Pike by Benjamin Whitmer

I’m not sure why I even finished this book, but it seems that my compulsive nature once again defeated the wisdom of just giving up on it. Pike had the feel of Cormac McCarthy’s book, The Road. Although that book made Oprah’s monthly book recommendation, it did not make mine. Like that book, this one told a story of a troubled and deteriorating time with nothing but bad people leading sad and violent lives, without apparent reason for doing so. In this book, a dirty and bad cop, Derrick, is eventually challenged by an old and rough character, Pike. Both men cause havoc around them and death and/or injury to nearly everyone who comes near, until they meet up with each other for the final confrontation. Pike, an older man, is there to save his granddaughter who has been abandoned by his now deceased mother, Pike’s daughter, to whom Pike did not speak after she turned 6 years old when he abandoned them. His daughter led the life of addiction and whoring, and was pimped by Derrick. This was Whitmer’s first novel, but he’s going to have to do a lot better to ever win me back. He had some peripheral characters, but none of them were all that interesting. There were no unexpected twists in the plot, just a slow progression to the inevitable conclusion when Pike kills Derrick and then takes off with his granddaughter towards a safer life. Okay, that’s enough, and you already know more than you need to about this one.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

WARNING: THIS IS A NONFICTION BOOK. This story should be appealing to any bibliophile, as the two Dons certainly are, but the twist here is that it is a true story about a man that embodies both a love of books and sociopathy. Because his desire to collect is far beyond his means, he turns to stealing. The author follows the serial book thief (a brief change of topics from our more usual topic of serial murderers) John Gilkey as he builds up his inventory of rare books. She travels to his family’s home in Modesto, California, where she sees his old room and talks with his mother and sister as she tries to understand his warped superego. She gets into Gilkey’s apartment and describes his incredible cache of books – he is more interesting in having them than selling them. She follows and interviews him in and out of prison since he is sometimes not so slick in his thievery and too driven by his compulsion. She also tells the parallel story of Ken Sanders, the man who works as the security chair for the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (an organization that really exists). As security chair, he is the chief detective that becomes aware of Gilkey’s prolific stealing and who spends several years pursuing him. Bartlett also weaves in information about rare book sellers, especially John Crichton, and a police detective, Kenneth Munson. Bartlett wrote about her own love of books and the strange world of rare book collectors and dealers. She once quoted Winston Churchill on the subject: “’What shall I do with all my books?’ was the question; and the answer, ‘Read them,’ sobered the questioner. But if you cannot read them, at any rate, handle them, and as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of unchartered seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.” As she addressed the topic of ebooks and the effect it might have on her topic, she thought people who have made the switch to ebooks (like me) would end up having a strengthened attachment to the physical books they keep (and that is insightful, clearly true for me). The author tells her story in novel-like form, so it is a good read. There is nothing dry about this nonfiction work. It was a quick read – it took me just a few hours, and the time was well spent.

The Confession by John Grisham

With his last several novels, I thought Grisham had gotten away from what he does best, and I see there is only one other Grisham book reviewed in the blog. So, I think we have both soured on his recent stuff. In this book, he’s back to the lawyer/crime novel with strong racial issues, the stuff he does best, the stuff that made him the household name that he is. This story mostly takes place in Texas because of the Texas laws that allow for the death penalty and the State’s frequent use of that punishment. This is a story about them misusing that penalty and killing the wrong man. That much of the plot is apparent from the start, so knowing that won’t ruin the story for you. Travis Boyette is the serial rapist and murderer who was never charged with this murder of Nicole Yarber, a 17-year-old high school cheerleader from Slone, Texas. Rather, it was Donte Drumm, a back high school athlete who was charged and sent to prison with the death sentence. Boyette confesses his crime to a Lutheran minister, Keith Schroeder, but the confession comes with only days to go before the execution when getting a reversal is unlikely. Then, Boyette does not fully cooperate with effort to save Drumm. Meanwhile, the town of Slone is set to explode with race riots if Drumm is killed. Grisham uses the charismatic and determined lawyer, Robbie Flak, as the man who rabidly pursues this matter, from one appellate level to another, only to have his appeals turned down time and again, despite glaring errors by the court, because of the good-old-boy and corrupt Texan court system. This one will grab you. There are unexpected twists in the plot. I’m glad to have Grisham back in my power rotation.

