A tranquil story about Jonathan and his two secrets: “One is buried in a patch of sunny earth. The other was buried in a patch of evening mist.” The secret in the sunny patch is a sunflower. The other secret appears to be a second flower—a night-blooming cereus or a queen of the night? When the big day comes, Jonathan and his whole family stand in awe, mouths agape at the “flashiest flower” sister Kate has ever seen. Come night, Jonathan creeps down stairs and is joined by his father outside. There the second secret unfolds: It is not a different flower at all, but the sunflower by night, radiant still. The mystery of night adds a note of excitement to Jonathan’s secret, but not enough to strain the lullaby sweetness of this story. Every page is enhanced by Lambert’s soft pastels. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-899607-98-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
Gradually, globe-hopping flights and substitutions of a hilariously unconvincing forgery for the real van Gogh start to take...
Now that he’s completed his trilogy of prison diaries (2003–05), Lord Archer, out on the street again, returns to his old habits with this tale of a disgraced art expert’s attempt to thwart her villainous banker boss’s plot to fleece a fine old English family of van Gogh’s Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear.
The morning after Lady Victoria Wentworth has her throat cut before she can follow Dr. Anna Petrescu’s advice about selling off her van Gogh to cover her debt to Fenston Finance, Bryce Fenston fires Anna for offering the advice. Getting sacked is the best thing that could have happened to her, because while she’s waiting for an elevator to take her down to the first floor of the World Trade Center for the last time, the building is rocked by a fiery explosion. Yes, it’s 9/11, and while Archer is using the disaster as colorful background, Anna’s taking advantage of the chaos to disappear, presumed dead. She plans to fly to England and ask Arabella Wentworth, Victoria’s twin and heir, to help her steal the canvas, now technically Fenston’s property, before Fenston’s lieutenant, disbarred lawyer Karl Leapman, can pick it up. Knowing that a terrorist bombing goes only so far, Archer (Sons of Fortune, 2003, etc.) ladles on extra complications. An FBI agent who’s had his eye on Fenston gets on Anna’s trail. Her phone calls to her friend Tina Forster, Fenston’s assistant, puts her irate ex-boss close behind. The knife-wielding assassin who killed Victoria Wentworth goes after Anna as well.
Gradually, globe-hopping flights and substitutions of a hilariously unconvincing forgery for the real van Gogh start to take the place of plot developments, and somewhere between Bucharest and London, most of the suspense evaporates, though there are still a hundred pages left to run.Pub Date: March 7, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-35372-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
Since the possibility that Woods will kill off virtually his entire stable of regulars (Unnatural Acts, 2012, etc.) is too...
What chance does a cabal of bombers have against New York uber-lawyer Stone Barrington; his ex–NYPD partner, Lt. Dino Bacchetti; the CIA’s Holly Barker; head of MI-6, Felicity Devonshire; CEO of Strategic Services, Michael Freeman; Woodman & Weld attorney, Herb Fisher; President Will Lee; and his wife, Katharine, Director of the CIA?
Determined to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, an agent calling himself Algernon has recruited a Pakistani nuclear scientist gone freelance and a trio of lower-level experts to sneak a bomb into the new Los Angeles hotel where President Lee is to meet with his Mexican counterpart for some high-level talks. It’s their bad luck that from a distant cellphone conversation in a foreign language, the NSA’s computers pick up two English words: “The Arrington.” The Arrington just happens to be the brand-new hotel memorializing the late actress Arrington Carter, co-owned by Stone, Strategic Services and Superlative Hotel Management, that’s about to open by playing host to the two heads of state and incidentally, a rare concert by Hollywood musical star Immi Gotham. Algernon estimates 2-3 million fatalities from the blast, but that’s only if he and his minions can embed themselves in trusted positions in the hotel, smuggle in the nuclear device’s component parts, assemble, arm and detonate it, all without arousing enough suspicion to be unmasked. What are the odds?
Since the possibility that Woods will kill off virtually his entire stable of regulars (Unnatural Acts, 2012, etc.) is too remote to generate much suspense, fans of this series are left to enjoy the sex, the bling and the reassurance that in Stone’s world, “Sometimes everything goes right” with less effort, error and complexity than you could ever hope for in real life.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-15984-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
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