Drugs, politics, a bit of sex, and a lot of archaeology provide the international thrills in an international thriller by the author of The Missing Sixth (1992), etc. Crossing the English Channel on a clapped-out ferry, mysterious pilot and international femme fatale Jaymin Bartel is witness to highly suspicious behavior on the part of a Middle Eastern passenger. The young man accosts an attractive preteen and forces her to accept a metal cylinder, which, following orders, she tucks into her backpack. Following that odd bit of business, the potential terrorist proceeds to sink the ferry by opening the doors several hundred yards short of Dover. After dramatically rescuing numerous passengers, Jaymin pairs up with renowned American archaeologist Stephen Kaine, the understandably distressed father of Angela, the girl with the metal tube in her backpack. Together, Stephen and Jaymin and a gruff but kindly Scottish tugboat skipper effect the rescue of Angela from the ferry's submerged loo. In the beginning of a seemingly endless string of eerie coincidences, it turns out that Jaymin, to whom Stephen is powerfully attracted, is working for people who want very much for Stephen not to have that metal tube that was rescued along with Angela. The tube contains an ancient map of the long-lost Turko-Persian city that Stephen found and from which he was removed under shocking circumstances. If the map is to be believed, Stephen could clear up some 3000-year-old hanky-panky on the part of the Persian monarchy. But any clearing up of mysteries will be dependent on Stephen and Angela's survival in the face of relentless, murderous pursuit by Jaymin's employers- -a team of wickedly bent American spies and diplomats who have been working a deal to swap antique gold for present-day opium. Jaymin's flying skills will eventually become crucial. A rousing beginning degenerates into a long and not very exciting series of well-timed and eventually predictable coincidences amidst some attractive scenery.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-670-84870-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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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