The Twelfth Iman by Joel Rosenberg

Iran is on the verge of their own nuclear bomb. Make that 9 nuclear bombs and more in the pipeline. Muslim writings state that a new world order ruled under Islamic Law will be established when Iran produces the might to defeat the great Satans (USA and Israel) and led by a mythic cleric known as the Twelfth Iman. Iran has waited centuries for this Iman to surface and lead them into a new era of peace and brotherhood - achieved by force.

And it looks like Islamic prophecy is coming true. The US intelligence services are caught flatfooted about a Muslim country's military power, again. Israel is mobilizing for war. Iran conducts an underground nuclear test and the CIA can't seem to connect the dots of nuclear power, the Islamic government, Koran prophesies, and the sporadic sightings of the Twelfth Iman. How can western governments be so blind to a country that denies the holocaust occurred is on the brink of causing their own?

All this is the reason for Rosenberg to begin a new three-part series on Iran and the Islamic view of the end of days. The bulk of this book is backstory to the main characters of the new series. Charlie Harper (not that one) is an embedded CIA agent in Tehran in the late 70's when the Shah's regime collapsed. He and his wife grab their neighbors and best friends, the Shirazi's, make a mad dash for the border to escape and get back to the US.

Once in the US, the Harpers settle in NJ while the Shirazi's go to Syracuse, NY. The father's take the oldest sons on a September fishing week in rural Canada. When the youngest Shirazi, David, is finally old enough for the vacation, Harper brings his daughter, Marseille. David resents this feminine intrusion, but ends up liking her - a lot. On the 11th, when they are supposed to leave the lake, they are stranded for a few days, coming home to an unspeakable reality.

David is Persian, not an Arab, but others in his school just see the enemy and David goes postal on some kids, eventually getting stuck in a residential high school in Alabama. I gonna skip about 20 steps and say that David eventually gets recruited into the CIA for a number of reasons and is now part of a team inserted into Iran to sniff out clues to their nuclear capability. Some careful snooping and some good luck land David far deeper into the Iranian hierarchy, of course, placing himself, his team, his local contacts in serious jeopardy.

I can't go much more of the plot cuz my blogging partner has it on his Kindle and I don't want him to get mad at me for revealing too much of the plot. I'll just reiterate what I said in an earlier post regarding Rosenberg's writing. The author is a Christian, born of a Jewish father and Gentile mother and his plots are heavily steeped in biblical pedagogy. While the biblical connections are necessary for the plot Rosenberg presents, some readers might find it a little overbearing, ending up sounding a bit like the Left Behind series. I'll venture a guess and say that fans of Rosenberg's books (like me) won't care one bit. Yes, he uses some of the same tricks used by authors like Brown, Grisham, et al. (e.g. ending most every chapter in a bit of a cliffhanger and some all too convenient bits of luck), but his style, love it or hate it, keeps the story moving along at a "damn, now what?" pace.

Dang good yarn, folks. Just don't be put off by the sermonizing that is concentrated in the latter third of the book. Follow it for what it is, - a terrific political thriller. Rosenberg seems to have a knack for being a couple years ahead of what actually ends of happening.

East Coast Don

Star Island by Carl Hiassen

This one might need a list of characters:

The Family

Cheery Pie (the former Cheryl Bunterman) - marginally talented pop singer, failed drug rehab patient, and notorious party girl trying to keep the fame going. She is not aware of . . .

Ann DeLuisa - actress and body double for Ms. Pie, standing in for Cherry when Cherry can't stand.

Ned and Janet Bunterman - Cherry's parents. Ned manages the books and favors 3-ways with Danish twins in Palm Springs. Janet enables Cherry, tries to guide her train wreck of a daughter, and boinks her tennis instructor.

The entourage

Maury Lykes - sleazeball promoter of Cherry's new CD and tour. Stands to lose a ton of money if the tour fails.

The Lark twins - botoxed image consultants who specialize in stars 1 step away from joining Kurt Cobain.

Chemo (aka Blondell Wayne Tatum) - 7ft monster of a body guard, ex-con, and former mortgage broker who wears a weed wacker as a prosthesis on his left arm after losing it to a barracuda (in an earlier Hiassen novel).

Important not-so-peripheral characters

Tanner Dane Keefe - actor, occasional bed mate for Cherry, and waiting for his latest project, a murder-thriller where he plays a surfer/necrophilic for a Quentin Tarrantino, to hit the theaters. Tenant in the Star Island house where the photo shoot will occur.

Bang Abbott: short, fat paparazzo who has a thing for Cherry, but not for personal hygiene.

