The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

This was a great story, and I think we may have a new author to add to Kirkendall’s “power” list. It is about Michael who suffers a great tragedy at the age of 8 that costs him the lives of his parents, but the reader does not learn the details of the tragedy until near the end of the book. But, from the outset, one learns that the trauma has left Michael, a.k.a., “The Boy Wonder,” completely mute. After the loss of his parents, he is raised by a caring and loving uncle, although one who is pretty busy with his own life. The story opens when he is 17 years old and in his junior year of high school. Michael serendipitously finds that he is fascinated with locks, all kinds of locks. He becomes astute at picking locks and opening combination locks, but the wrong people learn of his talent and draw him into being a criminal “specialist,” a safecracker. The story artfully bounces from to his angst as a mute teenager trying to fit in with others, and his struggle with the old demons that are tied to the deaths of his parents. It jumps forward to the bigger crimes to which he gets pulled into age the age of 18 and 19. Of course, as he moves around the country at the whim of the mysterious arch criminal, there is a link to his home town and the girl, Amelia, from high school who he loves. Hamilton has given his protagonist a remarkable and sensitive artistic talent, and he uses his ability to draw as his primary method of communicating with Amelia. As I write this review, I concerned that it comes across with more schmaltz than I got from reading the book. I liked this work and look forward to more of Hamilton’s books.

West Coast Don

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

This was Darwin’s first book after getting back from his 5-year odyssey around the world, in the 1830s and it was about another 6 years after he returned that he got around to writing “The Origin of the Species,” which I think was his sixth book. First, he put out his travelogue, and unless you’re a naturalist, a historian, or about to travel to places that Darwin traveled, you probably won’t consider reading this one. Still, his descriptive talents are undeniable and I can see why this book was so important in its era. I used it to compliment reading two other travel books as I prepared for my own travel to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, and I’m currently sailing about 18 miles off the coast of Chile, between Valparaiso and Puerto Montt. The other travel books that I read, mostly cover-to-cover, were, “Travels in the Thin Country” by Sara Wheeler, and The Lonely Planet book on Chile. I have the Lonely Planet books on Argentina and Uruguay with me – not surprisingly, there is not one on Paraguay. Wheeler’s book was mostly readable, but it is not indispensable, even for traveling to Chile. I didn’t read Darwin all the way through, mostly just skipping through it, looking for his reports about the places that I’ll be visiting. It was a modern moment to sit listening to my IPod, reading Darwin, and using my laptop to look at the places he described on GoogleEarth, including some mountains he climbed along the Straits of Magellan and some of the volcanoes in Chile that I hope to see tomorrow. After 180 years, Darwin’s descriptions were right on. So, enough of the travel books – on to some good fiction.

West Coast Don

The First Rule by Robert Crais

We know Joe Pike, the sidekick for Crais' investigator Elvis Cole. Pike was a mercenary after the Marines and he still keeps tabs on his crew. One of them, Frank Meyers, has left the life behind for a wife, 2 kids, a nanny and a pool in Brentwood. One evening, a crew from Compton that has already boosted 6 other homes invades Frank's home, killing everyone. A CSI friend of Joe's alerts him to the events and Joe is not happy.

All the previous break-ins attacked various criminals and LAPD thinks Frank must've been dirty on some level, a conclusion Joe can't agree with and sets out to find out who is behind the slaughter.

The nanny was the Serbian sister of a prostitute and was hiding an infant that is supposedly the whore's child by a Serbian mobster. Learning this puts Pike on the trail of the ultra-secretive society of EOC-European Organized Crime. One thing troubling Pike is a woman who doesn't look LAPD working with them. He soon learns she is ATF and tracking a shipment of 3000 Kalishnikov rifles coming into LA headed to a violent EOC crime boss named Darko.

