Chasing Darkness: An Elvis Cole Novel by Robert Crais

I thought one of us had reported on this book already, but a blog search came up empty. I even thought I had read this one. Does that mean it is time to change authors and genres? The copyright date is 2008. This is a story about Elvis Cole pursuing a serial murder suspect even though the LAPD has already closed the case, Cole being sure they got the wrong guy. The suspect had been accused of an earlier murder in the series of seven, and Cole had been hired by the guy’s attorney to help with the investigation. He had found enough info to prove the man’s innocence, and charges against him were dropped. Now, with a new murder, the families were leaked information by the cops, and they think it was Cole who set the murderer free. Pike and Starkey are in this book, but neither has a key role. Crais does a good job with his characters and keeping the byzantine murder investigation a mystery until the end. You get to really hate the detective Crimmens, a really great asshole. I guess I just don’t get tired of the good-cop-bad-cop scenario. It is a quick and fun read. Go for it.

West Coast Don

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

This is not a book of our genre. I learned about it from one of the Amazon emails that I’ve been blitzed with during the holiday season. Nonetheless, an interesting story. The first author is the main character in the story. Malawi is a very poor country sandwiched between Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. By reading the book, you’ll get a sense of the desperate lives of most of the population who do subsistence farming. There are a couple droughts to be survived, and the family of William eke out a continued existence, but not all of his friends do. While the authors tell of such difficulties, just the hardships of day-to-day life, William’s family cannot afford to keep him in school, something he deeply wants. Due to drought and corruption, they lose out and go broke despite his father’s best efforts. In William’s free time, when he is not helping his father with the farm, he dreams up the idea of building a windmill to generate electricity. About halfway through the book, the authors get down to describing the details of how one would go about doing that without any money and without any materials. He spends a lot of time scrounging through a junkyard to find the parts that he needs, which he eventually pulls off. He repeatedly returns to his school’s library to read physics books to learn about electricity. Once the windmill is complete, at first he just lights a light bulb, and then he extends the wires to his room so he can read at night. Not only are his immediate neighbors impressed, but people begin traveling for miles to see the “electric wind.” William figures out how to use batteries to store power and how to extend the electricity to the other rooms of the house. Better yet, he figures out how to use the electricity to pump water from their deep wells so women don’t have to walk for miles to get good water. He is eventually discovered by some reporters and then he is discovered by “TED,” an organization I’m assuming you know about. He wins a scholarship even though he has been out of school for five years, so he is that much older than his classmates. But, he was so happy to be back in school, and with his scholarship money, he could do so much more. Because of his fame, he became a world traveler and continued to bring prosperity to his village. The writing was not all that great, but it does give a clear picture of a very difficult life. It is inspiring that such a creative mind could come from such a place as Malawi. I’m glad I read this one, but it may not be your cup of tea.

West Coast Don

London Boulevard by Ken Bruen

It started with a beating outside a bar in London. Mitchell beat this guy within an inch of his life, somehow without damaging his hands. He gets sent to prison for 3 years where he develops a taste for reading crime novels. When he gets out, some friends toss him a party where he gets 2 offers: an old 'friend' offers him some work as an enforcer for a loan shark and the local reporter on the crime beat tells Mitchell about this aging actress in need of a handyman. Unable to give up the rush of crime, but looking for legitimate work, he takes both offers.

After a few runs, the crime boss, Gant, takes a shine to Mitchell and offers him a more supervisory role over a group of enforcers, but that's too far into the old life for Mitchell's taste. Lillian, the actress, lives in a London estate with her loyal butler, Jordan. Mitchell is given a trial run and passes the test. He is even offered an apartment over the garage that houses a genuine Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. Jordan is a cold taskmaster whose only loyalty is to Madame.

Back and forth, we follow Mitchell as he teeters between the exhilaration of the old life and the possibilities of his new life, not to mention a developing relationship with Aisling who, surprise surprise, is attracted to Mitchell only because of who he is when he is with her. Mitchell balances his life at the estate (where he and slightly nutty Lillian have a 'friends with benefits' kind of thing going), his relationship with Aisling, and Gant's attempt to lean on Mitchell to steal the Silver Ghost.

Mitchell has had it with Gant and the heavies sent to encourage Mitchell to steal the car. But Gant doesn't seem to be all that happy with Mitchell's attempts to lean back. When Mitchell's sister is assaulted, he decides to strike back using all the skills of his old life. Surprisingly, Jordan has a similar skill set and the two plot out how to get Mitchell out of the old life.

Along the way, Mitchell decides he wants to marry Aisling and starts the process only to learn his sister has attempted suicide, and Aisling . . . well, to go into the rest of the story would spoil a righteous, surprising, and typically dark Bruen ending. Suffice it to say, all levels of Mitchell's life is as a prisoner, first to the state for an assault (that he may or may not have actually committed-how do you beat someone so viciously with no marks to show for it?) and now in the insular world of an actress living in her past and a vision of a future, mostly created by a loyal servant, that is not ever likely to happen.

