The Motive by John Lescroart

This is a book I did not finish. I got 100 pages in and it just did not capture my attention for further reading. The first chapter was great as it described a huge arson in a San Francisco Victorian home, a block of Fillmore where Jessica lived for four years. But, the book was downhill from there. The characters were too stereotypic, and there were too many details in the attempt at character development. I was reading it at the beach in a So Cal heat wave, taking swims in the water and catching a few small waves for body surfing. With the air temp in the 90s and the water in the mid 70s, you would have thought that atmosphere was condusive to enjoying about anything. I'm throwing this one away. Where did I get that recommendation? I guess I can't blame EC Don since I could not find it in the blog.

West Coast Don

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

Olen Steinhauer has been compared with John Le Carre, so when an opening in my reading occurred, I decided to choose Le Carre’s most recent book and put the Steinhauer book I have on hold. I’ve read a couple Le Carre books some time back (Russia House; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), but it’s been so long I couldn’t tell you anything about them. This is set in Hamburg with 3 main players and a whole pile of international security people trying to outmaneuver each other.

Issa is a 20-something Chechen Muslim on the run from a life of neglect and imprisonment. He stows away on a boat to Sweden, hops another to Copenhagen, and then pays a trucker to smuggle him to Hamburg. Apparently, his deceased father, a former Russian Army commander, had managed to collect a sizeable fortune from a life of theft, pillaging, embezzlement, bribery and more. This fortune was placed in a private bank in Hamburg and Issa wants to claim it.

Issa gets to Hamburg and obtains the aid of a legal aid group that specializes in helping immigrants to represent him in his desire to gain citizenship in Germany, access the money, and secure his future. Annabelle is the liberal, backpack carrying, bike riding, do-gooder who takes up his case.

Tommy Brue, a 60yo Scot, is the son of the bank’s founder (where Issa’s father deposited his money) and now the owner of the bank. The bank is on the verge of failure, he first marriage collapsed, is estranged from a now pregnant daughter who lives in California, and his current wife is having an affair and about to jump ship to her lover. A man struggling with his failures has been placed in the epicenter of a multimillion dollar/terrorism case.

Annabelle, as Issa’s lawyer, seeks out Brue to start the process to access the money. Much of what goes on early in the book is trying to confirm that Issa is who he says he is, that his history is as he has stated, and that he is indeed entitled to the money. Not to mention that Tommy is getting attracted to Annabella, Issa wants Annabelle to convert to Islam, and Annabelle is caught in the middle of conflicting emotions over her legal obligations and her fear for Issa’s future.

But, in a post 9/11 world, especially in Hamburg where a number of the 9/11 terrorists planned their attack, any Muslim who manages to enter the country comes under scrutiny. Maybe 3-4 different layers of German security take an interest in Issa. Not to mention that UK security is interested in why a UK citizen is so tied to such a sizable amount of ill-gotten Muslim money ($12.5 million) soon to change hands. Russia has a passing interest is what just might be their money. And the US is lingering in the background as passive observers (yeah, right)

Issa is a devout Muslim and knows the money is dirty according to the Islamic Law. All he wants to do it give the money away to charities that will help Chechen Muslims who were victimized by the Russians and have another charity hold a small sum to finance his goal of medical school. To do so, he wishes to meet a Dr. Abdullah who lives in Hamburg and has a long and visible history of raising money for Muslim charities.

In a very complex meeting of all the security agencies interested in Issa, each group states their case for just how dirty this Dr. Abdullah is. He may be 95% legitimate, but it’s that 5% that everyone is interested in and there are a number of tales about just how money designated for honest Muslim charities gets diverted to support various jihads. Tommy and Annabelle are recruited (as if they had any choice) to put Issa and Abdullah together, select the charities, then set actions into play to trace the money. One level of German security wants to use this knowledge to leverage Abdullah to work for the Germans. Others want to track Issa as they are convinced his history is manufactured and he is some sort of a sleeper. Still others want to put Dr. Abdullah away and send Issa back to Russia.

This all concludes literally in the last 2 pages with an outcome that favors not Tommy, Annabelle, Issa, or Dr. Abdullah. An outcome engineered by the US without any agreement with the other agencies. They just do it, leaving everyone else, figuratively speaking, holding their arms out in a “what the hell just happened?” posture.

If you’ve never read Le Carre, this is espionage at it’s finest. Very talk-y with minimal ‘action’ of the Vince Flynn or Tom Clancy style of thriller. No body count here, just lots of detail. Who is telling the truth and who is lying; who is manipulating whom, what of a multitude of outcomes is likely to happen (and the one that happened isn’t what I thought was going to occur)?

Is the end satisfying? If you like a story to be tied up nice and neat in a bow, then maybe not. But if the end just might be what really goes on the world of espionage, then absolutely.

