The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I’m a fan of Daniel Silva, and his most recent book, just released a few days ago, does not diminish my appreciation of his writings and the ongoing character development of Gabriel Allon, his mentor, Ari Shamron, and Allon’s wife, Chiara. For me, just writing “Daniel Silva” should be a enough of a book recommendation, and revealing any more is unnecessary. But, I’ll cough up a few more details. This story starts out with a recently discovered Rembrandt that has come into the hands of the art dealer and friend of Israeli intelligence services, Julian Isherwood. Before taking it to the public, the painting needed to be restored, but Allon was unavailable, so Isherwood hired Christopher Liddell to do the work. However, before he could complete the restoration, the painting is stolen, Liddell is murdered, and more damage is done to the artwork. Isherwood then convinces Allon to find the painting, and that leads to the latest international intrigue involving characters from the U.S., England, Germany, Israel, Iran, and especially Switzerland, where most of the action takes place. Notable is Zoe Reed, a famous British journalist, who is having an affair with the international financier and generous contributor to important world causes, “Saint” Martin Landesmann. It’s sad that I waited nearly a year for the next installment of this series, and now after a couple days, I’m back waiting for the next one. If you haven’t already gotten involved with this series, even though each book stands on its own, I recommend starting at the beginning and enjoying unfolding history of these characters.

West Coast Don

The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver

Daniel Raymond Pell was a serial killer in the manner of Charles Manson. On 9/13/99, he was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of manslaughter. In Carmel, California, he killed William Croyton, his wife and two of their three children, but he missed little Theresa who was upstairs, asleep in her bed. She became known to the press as “The Sleeping Doll.” Pell also killed James Newberg, one of his “family” who helped commit the crimes. The family included Newberg and three women. Imprisoned in a high security place in California, which sounds like Folsum Prison, Pell is accused of being responsible for an unsolved murder, so he is moved to a less secure place in order to be interviewed about this other murder. This is where his nemesis enters the scene, Kathryn Dance, an interviewer extraordinaire who matches wits with the very intelligent Pell. He had nothing to do with this other murder and the whole thing was a ploy for him to be able to escape, which he does. The book is about the contest between Pell at-large, and Dance, trying to recapture him. There is very good psychological study of the three women in the family who have already served out their prison terms and tried to move on with their lives, but they have not been in touch with each other since their convictions. Deaver brings in some other interesting characters. This was a good book, clever, and as I’m beginning to appreciate about Deaver, there are some very good unanticipated twists toward the end.
West Coast Don

Foreign Influence by Brad Thor

A super secret Chinese installing in Mongolia is hit. Who did it? Just what was the installation? How did anyone find out about it?

Scot Harvath, ex-Seal, former go-to guy in the war against terrorism to the previous adminstration has been cast aside by the new kinder and gentler POTUS. He bides his time up in Maine with Tracy, a former operative who understands Scot's need to stay in the game and protect America. One thing gets in their way - he wants kids, she doesn't and that places their relationship in jeopardy. And that love of children and the seething hatred for anyone who would put children in harm's way burns in Harvath's patriotic flame. Gasoline has been thrown on this flame when Harvath's team rescues a group of kidnapped Iraqi children, getting them all alive, except for one child who dies in his arms.

Harvath is recruited to join the shadowy Carlton Group. A group whose motto is Find, Fix, Finish. No rules, just get the job done. The Carlton Group is funded out of a non-existent DoD budget line.

A busload of American college kids doing a semester abroad in Rome is blown up. The clues suggest The Troll, a secretive source for state secrets to the highest bidder that Harvath has a love-hate relationship with. His orders from The Old Man of the Carlton Group (aka 'Peaches' to the Brits) are to find The Troll and eliminate him.

But The Troll is being set up. He reaches out to Harvath to help him find who is behind the bombing and an attempt on his own life. The chase takes Harvath and The Troll from Basque Country in Spain to Geneva where some enhanced interrogation by Harvath uncovers information about a 9/11 scale attack set to happen soon.

In Chicago, a girl is run down by a taxi and is clinging to life. Her parents aren't happy with the CPD investigation and gets a cop/lawyer/Marine to use his own time to find the driver. He and a smart mouth cop who works in transportation track miniscule cues and uncover a mosque that doubles as an armory that appears to be preparing for something big.

Harvath learns (remember, enhanced interrogation) that London and Amsterdam are the targets. With the help of Scotland Yard and MI6, they (barely) manage to avert disaster in London and jump over to Amsterdam where they zero in on the terror cell's leader, and after extracting significant information (ahem, enhanced interrogation) manage to capture 5 of 6 suicide bombers who were planning a hit on the red light district. The 6th on managed to detonate.