One of Mitchell's 'flaws' is that he is loyal to people from the old life. He likes this guy who sells newspapers on the street. When the old guy is mugged and then dies, Mitchell reluctantly takes care of the burial and arranges upkeep on the grave (shades of Cheapskates). When he finds the 2 kids responsible, he caps the knees of the one with a future in professional soccer with absolutely no remorse.

This is I think the fourth Bruen novel posted here. Cross, The Guards, and Once were Cops were all terrific reads and Cops scared the sh*t out of me with one of the most evil characters I've ever read - move over Hannibal Lector. Bruen's style of noir writing may take some getting used to for some, but I find his sparse, 9mm to the forehead style totally riveting.

What I find interesting is the way Bruen first tells you what the person is thinking first. Lillian gives Mitchell a BMW. She proudly asks Mitchell if he likes red. Mitchell thinks 'I hate fucking red,' but says 'my favorite.' That, and his penchant for 1 sentence paragraphs makes this a really fast read. While James Lee Burke really details the Louisiana setting, Bruen is all about dialogue. Short, sharp, and no BS. Mysteries seem to be about setting, scene, and developing the story line from the character and locale points of view or it can be about characters, dialogue, and hidden thoughts. I really liked some of Bruen's lines. Mitchell tries on a shirt 'that fits like a prayer.' If I could remember more, I'd use them.

London Boulevard will be a movie to be released in 2010 with Colin Farrell as Mitchell. Keira Knightly plays Charlotte, who I can only assume is a renamed Lillian. Should the movie be true to the book (yeah, like that'll happen), expect a hard R for violence and plenty of bumping uglies between Mitchell and Lillian/Charlotte and also him with Aisling (but I can't find her name on the movie's IMDB page - did her character get written out?)

A neat twist in this book were the continuing references to mysteries that Mitchell has read with quotes pertinent to his particular situation. If I had kept notes, I bet I could find some new authors. Maybe I should do just that before turning this back in to the library. Not to be trite and quote Ah-nold from The Terminator, but Mr Bruen, "I'll be back."

East Coast Don

Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo

I thought EC Don had already written about this book, but a search of the blog came up with nothing, so I’ll give you a brief review. This is one of the Alex Cross series which is co-written by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo. The last book I reported about took place in 1907, and this one takes place in 1906. Unlike Cussler’s Wrecker, this was a very good book. I felt like I was reading “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The plot has to do with a white man who was raised in podunk Eudora, Mississippi, has gotten a Harvard law education, and then hooked up with Teddy Roosevelt at the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Spanish-American War. The lawyer, Benjamin Corbett, ends up in D.C., and he is having his own marital troubles because he won’t give up protecting the downtrodden. That means he is not making money on his cases, and his wife wants a better life circumstance. It is then that Teddy decides to send Ben down to Eudora to look into the surge in lynchings that has been going on in the south. Risking his marriage coming to an end, Ben goes back to his home town where he has not been in six years since the death of his mother. His father is still alive and working there, but Ben and his father are estranged. Ben investigates the ongoing lynchings while encountering so many of the people he remembers from childhood. He moves in and out of the black community in the “Quarters,” and the white community in the rest of Eudora, developing very interesting characters in all places. I am rating this one at the top of my list for recommendations.

West Coast Don

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott

Cussler again writes with a coauthor, this time it is Justin Scott. This book is a period piece that takes place almost exclusively in 1907. The plot takes place around building a railroad line through a particularly difficult place in the Rockies. The railroad tycoon is Osgood Hennessy. He owns the Southern Pacific Railroad, but he also wants to corner the market on all railroads in the U.S. However, he has a foil, the Wrecker, whose true identity is not revealed until near the end of the story. As clever as Hennessy is at pushing forward his plans, the Wrecker is equally clever at thwarting those moves and pushing Hennessy towards bankruptcy. There is a race against time to complete the main bridge and tunnels through the Cascade Cutoff before winter starts. Hennessy knows that if he does not get done in time, that he will never get the funding that he needs to complete the project and become the richest man in America. In what must be akin to the Pinkertons, Hennessy hires the Van Dorn Detective Agency to guard his rail and get the Wrecker, and their best detective is Isaac Bell. Bell is the main character who slowly and gradually gets closer to figuring out the identity of the Wrecker. Of course, the story includes beautiful women, politicians, and relationship intrigues. Overall, this book falls into my “airplane book” category. There were times when I thought the authors were getting lost in the details rather than pushing the plot. I learned more about railroads than I had known before. For me, it was fun to think about my grandfather who in the 1920s to 1940s, was a conductor on the Nickle Plate Railroad that ran from Dayton, Ohio, to Chicago, with my home, Fort Wayne, being the midway point of the line. His stories about encountering the Capone boys were always interesting (but I digress, again).

West Coast Don

The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke

New Orleans is trying to prepare for Katrina and doing a piss poor job of it. When it hits, the city becomes an American version of Baghdad, lawless with no clue about its future. Looters, bad cops, and general lowlifes rule the streets. 4 losers from the 9th ward are boating through some nice neighborhoods and choose the wrong house. What they find hidden behind the sheetrock walls includes a ton of (counterfeit) money, some cocaine, and way more than they bargained for . . . blood diamonds.