Pike's investigation steers away from the Compton crew (especially when he finds them all dead), manages to piece together the various layers of this Serbian mob and some of their business. While no one seems to have ever seen Darko, Pike decides to steal from Darko and force him to come out after him. At one shootout, Pike takes the baby to safety and then plans a meet with a rival Serb who has the rifles and set up Darko and the supplier to be taken down by the ATF. While the takedown doesn't go as planned, Darko still gets captured. Turns out Frank wasn't dirty, just collateral damage during a kidnapping. The baby is adopted out and Darko gets transferred to a maximum security jail...a jail where, conveniently, one of Pike's mercenary crew members Lonnie (who was once saved by Frank when a mission went south) is housed serving life for murder . . . and Lonnie has an ice pick.

Crais, like Michael Connelly, writes terrific straight forward crime fiction and Joe Pike is one efficient and feared killing machine. He plays a secondary role in the Elvis Cole series, but is front and center here. The plot has a sufficient number of blind alleys that keep the reader glued to the page - an easy read in a week. I liken Pike to Lee Child's Jack Reacher...the strong silent type helping out those unable to help themselves. Ask me today which hero I like better and I'll say Joe Pike. But when Child's next Jack Reacher novel comes out this year, I'll probably shift. What can I say, I'm easily impressed. Let me read a few more Pike novels and I'm guessing that Reacher will just shrug and let me put on some mirrored shades and a cutoff sweatshirt to sit in Pike's corner.

The first rule? Don't piss off Joe Pike.

East Coast Don

Johnny Porno by Charlie Stella

It’s 1973 and it seems like everyone in NY wants a piece of Johnny Albano. His ex-wife Nancy is constantly busting his balls and her first ex-husband wants Nancy’s help in ripping Johnny off. A dirty cop who got caught on tape shaking down a bar was leveled by Albano really has a hard on for Albano’s neck. A mobster’s low rent driver keeps pushing until Johnny strikes back, repeatedly. Another dirty cop being scoped out by NYPD internal affairs wants to bring Johnny in to show his bosses he’s making some movement on a case. And that’s just the first couple chapters. Even the old Greek guy living in his building who is hot after Johnny’s mom lectures him every time he comes home. You half expect to hear Johnny cry out, “Take a number, New York!”

Johnny is basically a good guy who is down on his luck. He’s a carpenter who lost his union card when this idiot co-worker killed someone’s pet, laughed about it, and Johnny taught him a lesson. The bad news? The guy was connected; bye-bye union card. Now, Johnny drives for a car service to earn some money to stay current with his child support for Nancy and his son Jack (Nancy’s now married to husband #3, another decent guy who plays for the Philharmonic). Johnny also makes runs for this mob guy picking up the cash from illegal showings of the cultural sensation of the day, Deep Throat. As the courier, he inherits the moniker Johnny Porno from the previous courier (Tommy Porno) who ended up in a dumpster with his hands cut off as a message to future couriers thinking of skimming off the top. Anyway, on weekends, Johnny drives this brief circuit picking up cash and delivering to his mob connection. Times get tough and money is short and reluctantly agrees to a longer circuit and the bigger pickup and payment (and a deeper commitment to the mob life). And this is the cash that Louis, Nancy’s first ex-husband, wants her help in stealing. Don't forget the offer from some Lovelace admirer wanting to buy the Cadillac used in the movie.

After the theft, a number of side plots start to spiral toward the drain and eventually culminates in an almost Taxi Driver-like explosion. The body count mounts, mobster wanna-be’s rethink their career path, bad cops meet their appropriate ends, Johnny’s new girl friend goes MIA, and Nancy’s third ex-husband does a decent thing for Johnny.

This, the latest by Stella, is the fifth of his titles reviewed here (Charlie Opera, Cheapskates, Eddie’s World, Mafiya). The earlier books had, for me, a bit of a lighter feel as I found an undercurrent of humor and satire, especially in Charlie Opera and Cheapskates, woven within the innocent man vs. the mob story. I had been forewarned that Johnny Porno was a grittier story with more interconnected subplots than earlier titles and it was. Poor Johnny is caught in an ever tightening web of events that threaten his ability to support his child, find better and more honest work, and hook up with his new girlfriend. Once the theft takes place, the action accelerates as dozens of dominoes fall, some that favor Johnny, and some that don’t.

