassment was bad enough, but Ken was a bully as well, and Colin knew from his own experience that people like that didn’t stop abusing their power unless someone made them. Or put the fear of God into them.” No? No, because bound up in Maria’s story, wrinkled with the doings of an equally comely sister, there’s a stalker and a closet full of skeletons. Add Colin’s back story, and there’s a perfect couple in need of constant therapy, as well as a menacing cop. Get Colin and Maria to smooching, and the plot thickens as the storylines entangle. Forget about love—can they survive the evil that awaits them out in the kudzu-choked woods?
More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose corn syrup, stickily sweet but irresistible.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4555-2061-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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