Hidden Order by Brad Thor

The Jordanians and discovered some chatter about a novel attack against the US, but are withholding data until they are confident that the US hasn't actually targeted Jordan as the next stop on the Arab Spring tour. 

The current head of the Federal Reserve has just collapsed of a heart attack. As the Fed isn't the favorite of American institutions, the governing board is considering 5 candidates from outside of the inner circle of usual suspects . . . but the nominees on the highly secret list are kidnapped on the same night, each in different cities.

And the first is found on a pile of logs on Jeckyl's Island, GA with cryptic notes and quotes from anti-central bank leaders from the Jefferson/Hamilton era, all under a crowned skull/crossbones, signed by the S.O.L., aka the Sons of Liberty. 

The CIA is aghast that Jordan might think that the US is behind the Arab Spring uprisings. But when Lydia Ryan, a former field spook whom the Jordan security chief approached, starts asking questions, she is politely told that the people/program in question was disbanded and defunded years earlier, so the CIA couldn't be responsible. Smile. Be on your way, young lady. All is right with the world. Arab Spring is a populist movement toward democracy that percolated up from the streets. Ryan's skeptical of all her superiors and approaches someone she thinks she can trust - her mentor from the CIA's training facility, The Farm, guy named McGee.

The Fed is freaked. They hire the Carleton Group to investigate, quietly. Scot Harvath and The Old Man (Reed Carleton himself) start digging. The SOL was the Revolutionary War's version of a domestic terrorist group and had quite of a history as a thorn in Britain's side. Then nominee #2 is killed up in Boston and Carleton gives Harvath five minutes to get set to fly up there and work with Boston Homicide cops (who are none too happy to have a 'fed' scrutinizing their every move).

It's obvious that the killer is a stone cold pro. The only clues about the executions are contained in the set up that resemble actions of revolutionary war era patriots. BPD and Harvath are at wits end trying to piece together a puzzle with no discernible image.

Back in DC, a hit has been ordered on Ryan, McGee, plus a retired spook who goes by WWII. The hitters are good, but Ryan and McGee are better. They even manage to catch one . . . and he talks . . . a little . . . sending them too hustling to Boston.

A random girl is killed. Should be unconnected, but a single item point to the SOL killer. Then nominee #3 dies. More scrambling by Harvath and the cops. #4 dies as the death scenes become more and more involved in the use of historic Boston landmarks.

And then the real action begins.

Anyone who needs to be told that Brad Thor is one of the preeminent thriller writers of today just isn't paying attention. His Scot Harvath character is not only the alpha male hero we schlub readers wish we knew, Thor continues to give up glimpses of the numerous chinks in Harvath's armor, which not only make Harvath more believable and sympathetic, but also allows Thor to test his storytelling chops. Told across two seemingly contrasting tales, Thor wraps it all in one terrific, if somewhat explosive, bow. A thrilling read of 375 pages that was over in the wink of an eye.

When asked about Thor, I steal a line from the old Houston Oiler's coach, Bum Phillips, talking about his running back Earl Campbell, "He might not be in a class by himself . . . but it sure don't take long to call the role."

This is a first for the guys at MRB. The good folks at Simon and Schuster sent us advance copies of Thor's new thriller - It's not available until 9 JUL. I eagerly tore open the envelope I received on Wednesday 19 JUN, thrilled to get not only a copy of the novel, but an advance copy to boot. Not an hour later, I heard the sad news of the death of Vince Flynn, another Simon and Schuster author who had been firmly entrenched at the top of my power rotation since his first book, Term Limits, was published. A thriller reader's high and low within a single hour.

East Coast Don

Death and the Maiden by Frank Tallis

This is the most recent in the series of novels about the team of Detective Oskar Reinhardt and Dr. Max Liebermann. The setting is pre-WWI Vienna and the series is somewhat like the work of Jonathan Kellerman who, in contemporary Los Angeles, also writes crime novels and pairs a child psychologist and a police detective. Published in 2012, Death and the Maiden is the fifth of the crime novel series that I’ve reported on in MRB and while this book has not been recognized with the same awards for mystery fiction as his earlier books, this one may be the best yet. Admittedly, I’m somewhat of Vienna-phile, especially for this specific era, the very end of the Hapsburg reign that lasted for 700 years. The book centers on the apparent suicide/murder of Ida Rosenkrantz, the principal soprano at the Court Opera that is run by Director Gustav Mahler. Despite her enormous talent and beauty, Ida was an insecure woman who slept with some very powerful men, including the infamous Handsome Karl Lueger, the Mayor of Vienna. Author Tallis skillfully takes us through the mystery of this murder as well as the politics in the Security Office and the Palace where Emperor Franz Joseph runs the empire but is at odds with the Mayor of his own city.

