An intriguing but uneven spy tale.
A comic espionage novel reimagines two famous art curators as wartime spies.
Hitler has risen to power in Germany, and America’s Public Hero No. 1, J. Edgar Hoover, suspects that the Nazi dictator is sending spies to the United States disguised as avant-garde artists. In order to sniff out the spy ring, Hoover seeks out two women known for discovering (and bedding) the finest artists in New York City: Baroness Hilla Rebay and Peggy Guggenheim. “We’ll put you through our Counter-Spy Training Program and you’ll learn how to smash Nazi spy rings,” Hoover’s subordinate and lover, Clyde Tolson, pitches them. “Publicity should be good for your museums’ images. Nothing wrong with making a buck.” The only problem? These two high-society women have an intensely personal rivalry that makes it difficult for them to be in the same room without literally punching each other in the nose. Hoover brokers peace between the heiresses for the sake of the country, and the two of them are soon serving the FBI as a dynamic duo aligned against America’s greatest enemies, including Hitler, Stalin, the Japanese, and various traitorous forces at work within the country’s borders. Soon, they are operating undercover at Nazi meetings, tailing spies, and preventing presidential assassinations on the floor of Congress. Along the way, they meet fellow masters of espionage like the handsome but chauvinistic Agent X-9; British spy Jonquil “Junk” Bond (father of James); and a pair of “Special Agent Super Sluts” named Bambi and Knockers. But do the two protagonists have what it takes to save the homeland from the most dangerous Soviet spy the FBI has ever come up against—a man known only as “the Pigeon”?
The inventive premise suggests a fun thriller set in the art world of the 1940s, and the prose is richly inflected with arresting details. But ultimately, this is a farce, replete with broad sex jokes, thin characters, and a ton of slapstick. (In the very first scene, Hilla flips Hoover over her shoulder for pointing his gun at her. He then slips on multiple banana peels.) Powers does not make much of an effort to render the historical characters recognizable in any way. Everyone is extremely horny, very violent, and speaks in the same gangster movie banter. Here, Guggenheim explains the Equal Rights Amendment to X-9: “ ‘Whaddya mean, an Equal Rights Amendment?’ a belligerent X-9 demanded. ‘It means that us gals get everything you guys get. We can do anything you can do and do it better, and we can go anywhere you go.’ ‘Ya mean ya want to go to the can with us?’ ” What’s more, the story is exceedingly episodic, and it is not until the final chapter that the author ties the various plotlines together. Given the extreme vintage of the humor and the book’s 410-page length, many readers will struggle to get to the end.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781604893397
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