Part of the information Harvath extracted is about further bombings to take place in Chicago. Harvath hops a Gulfstream and his team heads for the local cell's headquarters. They encounter the 2 cops investigating the hit and run (now prisoners of the terrorists) and take out most of the cell in a shootout in the basement of a furniture store.

They piece together the remaining information they have a realize that hotels on the Magnificent Mile are not the targets, but the commuter train stations are. So the team fans out to the stations. In a horrific shootout, the attacks are stopped. But there is still intel out there suggesting potential targets in LA and NYC.

I had this on a 1-week checkout from the library and had to read it quickly. No problem there. Thor has a real talent for keeping eyes on the page and the pages turning. There is hardly a single scene that drags. And if you have a problem reading graphic descriptions of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' that probably make Abu Ghraib or Gitmo sound like summer camp, you might be wise to look elsewhere for a summer beach read. 'Graphic' is far too gentle a term to describe what is portrayed.

I'm up to date on Thor's novels and I think each title is better than the previous. In this story, he unveils a new team of operatives that simply have to become a regular feature of future books. And at the end of the story, have we just been introduced to a new character set to partner up with Harvath? Remember the name Sean Chase. He sounds like one very cool customer.

I have read that Thor has spent significant time with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan at forward position. I would guess that some of the horror in this book is from conversations with the boots on the ground soldiers over there. And it probably helps to lean toward the political right to enjoy this book. Thor manages to get a lot of digs in about people who lean the other way.

East Coast Don

p.s. that Chinese installation? Think 'The Charm School' by Nelson DeMille (one of the very best espionage books ever written). I am betting graduates of the Chinese version of The Charm School will surface in the future. The Chinese appear to be up to no good.

Shakedown by Charlie Stella

Bobby Genarro used to run a betting office for the local Mafiya family and it did pretty well. But he met a woman, Lin Yao and everything changed. He begged out of the life, wants to find a legit jog, marry Lin Yao, and make babies.

But the mob life has changed in recent years. Seems like every time a wiseguy gets picked up by the Feds, he rolls over on his old employers getting a new life somewhere well outside of NYC. The remaining wiseguys are left to clean up the messes and kill whomever they think could be the next to roll. The old loyalties have gone the way of the proverbial dodo bird. So when a guy either disappears or drops out, there must be a better reason than going legit and getting married. Bobby’s old bosses want to know if he is cooperating with the police. And they figure that Bobby made off with some of the profits from the old office and want some significant cash.

Tommy Agro, a wiseguy who can’t quite keep his analogies and metaphors straight, runs the local crew. He is training a new guy, a former U Michigan football player who bench presses 500 lbs named Forzino (he got hurt as a senior and missed out on a pro career) and is the nephew of some bigger boss; lotta muscle and potential, but short on experience. Joe Quack is Tommy’s boss, and apparently hung like a horse, which he uses to his advantage.

The NYPD organized crime unit is watching this part of the mob kind of implode on itself, but one of the 2 cops turns out to be dirty and working his own agenda. Forzino moved to NY with his fiance, Sally, who is kinda taken by the mob life and ends up bedding Joe Quack (and being sore for days afterward).

Bobby thinks he knows how to handle Agro and his crew so he can keep what money he has and avoid paying anybody anything, or at least get off on the cheap. But Agro sends in an Irish freelancer to convince Lin Yao to get Bobby to pay up. But things go south, Lin Yao gets snatched and her cousin, the head of a local Chinese street gang, decides to secure his family’s honor.

What started out as a simple shakedown escalates into nearly a full-blown war between the Italians, Chinese, and an Irish group trying to make some inroads. Bad guys are kidnapped by other bad guys, fingers are cut off, a hostage exchange is screwed up, the dirty cop surfaces, Forzino learns about his wife and Joe Quack (and does what a wiseguy in training should do); basically all hell breaks loose in this little corner of the Vignieris family.

As with his other books, this one follows a winning pattern: a good guy trying to do the right think, wiseguys out for themselves and their crew, a good cop and a bad cop. Never having been to NYC for more than a flight transfer, the descriptions of NYC made unknown locales pop in my mind’s eye. And don’t forget the dialogue that grabs you by the throat and drags you into Gennaro’s world. And as always, I fail miserably trying to describe Stella's intricate plotting.

But this is a sad day. I now have read through all Mr. Stella’s books and will have to patiently await what comes next from Stella’s fertile, if deliciously twisted, imagination.

BTW, thanks to the Knuckmeister hisself for arranging copies of earlier titles that seemed to be awfully hard to come by. With all the crap sitting on the shelves at B/N and Borders, you’d think quality storytelling would deserve some retail real estate. Sort of makes you go ‘hmmm.’ No wonder big box book stores are hurting; they wouldn’t know quality crime fiction if Forzino whacked mgmt across the face with any of Stella’s work.

East Coast Don