Tallis writes about the intrigues arising from the artistic personalities at the opera house, including the soprano who was displaced by Rosenkrantz's superior talent. He takes us through very believable encounters with the emperor, the mayor, and Sigmund Freud. Meanwhile, pressure is building in the city as anti-Semitism advances, an election approaches, and assassinations in Serbia are occurring. The author also carries forward from prior books with the romance of Dr. Liebermann and Amelia Lydgate. Tallis notes the awkwardness of this building relationship between a doctor and a woman who was once his patient. Nicely paralleling the primary crime, the author also takes us through the solving of an old crime, the murder of a composure that was always thought to have been a suicide.

This is an excellent story about characters that I care about. The bad news is that this appears to be the last one in the series. The good news is that I’ve discovered one that I missed, so there’s still another Tallis book in my near future. Like Tallis’ other books, this one gets my strongest recommendation.

The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall

This is the second of four books that I’ve read by Furnivall, and I think I’m done with her. I previously reviewed “The Jewel of St. Petersburg.” That was not Furnivall’s first novel, but it was written as a prequel to her epic saga, and it was a good book. It had been my intent to read books about Russia, but this first book which in time follows “Jewel” takes place in Junchow, which is presumably Shanghai. In “Jewell” Valentina escapes from the Bolsheviks with her daughter Lydia Ivanova, but in the process of their escape, the Bolsheviks murdered Valentina’s husband, Lydia’s father. Landing in Junchow, Valentina is able to support herself and her daughter in poverty conditions by occasionally playing the piano at big social events, but mostly by being a prostitute to some powerful men. She also becomes a hopeless alcoholic. Valentina and Lydia only avoid getting thrown into the streets from their hovel because little Lydia becomes an adept pickpocket. As Lydia grows into a young beauty, she scandalously falls in love with a Chinese man, Chang An Lo, who saves her from an attack on the streets. Not only is Valentina upset about her daughter’s choice of love objects, but the Chinese are appalled that one of their men is pursuing a white woman. No doubt, the prejudices were very real.

In this book, there’s a lot of information about the opium trade and the underground movement that supports and benefits from it. There’s interesting information about the famous international community of presumably Shanghai and the fortunes/misfortunes of the different nationalities there. But, mostly this was a love story of Lydia and Chang An Lo attempting to overcome impossible odds and great prejudices. As the story concludes, Lydia learns that her father was not murdered after all, but he has been imprisoned in a gulag in Siberia. That sets up the next book, “The Girl from Junchow.” But, I’m going to let that one get by me, even though it leads back to Russia. I’ve heard one of my sisters rave about this series, and the final book in the chronological sequence is “The Red Scarf” which is Furnviall’s most well known book. But, I’m over it, at least for now

The Company You Keep by Neil Gordon

The Company You Keep is a look into the lives of fictional members of a late 1960’s radical political group called the Weathermen.  The group was a spinoff of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that went from college campus to college campus protesting the Viet Nam War.  The SDS were not violent but strong emotional views in American society at the time both for and against the war created conflict that often led to violence between students and establishment, police and National Guardsmen.  The Weathermen were organized to bomb some key government targets within the U.S. hoping to give society a taste of the violence happening in Viet Nam thus encouraging an end to the war.  They tried to choose targets where no people were present.

 

In the book they robbed a bank in Ann Arbor, MI and accidently killed a guard.  Now wanted for murder, the group split, went underground and developed new identities.  Then years later in 1996, one of the members, Sharon Solarz turns herself in and the other members become vulnerable.

