A frank indulgence for the author and readers who share his preference for abrupt scene changes over a consequential plot.
Stone Barrington’s latest dalliance with President Holly Barker at his Maine island retreat is interrupted by the discovery of a dead man.
CIA director Lance Cabot commands that the twice-shot man, who's carrying CIA identification under the name John Collins, be moved from the deck of the Dark Harbor ferry to Stone’s garage, but Holly doesn't think he actually knows the dead man. When Stone returns home to Manhattan, he's soon visited by Collins’ widow, model-turned–fashion magazine editor Vanessa Morgan whom he proceeds to solace between the sheets. He’s disconcerted when Vanessa reports that the husband whose death interrupted their divorce is very much alive. Stone and his old NYPD partner, Commissioner Dino Bacchetti, are soon in a position to confirm these reports—and so is Lance, despite his initial resistance to them. Sadly, Jack Collins, who turns out to be a friend of Stone’s from NYU Law School, is given precious little to do after returning from the grave, as the focus shifts to Stone’s attempts to keep Vanessa and himself from being targeted for death by Valery Majorov, the Russian operative who thought he’d killed Jack. Stone spirits Vanessa off to Windward Hall, his estate in England, where he introduces her to MI6 director Dame Felicity Devonshire and they all fall into bed together. On their return to New York, though, both Stone and Vanessa find themselves in the sights of a resourceful female assassin who just won’t take no for an answer.
A frank indulgence for the author and readers who share his preference for abrupt scene changes over a consequential plot.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-54003-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.
Evildoers plan attacks from America to India, and Jack Ryan Jr. is a prime target.
In Washington state, a man and his family are murdered, and President Jack Ryan learns it is another Poseidon Spear incident. Three retired members of that counterterrorism group have been killed now, and the U.S. government suspects a mole in its midst. Meanwhile, the Umayyad Revolutionary Council believes it has a holy and wholly anti-American mission. Against this backdrop, Jack Ryan Jr., and his fiancée, Lisanne Robertson, visit Delhi, India, to attend the wedding of Srini Rai, the brilliant surgeon who attached Lisanne’s prosthetic left arm. Lisanne had lost her arm in Tom Clancy Shadow of the Dragon (2020). Jack and Lisanne are both operators working for the Campus, a covert group that executes secret presidential directives. A wedding is a happy occasion, and the engaged American couple intend the trip as a vacation. Jack and Lisanne will attend a sangeet, an elaborate pre-wedding party. But it isn’t long before they survive a suicide bomb attack. As with all Clancy novels, there’s plenty of action on a global scale. In simultaneous strikes, terrorists plan to contaminate America’s Western water supply with radioactive waste from Washington’s Hanford nuclear power plant, blow up a spectacular new bridge in Kashmir, and kill the evil Ryan—or Junior, at least. It will be At-Takwir, the end of days. There is an appealing mix of Indian culture, high-speed action, and the rich lode of details that characterizes the whole series. And in the background lingers the question on several characters’ minds: Have Jack and Lisanne set their own wedding date?
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593718032
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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