Having read 3 of the prior 4 Stella books posted here, I was excited to see this has all the trappings of classic Stella – decent guys, wise guys of various standing in the mob, good/dirty cops, but most importantly, dialogue that make you want to stand up and beg for more. While Stella points to George V. Higgins as inspiration, I see comparisons to a couple of my favorite contemporary authors who I think also excel at dialogue, George Pelacanos and Richard Price. Through Stella, you can practically smell the garlic on the breath of the wiseguys trying to intimidate, strain to hear cops jerking each other around through hot dog stuffed faces, wince at the lunacy of an ex-wife going off the deep end, and nod approvingly when someone does a decent thing for Johnny. Why Stella’s books aren’t flying off the main table at the front door of Barnes/Noble and Borders is, in itself, a crime.

East Coast Don

Tinkers by Paul Harding

An unusual book, but one I enjoyed. This all takes place within the last day of life of George Washington Crosby, an 80-year-old man. George is lying in a hospital bed at home as he reviews his life, and that takes him to memories of his father, Howard, who long ago deserted his family. Howard was an epileptic who tinkered with clocks. George tells his story in the first person. Interestingly, at one point, the story about Howard is suddenly being told in the first person, and then Howard remembers his father and tells stories about him. This was a pretty quick read, but probably one which had more interest for me than it might for others because of my profession any my own remembrances of my father who died at far too young an age. I came across this book from a list of Amazon suggestions of best fiction books. The writing was great, and the dialogue was excellent. The author used an interesting convention throughout the book of citing an old reference manual for repairing clocks in order to make his points about life.

West Coast Don

Witch & Wizard by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

Remarkably, this is a book I chose not to finish after getting halfway into it. Take my advice and don’t waste your time. I’ve chosen not to finish books at the rate of about 1 per 500, so you get the gist. It is a fanciful story about the taking over of the world, as we know it, by the New Order. But, their progression towards total control is thwarted by a family whose teenage children, Whit and Wisty, are respectively a wizard and witch. As the teens get seized from their home in the middle of the night by storm troopers, they discover for the first time that they have magical powers. In jail, they learn more about how to make use of those powers to avoid their scheduled execution. That’s enough, but I’ll leave you with one line of dialogue in which Whit has just been saved by the spirit of his girlfriend on earth, a teen who was killed by the New Order and now appears in spectral form. Whit says, “I reached out to try to hug Celia in a moment of relief that we’d made it through to the other side. It didn’t matter how awkward and ridiculous it was trying to hug a ghost. That’s the cool thing about love. In my opinion, anyway.” After that line, I got through a couple more pages before giving up the ghost of this book.

West Coast Don

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

This was one of the books that I learned about at the end of 2009 when I was being email-bombed by Amazon with the series of “best” books. Best mysteries of 2009, best autobiographies, best nonfiction, best etc. I had forgotten which of those categories this one came from and, as I got into it, I assumed it was one of the best nonfiction works, so I was surprised when I actually read the book jacket at the end and found out that it was a work of fiction. This is a story of some people who migrate from India to Ethiopia and work as doctors and nurses in a poor public hospital, Missing (Mission) Hospital, in Addis Ababa. They work in partnership with some locals. One of the Ethiopians is a scrub nurse who has come from a convent in India, choosing to work in Addis rather than Aden for the love of a surgeon, Thomas Stone, who she met on the way to Aden. The two of them are a great team in the operating room, but their building love for one another goes unrealized, or so the reader is led to believe until, after seven years of working together when Sister Mary Joseph Praise unexpectedly delivers identical twin boys. This saintly woman had hid the pregnancy beneath her habit, and then she died in childbirth. Stone flees Addis to return to his native U.S. where he continues his brilliant career as a surgeon. The care of the boys, Marion and Shiva Stone, is left to two other doctors at the hospital, a man and a woman who eventually fall in love with one another. The story is about the development of the boys in the realm of the Emperor Haile Selassie. Then, Selassie is overthrown and the lives of everyone changes. One of the boys becomes a doctor, following in the steps of his father, and he eventually ends up in the U.S. where he encounters Stone for the first time. Their lives get further enmeshed, but to tell you that would ruin the story. This is a different read, but it is great fiction.

West Coast Don