Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva

Another great novel by Daniel Silva. Gabriel Allon, the retired Israeli assassin and art restorer, has been living a quiet life recently. He lives with wife, the beautiful Chiara, who is rather bored with the cold damp winters in Cornwall, England. Gabriel and Chiara have ventured into London to see a new painting that Julian Isherwood wants him to restore, a Titian. During this same time, there has been a spate of new terrorist attacks throughout Europe, and London is under tight security. However, it’s Gabriel who coincidentally spots the next terrorist who is about to blow up a bomb in Covent Park. He follows the man for some blocks, just to make sure his hunch is correct. Just before the man pushes the plunger on his suicide bomb belt, Gabriel draws his gun to shoot him in the head, knowing that if he hits him from the back, in the brainstem, the guy will never be able to set off the bomb. But, just as Gabriel is pulling the trigger, two English secret service types that have been following him, jump him and knock him to the ground. The bomb goes off and 18 people die, but Gabriel is protected from the blast by the two bodies lying on top of him, the men who kept him from taking the shot. He is questioned closely by the security forces about what he saw in the man that no one else picked up. Suddenly and unhappily to Chiara, Gabriel is back in the game of tracking down terrorists. This is only the gripping beginning to the story, and the rest of the book follows in rapid fashion. It is one I could not put down. Silva is my #1 master of this genre. Will I have to wait until next summer for the next installment?

Nameless Dead by Paul johnston

It looks like a modern day Manchurian Candidate has just taken place. Some neo-Nazi’s who are hiding behind a church of devil worshipers (or is it vice versa?) had programmed a British crime writer to take out the US President.

This book opens up with the government/FBI working on deprogramming Matt Wells when random people are showing up dead from some quasi-religious ritual. The FBI gets the bright idea to put Wells out there as bait to draw out the head of the church and whomever is doing the killing, asking Wells right after his wife and son die in childbirth. Great timing Fibbies.

I struggled with this book. It seemed like part 2. Usually when a story or character carries to the next book, the author tells the reader enough to get going in the subsequent book. Not this one. I was scratching my head, page after page. And the eventual survival of the wife and son was a bit much. And the number of supporters of this church of dregs highly placed in the government was beyond comprehension. This was a mess that I forced myself to finish. Had I been smart, I would have put this down promptly and gotten into the King book just posted.

East Coast Don

Calibre by Ken Bruen

Setting: Mild mannered accountant reads crime novels like crazy. One story in particular hits home (Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me) sending our boy out to kill Londoners with bad manners. Strike your child, be rude to bartenders and an ‘accident’ is coming your way.

The local cops, one Neanderthal in particular named Brandt, are working the case. They investigate 6 ways from Sunday and it’s a hooker who glanced at the diary of her longtime john who alerts the cops. Brandt squeezes the bum, but when Brand goes to arrest him, we all learn the guy has gone for greener pastures in Montana.

This was vintage Bruen. Sparse, harsh, Irish noir. Simple dialogue, direct assaults on the conscious. Looking for a short book to tide you over for a couple days? Bruen has been, and continues to be, the right choice.

East Coast Don

A Killing Night by Jonathon King

Book #4 in the Max Freeman series. Max is working as a regular PI for his lawyer friend Billy Manchester. Right now it’s talking to Philippine workers on that cruise ship with the exploding engine room. Max and Billy are building a class action case against the cruise line while the cruise line has hired a couple idiot thugs to convince the workers that going back home would be the best option. Meanwhile, Max’s former squeeze, Det. Sherry Richards, last seen saving Max’s bacon and taking in the battered wife. In this book, Richards is still a cop, but also works inside a battered women’s shelter protecting the residents in need of protection.

Three female bartenders have just flat disappeared. Vanished without a trace. Richards has Colin O’Shea in her crosshairs. Colin is a former Philadelphia beat cop (along with Max) who was implicated, along with 3 other rat bastard cops of taking liberties with a slow witted cashier in a convenience store. The 3 jerks admitted to their deeds, but Colin clammed up and the girl disappeared.

