Rogue Warrior, a blood-and-guts account of Marcinko's stormy- petrel career as a Navy SEAL, earned its author a top spot on 1992's bestseller lists. He could land on the charts again with this fictive sequel whose profanely opinionated, relentlessly macho, and immensely entertaining narrator is a retired naval commander named Richard Marcinko. Now a freelance operative, Marcinko is testing security at Tokyo's Narita Airport, where he finds that treacherous Americans are supplying Japanese and North Korean buyers with nuclear detonators. The trail appears to lead back to Grant Griffith, a former Defense Secretary who retains considerable clout in Washington as well as with the ailing military-industrial complex. Before Marcinko can bring the influential elder statesman to book, however, he's dragged into a deadly series of turf battles, shootouts, sting operations, and shadow wars. By no coincidence, moreover, he's recalled to active duty by Admiral Pinckney Prescott III, a longtime nemesis who puts him in command of the Red Cell, a unit that's Prescott's own creation. With help from friends in the old-boy network of Special Forces personnel, Marcinko's merry men run wild—on assignment or off—covertly acquiring the high-tech tools of their violent trade, infiltrating laxly guarded bases in the US, and otherwise trying the patience of higher authority. Leaving scores of corpses in their wake, Red Cell stalwarts find time to carry out a reconnaissance/sabotage mission in North Korean waters and to launch a mid-ocean assault (from a stolen aircraft) on a contraband-carrying vessel crewed by black-hat mercenaries. Fast action and advanced weaponry at every turn; in-your-face commentary on the powers that be; a steady stream of imaginatively salty language: What more could any red-blooded, two-fisted, he-man fantasist want?
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-79956-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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