You Know What's Going On by Olen Steinhauer

A first for me - a 'single' as defined by Kindle. A bit too long for a short story, but well short of a full-fledged novel. I doubt many are going to run out and spend the $0.99 at Amazon for this short story, so I'll reveal all. This review, too, shall be short.

4 players: Paul, Sam, Nabil, Benjamin - 2 CIA agents, a Somali, and a Kenyan policeman, plus a fat Kenyan politician.

A CIA agent is trying to buy information from a Somali who is a member of the new splinter group Aslim Taslam. The deal is struck in Rome. The money and information is to be exchanged in Nairobi. Simple enough. Sam asks Paul, a fellow agent, to act as a banker to facilitate the transfer of money in Nairobi. Two colleagues, Said and Lorenzo, are beheaded in Rome.   That fat politician, loyal only to money ("No one ever pays enough.") attends to broker the exchange between Paul (as banker) and Nabil (as terrorist/recipient). The transfer goes south when only Sam's hand is delivered to complete the fingerprint ID necessary to complete the exchange. Paul flips out, is killed, then the house explodes.

This story, read over breakfast on a Sunday morning, is essentially the same tale told from the perspective of each of the 4 main players. And with each 'chapter', we learn a little more. Paul panicked during a surveillance op that resulted in the execution of Said and Lorenzo. Those two were killed by Nabil as a test ordered by an Iman to see just how far Nabil would go in the name of jihad. Said was Sam's lover, so Sam cooks up a scheme to avenge Said's death and in so doing probably get himself killed. Sam hires Benjamin to fix the 'bank' computer with a bomb. Sam is captured in Nairobi, the fat politician kills Sam, cuts off Sam's hands, forces Paul to start the transfer process, does the fingerprint ID, and the house goes up in a massive explosion.

See? Even a 'single' can have a layered plot typical of that which Steinhauer is deservedly known for. A welcome tease as we await his upcoming novel that can not come too soon. Honestly, I don't know what modern author is telling classic espionage tales as well as Steinhauer.

East Coast Don

Power Play by Patrick Robinson

Isn't there some old adage about not poking a sleeping bear?

It's 2018. Two years earlier, Israel bombed the Iranian nuclear program into dust partly because the vaunted Russian SAM defense system had been rendered ineffective because of some very high tech help from the US. This led to dozens of nations canceling contracts with Russia for a system the world knew could be beaten.

Now, the Russian President (a throwback to the Cold War hawks of old) is out to rectify that wrong. They've come up with a plan to strike back at the US with a surprise surgical nuclear strike (an oxymoron?) to the center of the American intelligence gathering industry. No, not the CIA. Try the NSA. But that's not all. A strike like that would result in near immediate retaliation by the Americans, so the Russians have also worked out a plan to jam the communication network that begins with the little briefcase that accompanies the President everywhere he goes - the nuclear football. If a strike can't be ordered by the US President, the Russians could then feign ignorance and try to shift the blame to terror groups. So the Russians need to plan . . .the actual detonation, missile accuracy, test the old SOSUS detection system in the Atlantic, how and where to transport the missiles/warheads/jamming device, disguise the ship, the crew. When successful, Russia will ascend to its rightful place as THE superpower.

A rising star in the Russian naval hierarchy thinks the political and military commanders are taking Russia down a path that doesn't end well. Essentially, he walks into the Israeli embassy and offers to supply information. After vetting his sincerity and veracity, the Israelis accept his information. His handler puts together the covert intel with what Israel learns and determines that the Russians are preparing to launch an attach on US soil and alerts his long-time friend, Navy SEAL team 10 commander Mack Bedford.

Mack massages the information and takes it to the US Navy CO at the Pentagon who's job it is to sell the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. These 3 put together their own plan. First, they need to set up a presence in the northeast Atlantic because the UK's welfare state has practically bankrupted the country to the point where its historic command of the seas has become a joke. Second, a plan must be devised to intercept the transport on the high seas, board it, grab the warheads and sink the ship with such cunning and surprise that Moscow has no clue of what happened.

The plans by the US are creative and (up to one point) entirely plausible - at least to the reader (have to ask a real SEAL if it's realistic). And while this book is largely about spycraft inside Russia and a lot of clandestine meetings within the US, the actual takedown, while hardly anti-climatic, unfolds without a hitch. Of course, everything goes exactly as planned is a tribute to the planning, training, and execution of the SEAL team. And if I had a complaint about Robinson's books it's that the final battle always seems to go just like they drew it up when most every other book in this genre will say that all plans become fluid in the first flush of battle.