Charlie Opera by Charlie Stella

I read this mystery anthology called Dublin Noir looking for new authors choosing Charlie Stella (www.charliestella.com) and glad I did. The flight back from Costa Rica was showing one of those overly pretentious movies designed to make Academy voters cry - The Soloist - so I read on the flights home, finishing this compact story on my travel day.

This one needs a list of characters:

The innocent bystanders:

Charlie Pellechia: retired high level window washer from NYC

Lisa Pellechia: Charlie's 2nd wife

John Denton: Lisa's on again off again affair

Samantha Cole: Vegas bartender who takes a shine to Charlie

Carol Curitan: Samantha's roommate on the run from her abusive redneck husband

Beau Curitan: said abusive husband

The wise guys:

Anthony Cuccia: under boss of the NYC Vignieri crime family

Nicholas Cuccia: Anthony's nephew. A made man in the mob

Vincent Lano: veteran mafia heavy, diagnosed with throat cancer and not long to live

Joey Francone: up and coming heavy looking to make a good impression and become a made man

Rizzi: recently jilted rich boy trying to prove his manhood by buying his way into the mob

Jerry Lercasi: Las Vegas mobster. The top of the LV mob pyramid

Allan Fein: one of Lercasi's lawyers who carries out the wishes of the boss, does a little freelance work, and has a taste for young girls.

Minh Quan: head of the Vietnamese Black Dragon gang in LV

Minh's wife: (didn't want to take the time to find her name) a hitwoman

The cops:

Agent Thomas: DEA with a hold on Nick Cuccia to get him to turn in his uncle

Special Agent Walsh: LV FBI special agent in charge

Det. Gold: LV police detective on the organize crime task force

Det. Iandolli: Gold's partner

Now let's see if I can explain this. Take a deep breath:

In NYC, Nick Cuccia grabs Lisa Pellechia's ass in a bar and Charlie breaks his jaw (making Charlie legendary in the NY organized crime task force who call him Charlie Opera cuz of his love of opera) and now Nick wants Charlie whacked but Charlie and Lisa have gone to Vegas to repair their marriage which doesn't work meaning Charlie goes off on a bender, meets the bartender Samantha, gets mugged, then his wife runs out on him and she too gets mugged by Lano and Fancone pissing Charlie off, but not as much as Jerry Lercasi who is p.o.ed because the NY mob didn't follow protocol and talk to him, instead they went through Fein to handle the hits but Charlie turns out to be pretty resourceful managing to outsmart and outslug Francone, Rizzi, and the Vietnamese that gets Fein whacked but Lano feels guilty about his role in putting Lisa in the hospital and helps Charlie and Lisa's boyfriend do some pretty nefarious things (before he blows himself up with a hand grenade) with Francone and Nick Cuccio involving leather, dildos, strapons, a rebroken jaw, and a couple instamatic cameras whose pictures land on the desk of the FBI and Vegas police who can't seem to hang onto Nick who is now after Charlie and Samantha but not before a few more bodies pile up worrying the Vegas Better Business Bureau's deteriorating image of Vegas as Beau tracks down Carol to Samantha's apartment and tries but fails to rape Samantha and runs off, thinking he got away after shooting her in the leg but Det Iandolli gets Jerry Lercasi to use his connections in NV to track Beau down who ends up as a meal for coyotes, Nick dies in a shootout, Lisa and John head for LA, Charlie buys Samantha a dog and a topless Russian mob chick on a jet ski kills Uncle Tony Cuccio on the Hudson.

Got it? And I left out a bunch of minor subplots. If all his stories are as clever and entertaining as this one, it won't be long before I've gone through them all.

East Coast Don

Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell

I really liked Cornwell’s early books like The Body Farm, Cruel and Unusual, and Body of Evidence, but I thought she got a bit lost in her last books, the names of which I am no longer certain. I thought that she spent a little too much energy trying to sell/justify/explain lesbianism, and all of that was a distraction to the main story line of those books. After being disappointed with three more books, I decided she was off my list. The only reason that I came back was that a friend handed this book to me after she finished it, and said it was Cornwell’s best. I might not go that far, but the author has found her road back to a captivating story. Cornwell weaves in all the usual characters from Kay Scarpetta, the master forensic pathologist who is now world-famous and a CNN commentator; Pete Moreno, the remarkable detective who has always led a most alcoholic and otherwise more dysfunctional personal life; Benton Wesley, the psychiatrist and serial killer profiler to whom she is now married; and Lucy, her niece who can do anything being a computer whiz who was previously fired by the ATF and FBI. Some time has passed since they were all in the same place and she makes a plausible story of how they get involved again on the same crazy case that requires all of them to solve it. I liked that she gave hints about the traumas that happened among them that drove them apart, but it takes a while to bring out that full story. The end was thrilling, although the very end was rather predictable. I liked this one enough that Ms. Cornwell is back on my list.