Colin has surfaced in south Florida and plays the bars, actually knowing a couple of the missing girls. Richards asks Max to check up on him, but Max takes it one step farther and returns to Philly for the first time since abruptly leaving after killing a 12yo store heist suspect.

What Max turns up does not suggest that Colin should be under suspicion. When Max and Richards turn up during a sweep of local bars, Max sees a guy slip out while giving the girl behind the bar a questioning glance. Max’s cop instincts says this guy doesn’t want to be rousted by the cops so Max starting trying to get info out of the barkeep.

The girl’s boyfriend is a local cop who gets off chasing, catching, degrading, raping, and then killing girls. And Max is closing in. He tries to follow the bum, but ends up getting the tables turned on him. That is until the girl tricks the ‘beau’ and gets the location of what might be a graveyard. That forces Richards to finally believe Max and they trap the perp where he is setting up a perimeter during an operation.

When confronted, the creep pulls his weapon and . . . death by cops.

After having a bad outing with the previous book, I decided to choose a title from a known source and King’s Max Freeman fit like comfort food. The back and forth from the Everglades and Philadelphia, between Max and Sherry, between Max and O’Shea is what drives this series. I’m wondering if O’Shea will make more appearances in later books. He’d be a good addition. I will certainly be checking back in.

East Coast Don

Pacific Heights by Paul Harper

In Paul Harper's debut Pacific Heights a former military interrogator trained in psychological tactics preys on wealthy women he knows are in psychotherapy. He gains access to their therapist's files then uses their deepest confidences to manipulate them.

A psychotherapist, Vera List becomes aware that two of her female patients are having affairs with the same man. This man as described independently by the two women has special powers that enable him to read their private thoughts and desires. Vera becomes convinced her confidential patient files are being compromised when her two patients each report their lover using their secret thoughts cruelly against them. Instead of going to the authorities Vera hires Marten Fane, a private security specialist who she hopes can discreetly save her patients as well as her own reputation. Fane and his colleagues are all former government intelligence officers and quickly find who has accessed her files. The trail leads to Ryan Kroll, the former U.S. military interrogator. Kroll has a reputation for questionable psychological methods that he used to drive enemy prisoners to self destruction. Fane learns that Kroll is using his experimental tactics on these two women only to prove his effectiveness to a potential employer. The damage, both psychological and physical, to this targets is of no consequence to the rogue interrogator. Fane locates Kroll and attempts to deal with him privately and outside the law.

Paul Harper is a pseudonym for David Lindsey previously reviewed on this blog and one of my favorites. Why he has chosen to write under a different name is not clear. His ability to draw you into his complex suspenseful plot and make you crave the next chapter has definitely carried over to his new name. The characters are a bit hard to keep track of as several have more than one name, a necessity in the intelligence business. But since you are compelled to finish the book in one or two settings, keeping track of the characters is made easier. He also ends the book amicably for Marten Fane, the main character so more tales of his highly charged secret life are sure to follow. Bring it on, Paul or David or whoever you wish to call yourself.

The Rules of Silence by David Lindsey

Think about the kidnappers in Latin America who have been practicing and improving their trade for years, developing new and more efficient ways of extracting the wealth of their victims. What if they decided to operate in the U.S. Riskier? Yes, but the rewards would be so much greater since there is so much potential wealth to steal. That’s the theme of this book as Tano Luquin, with international terrorist ties, brings his Mexican chief of operations, Jorge Macias along as they begin devastating the life of Titus Cain, a self-made Texan business tycoon, a good guy who is beloved by his employees and friends. Luquin only wants $64 mil, which is ¼ of Cain’s wealth. To make his threat real to Cain, Luquin kills his best life-long buddy and his personal secretary. More deaths are threatened if Cain contacts the cops or FBI, but Cain quickly finds his way to Garcia Burden, a shadowy figure who has been looking for Luquin for years, who can’t believe he’s finally found a connection to him. This is one very fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down read. This was my fourth Lindsey book, and while I was disappointed in the story line in the last one, The Face of the Assassin, there was no disappointment here.