My history with Robinson goes back to his earliest books (Nimitz Class, Kilo Class, et al. and it you want to give Robinson a go, Kilo Class is where I'd suggest starting) and have read all of his fictional political thrillers. Each book features the US Navy and, in most cases, the SEALs. His work has been compared to Clancy's techno-thrillers, but why were Clancy's books so widely praised and Robinson's work has yet to achieve the same notoriety? Got me. I've read all of Clancy's fictional thrillers and this story could easily have come from Clancy, Inc. But the big difference is that had Clancy done this story, it would've been 400 pages longer and 100+ more speaking parts while Robinson's treatment is very direct, taut, and streamlined. I've seen Robinson described as a guy's summer beach read thriller. If I was one to sit on a beach and read for hours on end, then I'd agree. But I'm not and instead read it over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Robinson was once in my power rotation based on his earliest books and then drifted a bit southerly in my rotation, but another killer book like this and he'll climbed right back.

East Coast Don

Deep Rough: A Thriller in Augusta

Deep Rough: A Thriller in Augusta is a fun, quick read – certainly not serious literature, but it is decent entertainment, at least that’s true if you’re a golfer. East Coast Don recommended this book specifically for me, saying that since I am a golfer and I love the Masters, that this murder mystery book was a sure bet for me. This is a debut novel by Chris Blewitt. Craig Waltrip, an associate in a Philadelphia sports agency discovered that his boss, who was the owner of the company and the agent for the hottest golfer in the world but one who had yet to win a major, had a devious plan to keep him from winning this year’s Masters where he was the odds on favorite to win. Why would the boss do that? There’s big money at stake, the survival of the sports agency, and the integrity of the Masters So, a murder mystery and the Masters – nice combination for me. The book itself is average. There were undeveloped characters that I didn’t care about with improbable plot developments. The best part was the shot-by-shot action in the final round of the tournament which made me think the author probably has played a round or two of golf in his day. One reviewer wrote that if you’re a golfer with a Kindle, this is a good, cheap download. Otherwise, you just might let this one get by you.

The Long Fall by Lynn Kostoff

Jimmy Coates is fresh out of a 2-year stay at the Perryville Correctional Facility in Arizona for trying to sell some black market Saguaro cacti. Once out, he latches up with some old friends who give him a sure-fire tip on the upcoming Lakers-Suns playoff game. He gets some change from a shark, bets it all and loses. Now the shark has to be paid.

Jimmy’s dad willed him 20 acres of prime development land, but his brother Richard, doing his best tough love act, puts the inheritance on hold until Jimmy straightens out his life. So Jimmy needs to find some cash from elsewhere. 

Richard’s got his own problems. He owns a string of successful dry cleaners that have just been hit with a rash of robberies. Richard wants to start a family but Evelyn, his wife, isn’t interested. She wants some adventure, so she goes to Jimmy wanting him to teach her how to commit a felony, for the rush.

Jimmy’s told of a guy who wants to press an insurance scam on crappy basketball shoe knock offs. So she and Jimmy break in, steal the shoes, and pawn them off on a local Paiute reservation. She’s thrilled, beds Jimmy, then goes home.

And that’s about where I lost interest. This was touted as part Carl Hiassen and part Elmore Leonard and might have been, but having just finished Cogan’s Trade and it’s top of the mountain dialogue, this just never clicked for me and probably any number of books would’ve lost my interest after that Higgins book.

Then, as I was losing interest, the library notified me that the latest release by one of my favs was ready for pick up. That sealed the deal. Bye-Bye Jimmy Coates. Hello, Mack Bedford, the US Navy, their SEALs, and angry Russians out to flex their muscles. Check back soon.

East Coast Don

The Racketeer

The latest John Grisham book, “The Racketeer,” is an entertaining read. Malcolm Bannister is a disbarred attorney who is in prison after getting convicted in a money laundering scheme. He says he was not guilty. In prison, he quickly got a reputation as a good “jailhouse lawyer,” literally. He had some success getting some sentences of some of his buddies reduced, and he now has a scheme to get his own 10-year sentence reduced. A federal judge has been murdered, and Malcolm claims to know the killer, and the feds really want to solve this crime. That’s all you need to know. In the midst of main story line, Grisham takes off on a tangent without explaining why he’s going there, and it takes a while for him to bring it back to the main plot, but in the end, it all makes sense. Grisham does not speak fondly of the Federal Prison System and the people who run it. He thought the prosecutors were much more interested in getting convictions for their own records rather than seeking the truth of any particular situation, often by preying on the defenseless. By reading this, you’ll get a new view of prison life and more info about the federal witness protection program. As usual, he adds in great subplots. This is a good book, and it gets my recommendation. Amazon readers gave it 4/5, and that’s about right.

