Anonymous Sources

July 22, 2013
NPR and BBC reporter Kelly's debut thriller about a terrorist sleeper cell with its sights on American annihilation rings eerily prescient in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. The story begins with the mysterious death of Harvard graduate Thom Carlyle, who appears to have been shoved out of a window from the bell tower of the university's Eliot House. The incident sparks the attention of Alexandra James, a feisty reporter for The New England Chronicle, and takes her to the hallowed halls of England's Cambridge University, the highest levels of the Central Intelligence Agency and the underbelly of the White House. She chases zany, seemingly disparate leads that include "meeting men masquerading as English cricket players for tea, and swapping banana-bread recipes with loopy landladies, and stalking fruit exporters in Pakistan." But James eventually uncovers a plot that could lead to dire national security consequences â all the while battling her own inner demons. Kelly's years as a political writer and intelligence correspondent covering wars, terrorism and nuclear powers have served her well, and she portrays James with authority in a smart, fun voice that will stir lust and envy among readers. The author leaves open a window on the final page that suggests a sequel much to the reader's delight.

April 15, 2013
Kelly, a former NPR reporter, presents Boston-based newspaper reporter Alexandra James, who stumbles upon a complicated terrorist plot while chasing a trans-Atlantic story. Thomas Carlyle, only son of the president's personal attorney and a smart young man of privilege, has returned to Boston from a year studying at Cambridge. When he arrives home, he grabs a couple of bottles of brew and heads over to Harvard University to use a key copied during his student days and ascend a bell tower. But instead of relaxing and watching the action below, he is pushed to his death. When the Chronicle's staff catches wind of the dead body on Harvard's campus, Alex is the closest reporter. She reluctantly trots over to the crime scene and manages to worm her way into a front row seat to the action. Following the last few days of Carlyle's life, Alex traces him back to Cambridge, where she interviews some of his friends and the aloof, self-important girl with whom Carlyle fell in love. Soon, she finds herself in bed with a handsome Englishman and on the trail of a Pakistani scientist with access to the materials critical to making a nuclear device. But when Alex returns to U.S. soil, her story becomes a cat-and-mouse game with very high stakes, and she finds herself deep in the weeds with some pretty scary characters, all of whom wish her anything but well. Kelly uses her own Harvard/Cambridge background to bring authenticity to her tale and writes clear, unadorned prose. In Alex she creates a stereotypical thriller heroine: beautiful, brilliant, plucky and haunted by the events of her past. A by-the-numbers spy thriller. The tale isn't terribly original but perfect for plane rides, vacations and to read while sitting in waiting rooms.

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May 15, 2013

Former NPR correspondent Kelly makes her fiction debut with a suspenseful spy thriller that careens from Cambridge, MA, to Cambridge, England, and on to Washington, DC. Alexandra James, a young newspaper reporter, covers the higher education beat in Boston, so when former student Thomas Carlyle takes a fatal fall out of a dorm window at Harvard, Alex is there for the story. It soon becomes clear that Thom's death was not an accident, and Alex jets off to Cambridge University to interview Thom's recent classmates. There, Alex finds handsome postgrad Lord Lucien Sly and a suspicious Pakistani nuclear scientist who has been mysteriously receiving very large crates of bananas. Her questioning catches the interest of someone at the CIA, and Alex is warned off the case. Still not sure whether she's on a wild goose chase, she heads to Washington to interview Thom's father. As all the pieces come together and her life is threatened, Alex tries to convince the White House that there's an imminent terrorist threat, filing stories all the while. VERDICT Mystery and thriller readers will happily delve into this fast-paced story featuring a feisty protagonist whom one hopes will have further adventures.--Melissa DeWild, Kent District Lib., Comstock Park, MI

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