Clinton Tyree (aka Skink) - former Vietnam war hero and former governor of Florida from 20 yrs ago who, once he realized how corrupt Florida government was, just walked away and now lives in the Everglades, mostly off road kill meat. Skink is a recurring Hiassen character.

So, Cherry wants to be like Brittney, Lindsey, Madge, yadda, yadda, yadda. Problem is she isn't all that talented. She is a hard party-er and stoned most of her waking hours. The former Cheryl Bunterman has done OK, but the public is finding out that Cherry really isn't all that talented. Bang is kinda obsessed with Cherry and wants to get Cherry for a 1-day photoshoot for a coffee table book. After a couple mishaps, Bang carries out a kidnapping of Cherry, only he gets Ann instead. Skink (who Ann met in the bush when she ran her car off the road) learns of Ann's problem and mounts his white horse - make that he steals a boat - and begins to watch over Ann.

Bang tries to exchange Ann for Cherry for a 1-day photoshoot. Chemo is playing Bang against Maury, Cherry's parents and the Lark twins are trying to compose the spin to hype the new album/tour. The various tentacles of the octopus masquerading as the Bunterman family fall over each other at Pubes, the hot Miami hotspot.

Does any of that make sense?

Probably not, and that is one trait that keeps drawing Hiassen's fans back for more of his stilted view of Florida. Really bizarre characters and ridiculously convoluted plots can be found in all of Hiassen's books. The Governor is my fav. The main foils for Hiassen's poison pen are Florida real estate developers (there's a small, but important secondary plot involving a crooked developer and an unfortunate encounter between his junk and a sea urchin) and anything to do with the celebrity cult, which gets seriously skewered here.

I've read most all his novels and I think each was excellent in their own unique way. Fans of humor novelists will keep coming back to Hiassen. Bang is oily sleazy. Chemo is cunning, frightening, and very large. Ann is spunky and ready to ditch this gig. And poor Cherry (which she wants to change to 'Cherish') is just looking to get high and get laid.

A lot to love here.

East Coast Don

American Assassin by Vince Flynn

Irene Kennedy, future DCI of the CIA, is a bit down the decision chain in this prequel. She finds a young Syracuse grad that just might be what they are looking for to join the most clandestine arm of the clandestine unit at Langley. Orion is so black that no one in any level of government will acknowledge its existence. Kennedy delivers Rapp to a rural farm in Virginia into the care of the most vile, angry, detestable, pissed off human on the planet, Stan Hurley.

Hurley was a field officer for the predecessor of the CIA working mostly in Europe during the height of the cold war while telling anyone who would listen that the real powder keg was the Middle East. During his time in the field, he rightfully earned a reputation as a ruthless and remorseless killer. Now, new recruits were being entrusted to him so that he could harden them into the next generation of killers. Now Kennedy delivers (a couple days late) this snot-nosed college kid to Hurley instead of the special ops guys from the military that he craves.

As you might imagine, Hurley objects to Rapp’s presence, his late arrival, and everything he represents. Hurley is too dense to realize Rapp is just like he was at 23. The two form a deserved hate-hate relationship that festers until a boiling point where Kennedy’s boss, Thomas Stansfield, has to mediate. Stansfield politely tells Hurley to wake up and smell the sewage and realize that Rapp is the real deal. He can either be the conductor on the train or get the hell out of dodge.

Rapp’s first assignment is in Istanbul, where under Hurley’s direction, he is to log his first kill – a noted arms dealer. Rapp goes a bit off the reservation and kills the dealer on his own time, not Hurley’s, which pisses Hurley off to no end. Hurley is reminded that the kid sized up the situation, made his play, and got out safely, all without Hurley’s help. Get over it – this kid is a natural and Hurley grudgingly accepts a star is in the making.

Now Hurley is not only ruthless, he is also devious. He hates Middle East nutjobs and devises a plan to get the jihadist and Russians at each others throat by killing a banker who is laundering Arab-Russian money. He then wires the money all over, setting off a near war between the two. Along the way, Hurley gets snatched in Beirut and it’s up to Rapp to get him back.

The resulting rescue is creative, effective, and explosive . . . and a legend is born.

I think most authors with a continuing character have a novel in them that lets us all in on the main guy’s background. Tom Clancy did it with Clark (Without Remorse) and Lee Child told Jack Reacher’s early years (The Enemy). Now Vince Flynn tells us about Mitch Rapp’s initial training and his first missions for the CIA.