Cogan’s Trade (aka Killing Them Softly) by George V. Higgins

Had I followed the sage advice of MRB friend Charlie Stella, I would have read this a couple years ago when he suggested that the wise consumer of crime fiction should (must) read George V. Higgins’ first 3 novel (Friends of Eddie Coyle, Cogan’s Trade and The Digger’s Game). I read Coyle, but never got to the other two. Now with the movie version coming out as Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt (and the trailers looking pretty good; a Cannes selection), I decided to read this 1974 copyright in advance of seeing the movie.

Simple plot: Mob protected poker game in Boston gets robbed by a coupl’a kids and the guys, the guys that vouch for the game want to their guy to do somethin’ about these guys who did that thing to the game. Guy who runs the game actually did the same thing coupl’a years ago, so this guy is the prime suspect. Mob enforcer Cogan rolls in, asks questions, gets a coupl’a other guys to ‘talk’ to the guy who ran the game. Before long, bing, bing, bing. Problem solved.

What makes this interesting is less the plot and more the interaction amongst all the different guys who do this thing or that thing. While I’m not so OCD that I counted this up, but I would put money down that over 90% of the lines in this book are dialogue. Street tough, Boston-based, coercive exchanges about whether this guy can be trusted, or that guy who steals dogs to transport and sell in Florida, or getting laid, or what this guy likes, that guy drinks, other guy drives, another guy eats or sleeps or the 20 page chapters of 2 guys talking at a bar. This could easily be a play that takes place in 4 or 5 scenes, coupl’a bars, coupl’a cars, a parking lot, the poker game. Some of the more 1-sided conversations (that's code for one guy trying to intimidate and scare another guy) are single paragraphs that go for a couple pages. Higgins has (make that had) an amazing ear for the dialect of the era, much like Stella and Pelacanos have today. 

Now I’m not too bright. Unless I know ahead of time that a book is going to be funny, I frequently miss grasping the humor on the written page. This book is darkly funny. We are eavesdropping in on the mob culture of the day, wiping their angry spit off our shoulders, smelling this guy cooped up with a dozen dogs in a car to Florida, smelling the stale beer another guy is bitching about. I could go on and on.

Just be prepared, this isn’t like most mysteries. The dialogue is tough to get through because folks like the MRB boys didn’t grow up with this dialect. But give it time. It really is worth your effort. (p.s. apparently, the story has been update to current day for the movie. It'll be interesting to see how Hollywood treats this book and how loyal they will be to the real meat and potatoes of the story - the verbal exchanges). 

And before you say ‘You shouldn’t’ve turned a deaf ear to me,’ Sig. Stella, I’ve ordered The Digger’s Game from the library.

East Coast Don

Line of Fire by Stephen White

Stephen White was in my power rotation long before I knew the term ‘power rotation.’  But somewhere along the line his tales became tired. He seemed to be trying too hard to create new adventures for his Boulder, CO based main characters clinical psychologist, Dr. Alan Gregory, and police detective, Sam Purdy…a formula gone stale.  Then like an NBA star in the last two minutes of the Championship Game, White comes through to score with his most provocative Gregory/ Purdy based thriller yet, Line of Fire.

Alan Gregory has practiced clinical psychology for years and lives with his Assistant DA wife, Lauren in a secluded scenic setting on the outskirts of Boulder.  They have a young daughter and have adopted a preteen boy who was the son of their neighbor killed in an accident while traveling in Israel.  Sam Purdy, a Boulder County detective is Alan’s best friend.  Alan has shared both professional and personal crisis with Sam and they share one profoundly dangerous secret.  In a previous story, Sam had murdered a woman in the adjacent county that was threatening to harm Sam’s and Alan’s families then staged the death scene to look like a suicide.  Though they rarely discuss the event, they are each constantly rationalizing the woman’s death and live in fear that new evidence will be discovered to implicate Sam’s involvement and Alan’s knowledge and subsequent cover up of the crime.

Line of Fire opens with Sam asking Alan to help identify a hospital patient who is in a coma in ICU.  They inadvertently discuss their shared secret in the presence of the comatose patient.  The man had suffered injuries from an automobile accident while evacuating ahead of a deadly home destroying forest fire.  The police find illegal drugs in his wrecked car and the DA is contemplating charges pending his recovery.  Unable to identify the ‘John Doe’ patient in a coma, Alan and Sam begin referring to him as Comadose.

Lauren rarely discusses her legal cases with Alan but one day begins sharing information about a cold case in the next county concerning a woman’s supposed suicide.  She consults his professional opinion about the victim’s apparent state of mind given the evidence at the crime scene and reveals that a new witness has come forward.

Meanwhile, Alan’s longtime office partner and friend, Diane is overwrought by the wild fires nearing her home but this is just one trauma in a long string of unfortunate events that has plagued her in recent years. On the verge of emotional breakdown, her professional, marital and personal relationships are all in jeopardy.