WCDon

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I’m not quite sure what I just read. I ordered the book from the library based on a praiseworthy review somewhere and thought it worth a chance. The book turned out to be around 550 pages; a bit longer than I’m used to. Only author I like that holds my attention for that long is Robert McCammon (who has a new title coming out in October, Mr. Slaughter – stay tuned). Most books I read are about a story, a mystery, a mission.

This was about the life of Daniel Martin and about books, set in Barcelona just after some Spanish war in the pre WWI years. Daniel’s father comes home a changed man and his mother takes off leaving Daniel and father to struggle on their own. When Daniel was 14, his father was gunned down by street thugs, who we find out later was the original target and the guilt of the original target permeates the story. Daniel seeks shelter in the hidden recesses of a Barcelona daily newspaper. One writer (of some substantial means) takes Daniel under his wing as a private sort of go-fer. As Daniel grows up, his mentor suggests to the editor that the boy has some writing talent and deserves some space. He is given the back page of the Sunday edition to write fantasy tales of Barcelona’s dark side that become a hit with the public. The editor puts Daniel in touch with some shady publishers who get him to continue writing similar books under a pen name, on a 10-yr exclusive contract.

Flush with money from the books success, Daniel rents a vacant Tower House where he can look ever the city, feel its tales, and squeeze the stories out of his brain. A benefactor writes Daniel offering him an obscene amount of money to write a book that will change the hearts and minds of all who read it. At first he is hesitant, but takes the job anyway. His only contact with the benefactor is by letters and the occasional meeting filled with philosophical give and take.

Meanwhile, his mentor at the newspaper has decided to marry a much younger woman who grew up with Daniel and is the only woman Daniel really cares for. In addition, he becomes close to a bookseller and through the bookseller, he takes on a female apprentice writer to be his assistant who moves in with him. She continually challenges him when he veers of the noble path of a writer of stories.

We follow Daniel as he struggles with the book, the love-hate relationship with his apprentice, his longing for his lost love, and the mysterious benefactor. As he continues to progress on the book, he begins to descend slowly into a madness surrounding the history of the Tower House. Its previous owner was a lawyer who was involved with shady dealings and disreputable people.

One evening, Daniel is bemoaning his contract with the publisher during a visit with his benefactor who promises that the contract will be settled to Daniel’s liking. The next day, the 2 publishers are burned to death and Michael is the prime suspect of a detective and his 2 muscle-bound partners each itching to beat a confession out of Daniel.

As Daniel’s slowly encroaching madness becomes more engrossing, the bodies start to pile up, but none are due to his hand. He wonders if all the deaths are somehow related to his benefactor. We begin to wonder if he hasn’t made a deal with the devil.

Out of the blue, his childhood sweetheart contacts him saying she will leave her husband so she and Daniel can run off to Paris. But she is gone when he comes back from buying train tickets and he tracks her to a sanitarium where she has been admitted where he helps nurse her back to some semblance of normality, at least until she walks off on the lake ice, falls in, and drowns under his vain attempts to break the ice and save her.

The police get back into the picture, pressing him on the woman’s disappearance, but after significant interrogation and threats and circumstances, Daniel ends up killing all 3 cops, then runs out on Barcelona never to return.

Maybe 10 years later, (he is now around 40), His benefactor shows up (not having aged a day) where Daniel is living in a beach hut on the coast of somewhere, bringing a young child, a child who turns out be that love of his life returned to him now as the child he grew up with for him to raise, to love, to marry, to care for, until she dies of old age. But Michael will not age.

See what I mean? What did I just read? There must be some overarching theme of lost love found again, making deals with the devil, supernatural mystery, or what else all intertwined in an elaborate Gothic tale. Shifting time and characters through time add to the allure of the story. An interesting sidelight, but a critical story item, is a place called "The Cemetery of Forgotten Books" where Daniel finds a book that offers interesting and bizarre details of the mystical book he is writing, of the previous owner of the house, and so much more I can't even recall.

Other reviews say this story relates aspects of Spanish history, but I’ll have to take their word for that. I will say that the writing was outstanding despite the dozens of speaking parts, the complexity of interconnected plots, and it held my interest all the way through, despite it’s length. This is an eloquently written book that should capture the imagination of anyone who decides to make the effort to escape today and fully visualize 1900’s Barcelona and all levels of its society. Looking for something different in the way of a story? This is certainly different, and definetly worth a try. But when you are done, tell me what you read. I’d be curious.

East Coast Don

WC Don offers a favorite line occasionally. Here is one I kind of liked: Envy is the religion of the mediocre. That sort of philosophical pedagogy surfaces all over the book, especially when the benefactor and Michael are dueling.