While I am a fan of Flynn and Rapp, I actually thought this story started a little late in Rapp’s recruitment. The book essentially opens with Kennedy dropping Rapp off at Hurley’s farm for training. What I would like to have seen is how Kennedy found Rapp and what was it about Rapp that made her think he’d be, not merely a player, but was capable of being the sharp end of the CIA’s sword. Having said that, this story provides welcome background into what makes Rapp, well . . . Rapp. Another testosterone-driven story from Vince Flynn that 'men reading books' should snap up.

East Coast Don

Naked In Death by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)

This is the first of 31 novels about Lt. Eve Dallas in which Nora Roberts writes under the pseudonym of J.D. Robb. I thought I had read a Nora Roberts book before, so it must have been pre-blog. I had seen an Amazon ad for the latest in the series, Indulgence in Death, released only this month, so I thought I would just start at the beginning in case I loved it and then could go through them in order. So, I went into this with some anticipation, hoping that I would find another series of books to go through, another character that I could get excited about, but it may not work out that way. In Naked in Death, written in 7/95, a serial killer must be brought to justice. I won’t spend more time on the plot because it was too predictable. The character development was average, at best. Really, I thought the main characters, Lt. Dallas and Roarke, the one-named, super wealthy, remarkably everything man with whom she falls in love, despite the fact that he is a suspect, and who treats her to the best sex ever – were just not believable figures. The setting is somewhere in the future, so there were some gimmicky communication devices, computer database options, and transportation methods – but even those could not disguise a thin plot. I nearly quit the book after 50 pages, and then considered quitting every 10 pages thereafter. The fact that I finished the book is only a tribute to my dysfunctional compulsive behaviors. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Now, I’m undecided if I’m going to check out the latest, to see if Nora Roberts got better. She is one amazingly prolific writer. Now I ask, “What am I missing?”

Soccer Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper

Kuper is also the author of the highly regarded Soccernomics reviewed earlier. While that book is an economist's view of the game, this earlier book (1994) is about the intertwining of soccer and politics. Kuper traveled across Europe to Eastern Europe, Russia, and a number of former Soviet republics. Then back to the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy where a former club director eventually became the Prime Minister. Some of the longest and most details chapters are devoted to Africa. Kuper then jumps to Argentina, where the military dictatorship used the 1978 World Cup to their advantage, to Brazil, where soccer is played to music, to the US for the 1994 World Cup. Overall, this is a fascinating look at how a game can have such impact on the psyche and soul of nations and why the game has failed to capture the imagination of the US.

For the most part, up until this book, most titles on the game were either coaching books or books about personalities, clubs, or the World Cup. This seems to be one of the very first academic, if you will, treatments of a game that has spawned other books like Soccernomics, Inverting the Pyramid, Brilliant Orange, How Soccer Explains the World, et al.

Fascinating . . . simply fascinating, for more than soccer enthusiasts, but also for people interested in the interworkings of culture, politics, and the soul of nations.

East Coast Don

The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow

Frank Machianno, Frank the Bait Guy who everyone loves, and Frankie the Machine who everyone fears. This is my fourth Winslow book, and for reading pleasure, it sure comes close to his last, the 13th novel, Savages (the one that Oliver Stone is currently making into a movie). The venue is Southern California, especially San Diego County. Winslow takes his time with the development of Frank’s character as a hardworking guy who is managing four businesses, but takes time out to surf every day during The Gentlemen’s Hour, which happens well after daybreak, when the other surfers have to get out of the water and head for work. He’s 62-years-old, a lover of opera, a great chef, and a man who appreciates women. Frank is just trying to provide for his daughter, Jill, who is headed for UCLA med school, and his ex-wife, Patty, and who is enjoying his time with Donna, a former Vegas show girl who has preserved her figure into her 50s. But, while Winslow took his time with the evolution of Frank, the transition to trouble was sudden. Frank is inexplicably the target of an assassination attempt, and it is then that his history as an assassin with the mob unfolds. But, Frank has been out of the game for years, and he can’t understand why someone would suddenly want him silenced. The book is about the unfolding of the mafia ties from Detroit to Vegas to Los Angeles to San Diego, and the connection of those ties to politicians and federal law enforcement. Once again, Winslow provides a great story, unexpected twists, compelling action. There are some classic lines. With the dialogue, I found myself thinking about DiNiro. At times he can deliver a poorly written line and sell it like bad actors can't. Winslow can do the same with his prose. After Billy Jacks, who loved to sit in strip bars and watch the action, is shot in the face, survives, but is blinded, he changes his stripper habit, as Winslow notes, "Watching strippers couldn't have been that much fun for a blind guy." Or, as the chase is on and Frank is running from the mob: "Daylight finds Frank in San Diego. Counting on the fog and the hour to shield him from view. And the gun at his hip to protect him from harm." And finally quoting a rant by our title character, "So the government wants to beat down organized crime. That's hysterical. The government is organized crime. The only difference between them and us is they're more organized." Taken out of context, the lines might seem contrite, but they work in context. I’m now moving him into my own power rotation of authors, along with Silva, Connelly, Bruen, Child, Flynn, and Thor.