The next week a new patient, Amanda makes an appointment with Alan.  Amanda says she is seeking treatment to help her friend who is contemplating suicide.  In a therapy session Amanda reveals her psychological needs are much more self-centered.  Her psychological problems date back to a sexual relationship with her dying older brother when she was 15.  Her so called suicidal friend is actually her employer and she is employed as his concubine.  After several sessions Alan realizes Amanda’s employer is actually Diane’s husband.

Comadose comes out of his coma, recovers from his injuries, and is released from the hospital.  The police are further investigating his case but have not yet arrested him.  He has two prior convictions and can’t afford a third.  Comadose approaches Alan and reveals that he overheard Alan and Sam talking about their illegal involvement in the staged suicide in the next county.  Comadose is looking to blackmail Sam into getting his drug possession charges dropped.  Any hope of Sam and Alan avoiding the consequences of their moral lapse seem to be evaporating.  Everything and everyone dear to Alan seems in jeopardy yet even with all his training he is ill prepared for what happens next.

Line of Fire is Stephen White at his best.  The psychological sparring, the complex relationships between the main characters and the interconnection of various storylines tied together efficiently in the end are what makes the Alan Gregory series a hit.  Line of Fire accomplishes all this and more.  The author even throws in his annoying ‘I love Boulder’ details in ways that only add to the plot.  White has announced he will write one last book in the series putting his well worn fictitious figures to rest.  It’s time for the series to end but if the last installment is anything like Line of Fire, I can hardly wait.

The Thieves of Legend

This is the first of Doetsch’s books reviewed in the blog, his eighth novel and the four in his “Thieves” series about Michael St. Pierre. No doubt that this is an action-packed thriller, literally starting from the first page. From that perspective, it was entertaining. Maybe it’s because I jumped into the fourth book rather than working my way through the “Thieves” series in order, but the action seemed to get so far ahead of the character development that I found the various characters to be caricatures rather than persons that I could care about. The hyper action and frequent alliance-shifting made it hard for this reader to suspend reality testing enough to believe or get excited and worried about what was happening. At times, the novel felt like an early Clive Cussler novel, but on steroids – hypertrophied, too much. I nearly abandoned the book 70 pages from the end, but I kept going until I had finished reading the ridiculous melodramatic ending.  

Pierced by Thomas Enger

Crime journalist Henning Juul is damaged goods. A couple years ago, a fire in his flat killed his young son and Juul still struggles each day. And his former wife lives with one of his co-workers at the online newspaper 123News.no Life in Oslo generally sucks.

Tori Pulli is a former enforcer for some organized crime in Norway, but managed to escape his past to become a real estate developer and marry a hot chick who owns a modeling agency. But a friend was killed. In the past, Tori might just square things on his own, but now he attempts to intercede in between warring parties who frequent the Fighting Fit gym. Tori agrees to meet one side of the argument only to find him beaten to death. He calls the cops who promptly arrest Tori because of incriminating evidence. A conviction. Prison.

A phone call. Tori calls Juul and claims innocence. But with a twist. Help Juul prove his innocence and information about the night Juul’s son was killed in the fire will be forthcoming.

Pulli’s appeal is coming up and the media is all over it. But at the start of a TV interview, Pulli convulses and dies right there in front of the news anchor setting up for the interview. The cameraman, a respected pro who has seen the seedy side of the world, just vanishes. A guy from the gym gets shot dead. And that fingerprint on the armrest of the cameraman’s car. A cabin in the woods. The cute girl working in a forgotten hotel out in the boonies.

Juul, Iver (the guy living with Juul’s ex-wife), a couple cops who act as sources for Juul’s work, Pulli’s widow, and lord knows how many more are trying to piece together occurrences that even the police don’t think are related.

This was the first book sent by our new best friend at Simon and Schuster. Now I will admit that I am not one of ‘those’ readers who faithfully carry around the book that ‘everyone is reading.’  Didn’t do it for The Firm, Presumed Innocent, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Hunger Games, et al. As this is the English translation of a Scandinavian author, I immediately thought, “a Dragon Tattoo” knock off.

Couldn’t have been more wrong. Only thing in common here is the Nordic location.  This is a taut and suspenseful mystery full of scarred characters that probably could only have simmered up out of a region where dark, flawed, self-repentant people are rumored to inhabit. Once I got past the names, and trying to keep straight just who was who, Enger brought me back to Olso (been there twice) and had me rooting for Juul to fit the pieces of the puzzle together (especially those linked to the missing cameraman), despite all the creeps who hang out at the gym, and finally find out just what really happened the night his son died.  Enger’s first novel is called Burned and his third, not yet released in the US, is Scarred; all appear to involve Henning Juul’s search for the truth about . . . that night. Now if I can just find the other two.

ECD