Sanctuary by Ken Bruen

If you like Irish angst, this is an author for you. Bruen's main character, Jack Taylor, is a private detective, a former cop (in Ireland, the Guards), an alcoholic, who is now a PI. He starts out this book sober, and unlike "The Devil" when he starts drinking on the first page, it takes him half the book before he picks up his first drink in Sanctuary. Bruen gives away the plot on the first page: "Two guards, one nun, one judge, and alas, one child." The murders begin, and it's Taylor's job is to stop them. As Bruen takes Taylor through the process, he continues to make wonderful literary references while extending the stories of various characters we've met before. He drops a bombshell about the earlier death of Serena May, the 4-year-old Downs kid that died when Taylor was babysitting, and drunk. This was a very fast read, all in a morning, and captivating from the outset. East Coast Don and I have reviewed more of Bruen's books than any other author, which is surely a favorable measure of the quality of his work.

American Gunfight by Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr.

I was expecting a novel when I got this book by Hunter, one of my favorite authors, so I was surprised to find this nonfiction work. Did you know there was an assassination attempted on the life of Harry Truman? It took place on 11/1/1950 and was conducted by two Puerto Rican nationalists who wanted independence for their country. At the time, the White House was being remodeled, so Truman was living across the street in Blair House. The two guys had a shoot out with Secret Service guys in front of Blair House at 2:20 p.m. One was killed, but the other survived and was captured, tried, and convicted. He was sentenced to death, but Truman converted his sentence. It was a bloody event, and it was big news in the day. It's just remarkable that, even as a student of history and especially the American Presidency, I had never heard of the event. The book itself is not a great read, especially if you're looking for an escapte novel. But it was interesting, and Hunter and Bainbridge did a good job putting the event in the perspective of the time.

Hell's Corner by David Baldacci

Maybe this one was a bit over the top. It is the fifth and last in the Camel Club series, so it was the usual cast of characters, starting with Oliver Stone, Annabelle Conroy, Alex Ford, Reuben Rhodes, and Caleb Shaw. Baldacci added some new characters over the course of the five books, and killed off some others. Stone is the master spy/assassin, now in his post-prime years. His instincts are so good that, which each new twist in the plot in this particular story, those instincts are not only surprising to the reader, but they become unfathomable. This story had too many twists to follow, and I was tired of it well before the last page. I’ve recommended the first four books in the series, but not this one. It is not clear that this book was meant to be the end to the series, so assuming that the author writes another one, we’ll see if I choose to read it. I’m disappointed. On the other hand, I’m not kicking Baldacci out of my power rotation of authors.

Divine Justice by David Baldacci

Although he never admits to having been the trigger man, this fourth book in the Camel Club series opens with Oliver Stone killing, Roger Simpson, a well-known senator from Alabama, and Carter Gray, the nation’s intelligence chief. Both men had forced Oliver Stone, aka John Carr, into hiding, 30 years before. And, they had murdered his family only because Stone wanted to quit being America’s best assassin. From the beginning of the story, Oliver is on the run and the Camel Club is trying to help even thought Oliver does not want them to risk their lives by doing so. By the fourth book, you know all the characters well, and Baldacci has done well to create interesting associates for Stone. There is a new character in this book, Joe Knox, an ace CIA tracker. It’s his boss, the maniacal Macklin Hayes, who also has a personal vendetta against Carr stemming to their time together in Vietnam. The murders of Simpson and Gray give Hayes the excuse to sic Knox on Stone and to plan Stone’s execution. Bladucci gives more back story on Stone/Carr than we’ve known before, so the real dirt between the protagonist and Hayes is told for the first time. As Stone flees into the hills of southern Virginia, he stumbles into an even bigger mess. Meanwhile, Joe Knox is tracking him down, as is the Camel Club. Probably because I already liked the characters and knew them so well, this book grabbed me immediately, within a couple pages. This series of stories is worth reading, and it is my recommendation to read them in order, so you can enjoy the character development as Baldacci intended. I’ve already acquired the 5th and last book in the series, and I’ll start that next – but I don’t want it to come to an end.