Soccer In A Football World by David Wangerin

We usually review fiction, but occasionally have posted some non-fiction titles. Regular readers (both of you) probably know I have a recessive gene that clouds my sensibilities when it comes to soccer. Today's post is further evidence of the concept of variable selective gene expression.

This book is the product of a "soccer fan born in the wrong country at nearly the wrong time" who presents a detailed (and the emphasis really is on 'detailed') history of soccer in the US. He traces back to evidence of how soccer and rugby and our own version of football (gridiron) are intertwined going all the way back to the colonial period. Wangerin then brings out the how and why gridiron became the game of choice in the US and how soccer, once a big deal, became relegated to the back seat to more recent decades as soccer started to claw its way back into the American consciousness.

Despite the incredible depth of research and the presentation of detail of arcane matches, leagues, and people, this book failed to draw me in. It just seem a bit dry; a presentation of facts that failed to impart any feel for the personality and passion known to reside in the game. The only chapter that really grabbed me a bit was the one entitled Momentary Insanity, which was about the US women's national team program. Otherwise, this book is probably more of interest to sports historians.

Now my next soccer book (Soccer against the Enemy) has more personality and passion in the first 2 chapters than this entire book.

East Coast Don

The Reversal by Michael Connelly

Melissa and Sarah Landy were playing hide and seek on an LA Sunday morning back in 1986, waiting for their mom and stepdad so they all could go to church. Sarah was hiding when she heard a truck pull up. The driver got out, said something to Melissa, and then took her into the truck. This began a mad dash by the police to find the abducted girl that turns south when her body is found in a dumpster a few hours later.

Jason Jessup was a tow truck driver prowling neighborhood streets for illegally parked cars that surrounded one of those mega-churches. He is definitively identified by Sarah in an impromptu lineup in the Landy’s front yard, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in San Quentin. Now, 24 years later, DNA analysis of a semen stain on Melissa’s dress, assumed to be from Jessup, reveals a different source. A new trial is ordered.

To avoid any appearance of bias, the LA district attorney asks noted defense attorney Mickey Haller to prosecute the case. Mickey agrees only if he gets Maggie McPherson (aka Maggie McFierce) who is his ex-wife and currently an ADA languishing in Van Nuys as his second and Harry Bosch, longtime LAPD homicide cop, as his investigator.

Any retrial hinges on Haller’s team finding Sarah who appears to have dropped off the grid after years of drugs, arrests, and clinics. But, hey, this is Harry Bosch on the hunt and the search is over quickly. Maggie and Harry convince Sarah to return to LA to testify.

Meanwhile, Jessup is out and reacquainting himself with freedom by day and prowling strange destinations by night. Harry asks an old girlfriend-FBI profiler for her opinion and she thinks Jessup is not a onetime abductor. She thinks he has serial tendencies and is close to exploding. The trial proceeds with the defense failing to successfully plant the seed of doubt in the jury forcing an unexpected end to the trial. One reason is a strategy devised by Bosch based on a scene he recalled from Godfather 2.

Connelly is a rare crime novelist. A mass market success who doesn’t treat the reader like a dud. He presents a complex story, cleverly plotted and paced with numerous unexpected slights of hand that kept me up way past my bedtime on numerous nights. The story is creatively presented from Haller’s point of view (odd #ed chapters, in the first person) and from inside Bosch’s head (even #ed chapters, third person). There is no wasted space or unnecessary side stories. This is an excellent tale of both legal procedure and the dogged investigation by a seasoned cop. Connelly has been reviewed here in a number of occasions and every one has been a winner. And this could well be his best yet. If you’ve never read Connelly, this one should hook you on his main characters – Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch.

available on Kindle

East Coast Don

p.s. just read that an earlier title, The Lincoln Lawyer, is being made into a movie. Matthew McConaughey is set to play Haller and Marisa Tomei plays Maggie McFierce. Had them in my head while reading the last half of the book. IMHO, that is pretty good casting.