Across the street, Otis Baylor and family are still trying to recover from their daughter's rape and some neighbors are talking vigilante-big. During the looting, the 4 loser's boat runs out of gas and sneak into Otis' garage to steal some fuel. A shot rings out. One dies, the spine of a second is shattered, and causes a sort of reawakening in Bertrand, one of the 4. BTW, these idiots not only stole from the Mob, they've also stumbled into the home of one of their rape victims.

The owner of the stolen booty is a "big sleazy" crime boss. The FBI thinks the diamonds are to help fund al Qaeda. A really weird sociopath (isn't all that redundant?) emerges and threatens our hero Detective Dave Robicheaux and his family, but the police and FBI have nothing on him. Murders pile up, attempts are made on dozens of people, and yet no one can pin anything on our friendly neighborhood psycho, Ronald Bledsoe.

A seemingly minor detail turns over a rock that Ronald used to live under. Turns out he has a connection here, but not to the underworld boss which everyone thinks. Also turns out he isn't interested in the diamonds to help fund terrorism, rather he just wants them for himself. No honor with this thief I guess.

As the various plots finally come together, Ronald and his partner in crime meet a particularly gruesome and satisfying end when trying to kidnap Robicheaux's wife and daughter.

Burke has been chronicled here on a couple occasions: Rain Gods and In The Electric Mist. Robicheaux was played in the (just average) movie version of Electric Mist by Tommy Lee Jones so that was the image I had while reading. Other reviews said this was the definitive crime story about Katrina. Now had Burke dispensed with the Faulkner-esque descriptions of New Orleans after Katrina, this nearly 500 page paperback might have been maybe 300-350 pages long. But Burke is well know for his ability to paint an image, not only visual, but also a treat for the olfactory sense. The environment of the Bayou is a critical character here (and In Electric Mist) so the reader certainly is transported to a specific time and place. The figurative heat and humidity almost make you want to shower after reading all about it. Read it for the twisted crime tale of demented psychopathic personalities or read it for what some said was the most honest portrayal of post-Katrina New Orleans. Whatever your poison, you won't be disappointed.

East Coast Don

True Compass by Ted Kennedy

This was a totally self-serving autobiography, as anyone might expect from a politician. I thought his memoirs about the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Clinton impeachment, and other such stuff was interesting, but there was too much fluff. I would not have read this had it not been a book for my wife’s book club, and she was not impressed either. So, even though you would have let this one get by you anyway, I agree that is a good move

West Coast Don

Lullaby Town by Robert Crais

Peter Alan Nelsen is the King of Adventure movies, directing blockbuster after blockbuster. But he has pangs of guilt from a college marriage and child that left his life 10-12 years ago. So he hires Elvis Cole, an LA private investigator to track them down because he really wants to meet his son.

The former wife, Karen, left LA for parts unknown, but finding people who don't want to be found is the specialty of Elvis Cole and his partner, the very creepy Joe Pike. While Karen tried to leave unnoticed, for someone like Elvis, she left a trail a mile wide. She is now in Connecticut living a safe life in a small town . . . bank VP, the PTA, library advisory committee . . . with her son Toby. Obviously, the arrival of Elvis trying to bring back her past is not welcome.

While meeting with Karen and telling her that Peter has no ulterior motives other than to meet his son, Elvis stumbles onto a mob connection to Karen. Charlie DeLuca (aka Charlie the Tuna), son of Sal, the capo del tutti capos (the big cheese of the NY mob), is laundering money through Karen and she wants out. So Elvis (and now Joe Pike) agree to get her out from under the mob.

NYC is subdivided by the major families. Charlie the Tuna has a deal going where he finds out when a competing mob's drug shipments are coming in through JFK. He gets some guys from a low rent Jamaican mob to do the heist and sell the dope with Charlie getting a cut that gets laundered through Karen's bank. Guess the families don't like scumbags messing with their business.

To get Karen out, Elvis confronts Sal about his son's dealings. But jerk that Charlie is wants revenge. He whacks his dad and heads off to Connecticut to deal with Karen, Toby, Elvis, Pike, and now Peter Alan Nelsen . . . a confrontation that sends Charlie off to swim with his tuna.

Three other Crais novels have been posted here: The 2 Minute Rule, the LA Requiem, and The Watchman. This 1992 book shows us that Elvis Cole is a bit of a smart ass (aren't most fictional PIs?). When asked his fee, he says "$4000" to which a producer says they can't pay that, so Elvis says, "Then how about $6000?" And Joe Pike is pretty weird, but good to have around when the shit hits the fan. I left out a number of subplots, especially with Peter arrives and basically says "I'm Peter Alan Nelsen. I can do anything." and attempts to reason with Charlie the Tuna. Yeah, like that was a good idea. Good mystery, in sort of a fish out of water way, with an LA PI digging around the in the business of the NY mob and in the end, gaining grudging respect from the NY capos. His new title The First Rule, due in Jan 2010, features Joe Pike. I am now #155 on the request list at the library. I'll be back for more Crais.

East Coast Don