Jason Sinai had successfully fabricated a new life as Jim Grant.  He was a small town liberal lawyer in upstate New York, was married to a U.S. Senator’s daughter and divorced due to her drug addiction problems.  He was sole guardian to his six year old daughter, Isabelle.  Coincidently, Sharon Solarz also lived in upstate New York and when Jim Grant dodges the opportunity to be her lawyer, local newspaper reporter Ben Schulberg becomes suspicious of Grant and discovers his true identity.  Because Sinai, now Grant is so devoted to his daughter, he feels compelled to finally prove his innocence.  He goes underground again, drops his daughter in a New York hotel room for his brother to find and sets off across the country to find his old pals who could exonerate him.

He manages to reunite with old flame and partner in crime, Mimi Lurie in a reclusive cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wilderness.  Meanwhile, Ben Schulberg heads for Ann Arbor and interviews a local FBI agent, Osborne who is still stationed in Michigan after investigating the bank robbery years earlier.  Schulberg ferrets out a personal connection between Osborne and his family to Lurie and Sinai and tracks Sinai to the UP cabin as the FBI closes in.

The book is written as a series of emails written in 2006 to Isabelle from Sinai (her father), Schulberg, Lurie, and a couple other ex-Weathermen encouraging now 17 year old Isabelle to return home to her father.  Seems back in 1996, Sinai was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his part in the Michigan bank robbery decades earlier and now wants his daughter back.

After reading the book, I realized Robert Redford had done a movie of the same name based on the book…directed, produced and starred in it.  So with low expectations… the movie is never as good as the book… off I go.  Surprisingly, the movie is better than the book!  The screenplay eliminated the email format and replaced it with the traditional movie story telling layout.  The setting is in 2006 not 1996 (I suppose because no way Redford could play a 45 year old) but the quick pace required by the movie genre built a suspense not as prevalent in the book.  Yet the whole family loyalty vs political ideology theme rings through loud and clear.

The Company You Keep (book and movie) was a great flashback of what life was like in the Viet Nam era. It was very confusing times for a teenager raised in a conservative family observing radical hippie types boldly protesting a questionable war.  Meanwhile troubled young men I knew returned from Viet Nam and others I knew were reluctantly drafted… never knowing when or if it would be my turn.  So, I recommend you read the book but the movie is a must see… great nostalgia for baby-boomers and great historical fiction for the next generation.  It’s still a bit of a stretch for Redford to play a 55 year old but good entertainment nonetheless.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Changez, a Pakistani, and Bobby, an American journalist are sitting at a cafe in Lahore, Pakistan. Changez is treating Bobby to a traditional dining experience of many courses and flavors, tea, dessert, and conversation. It's 2011.

Bobby learns that Changez was such an exceptional student in Lahore that he applied for and won financial aid to attend Princeton where he continued to excel, especially in finance. Upon graduation, Changez was selected by Underwood Samson, a Wall Street firm that values companies being considered for purchase or takeover. In the summer of his graduation year, 2000, he moves to NYC, but not before taking a deserved vacation trip to Greece with a group of fellow Princeton grads. He finds a friend in Erica, one of those trust fund babies that dot the Hamptons. 

Underwood is a high stakes firm. They hire only the best and expect the best out of their new associates. Changez proves his worth by outthinking and outworking his rookie partners and impresses his bosses. He is amply rewarded, loves living and working in Manhattan. He spends more on coffee in a month then his parents spend on food for the entire family for 6 months. Life is good for a smart, ambitious Pakistani who has become quite taken with the direction his life is taking in America. And over that next year, he learns much more about Erica, wanting to get closer to this woman whose past keeps her interested and interesting, but nonetheless distant.

An assignment takes a group of Underwood analysts to the Philippines. The job goes well. Changez continues to impress the bosses. They are all preparing to return to New York. It is Sept 11.  In his hotel room, Changez watches the Towers crumble . . . and to his continuing dismay, he smiles.

Upon arrival at JFK, and despite the protests of the Underwood brass, Changez is subjected to humiliating questioning and repeated searches. People on the street practically scream derogatory epithets. "I may be Muslim, but I am not an Arab." And Erica is pulling farther away.

In the post 9/11 world, tensions between Pakistan and India are rising. Changez goes home for a holiday in late December. He can't resolve his guilt about his reaction to seeing the Towers fall, his anger at ignorant Americans who taunt him, and being of prime age to serve his country if hostilities with India explode yet living in NYC still earning the big bucks. And now he hardly hears from Erica.

Upon returning to New York, and more unwarranted hassles at JFK and the city streets, he starts to withdraw from everything and everyone. His work suffers. He is given a chance to redeem himself with an assignment in Chile, which he manages to also fail to live up to his past performances. He gets fired and returns to Lahore where after a few years in a funk, he lands a job as a university lecturer in finance. He agrees to meet Bobby for dinner to give background for Bobby's assignment. Then Changez politely walks him back to Bobby's hotel.

That's it.

This is one hugely fascinating book. Not just the story, but also in it's presentation. It is told entirely as a 1-sided conversation. The reader sees/hears only what Changez says. Not what he thinks, just what he says. No other character says a single word. The entire duration of the book is dinner. The only descriptions of the area, the dinner, people, are what Changez says out loud. It's sort of like reading a transcript of a phone call where we only experience one side of the conversation. Hamid offers a clue or two, but we never really know what happened to Erica after that trip to Greece. Nor do we know who Bobby really is and why he is in Lahore. Is Changez really just background, is he Bobby's subject, or is he Bobby's target? We don't know. Bobby could be who he says he is or he could be something entirely different and more sinister. Hamid never tells the reader. Instead Hamid lets each reader dream up an ending that is most apropos to each reader's view of the story, the time, and their personal history/prejudices. And Hamid pulls this off in masterful fashion.

Another thing that makes this fascinating is that the book could probably be read in the length of time it takes for Changez to deliver his monologue to Bobby over dinner. This 6x9" book with generous margins is only 184 pages. That's 184 pages packed with questions, intrigue, and unknowns.

When I went looking for a cover image, I learned that this is a current movie in limited, independent release. And that day I also found out it was here in Raleigh in its last night, and it was 950pm with the last show at 1005p in a theater about 30 minutes away. Had I learned that bit of information earlier in the evening, I would have made tracks for the theater, but now will have to wait to see if it hits the 2nd run theaters, go the Netflix route, or buy the DVD, which I may well do. My son mentioned the movie to me a week or so ago, but the title didn't click as I had not yet picked up the book. While the trailers look very interesting, this is one of those books (like Schindler's List) where the real genius will be with the screenwriter(s) who take such a unique presentation and turn it into movie.

East Coast Don

Cloudburst by Ryne Douglas Pearson

The day starts innocently enough. A high level policy meeting between the President, British PM, US National Security Advisor and assorted other gov't security specialists in LA. Until 2 Libyan terrorists open fire on the hotel's front door as all are leaving, killing a bucketload of Brit and US politicos before killing themselves. 

Shortly thereafter, a US 747 leaving Athens is hijacked and forced to land in Libya where it takes on some seriously heavy containers and takes off again. By landing in Libya, the plan has escalated because their government allowed the plane to land and take on cargo. The plane flies to the Azores, refuels, and takes off again.

The original plan was to fly the plane to Chicago, but the 747 has undergone so many insults that it is having problems even staying in the air. 

Back in the US, with its new security heads and President are trying figure out who is behind these 2 attacks and how to deal with them. The FBI in LA is piecing little clues together to figure out how the shooters got into the building (must've had help). At Ft. Bragg, a Delta squad is tasked with trying to take down the on-board terrorists. In Louisiana, a National Guard pilot has been given an assignment no one wants. And the newly sworn in President juggles issues within the FBI, CIA, Army, Libyan military, AEC, and now Cuba.

They figure out that the cargo is nuclear and deduce that the Cuba to Chicago flight is a ruse and they will take the 747 over DC during the funeral for the murdered President and detonate over hundreds of state heads and tens of thousands of mourners.

It's up to Delta, their plan, getting aboard, taking the terrorists down, deactivating the device and get the plane on the ground before . . . you know. Just another day at the Delta office.

Pure and simple. I thought this story rocked. Started off with a bang and kept up the pace and tension right to the end. This really is a Men Reading Books prime time player. Pearson jumps all over the world as various law enforcement, military, and political levels try and figure out what's likely to happen next. The first two-thirds of the book sped right along very nicely and the final one-third flat out leaves the reader almost breathless. This is political thriller at its best.

And it's less about extremist Islam and more about avenging the death of the little sister of 3 brothers.

If you start reading it, you won't regret that decision. I really couldn't put this book down.

East Coast Don