The Double by George Pelecanos

Quick reminder of Pelecanos’ current continuing character: Spero Lucas is one of 3 black children adopted by Greek parents. After high school, Spero joined the Marines and did a tour in Fallujah where he came out physically fine, but his family worries about emotional wounds. Now, he is an “investigator” for a Washington, DC defense lawyer and also freelances finding items of value for a hefty fee.

Three concurrent gigs here:

First, Spero’s lawyer/boss knows he can’t get his current client off a murder charge, but wants Spero to look into the case to see if there is a crack in the evidence, maybe get a reduced sentence. To mull over his next steps, he bikes to a favorite bar where a chance meeting gets the phone number of one muy hot (and married) lobbyist. Second, the bartender has a friend who got taken by a gigilo who snatched a very expensive painting of hers that she desperately wants back and thought Spero was the kind of guy who could find it. Third, Spero’s brother Leo is a high school teacher and can’t believe that Metro PD has struck out on the murder of a former student.

A call a couple days later puts Spero and the lobbyist squarely between the sheets in a pricey boutique hotel. She and Spero become friends with benefits.

Case 1: Spero learns that the victim of the lawyer’s client had some skeletons and her history with a former boyfriend puts doubt in the jury’s mind.

Case 2: A team of 3 scumbags took the painting titled The Double. Billy ‘Hunter’ seduced the lady and his buddies burgled the house and prepare to fence the painting. They also run one of those Nigerian Internet scams and it’s this that Spero uses to track them down.

Case 3: The cellmate of Case #1 says another inmate bragged about killing a high school girl. During an interview at the jail, Spero’s cellmate gives him the details needed to track down the perp.

In and around all three jobs, Spero and the lobbyist continue to boink each other.

Pelecanos brings all three stories to their own righteous conclusion. Just how is what makes his books so damn readable and keep him firmly in the top 2 or 3 in my power rotation along with McCammon and Stella. Spero is, of course, a flawed hero. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong, but it’s somewhat situation dependent. On one hand, he is bound and determined to do right by the defendant, get back the stolen goods, and flesh out a murderer. But at the same time he has no problem contributing to the demise of a marriage and a family. And, based on his military history and the stories about souls tortured by the war, his family tries and tries to get him to seek help. So, stay tuned for Pelecano’s next superb journey into the mind of Spero Lucas.  Damn, another year-long wait.

East Coast Don

Sycamore Row by John Grisham

John Grisham is the master of courtroom drama, and in his latest crime novel, Sycamore Row, he proves that once again. This is the sequel to A Time to Kill, a fabulous story of racism and violence that took place in the mid 1980s in Mississippi. Unlike A Time to Kill, which starts with a brutal pedophilic murder, this story starts with the simple suicide of Seth Hubbard, a wildly successful but secretive entrepreneur who is in the final days of his struggle with metastatic lung cancer. Seth decides to leave his millions to his black housekeeper rather than his two ex-wives, two children, and four grandchildren. He leaves a handwritten will which he knows will be contested by the family, and he posthumously hires attorney Jake Brigance to make sure his wishes are followed.

A Time to Kill was made into a very successful 1996 movie with Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance, Ashley Judd as his wife, Sandra Bullock as the young paralegal, Samuel Jackson as the murder defendant Carl Lee Hailey, Kevin Spacey as the prosecuting DA Rufus Buckley, Oliver Platt as the conniving Harry Rex Vonner, and Donald Sutherland as the brilliant but disbarred and drunken Lucien Wilbanks. How much fun it is to see all of these wonderful characters come back to life in a new, equally compelling drama.

Jake had never met Seth, but Seth wrote that he chose Jake for his attorney because he was so impressed with Jake’s handling of the Carl Lee Hailey trial. I would not have thought that a contested will could provide so much drama, but as Grisham fleshes out the characters, he creates just that. I did not put this book down until it was finished, thereby ignoring a few tasks that really needed my attention. As Grisham does with his other novels, this story makes lawyers look both good and bad, both honest and money-grubbing. Grisham artfully reviews the troubled history of Mississippi and its long history of racial turmoil. Even though I saw the details of the ending coming long before Grisham got to the dramatic conclusion, the story held me in its grips. This is an A+ read which you’ll enjoy.

Compound Fracture by Stephen White

Compound Fractures is Stephen White’s final book in a series that has spanned decades. Lead characters, the intellectual, reserved and physically fit psychologist, Dr. Alan Gregory and the overweight, red neck, hockey loving, Boulder police detective, Sam Purdy are unlikely best friends throughout.  In this final work in the saga, that relationship as well as nearly every close relationship in Alan’s life is scrutinized… real or fake, loyal or betrayed?

In White’s previous book, Line of Fire, Alan witnesses his wife, Lauren being murdered by his dear friend and colleague, Dr. Diane Estevez.  In the months that follow Alan’s world unravels.  Now he must grieve the loss of his wife, ponder the complexities of why his colleague did this, and defend himself from the DA’s unwarranted suspicions.  Even though Alan witnessed his colleague shooting his wife, Diane is not arrested.  Alan suspects Diane’s politically powerful husband, Raoul is spending some political capital to avoid her incarceration. Meanwhile, Alan has a patient that is ‘working’ her way through college by acting as mistress to wealthy clients.  He discovers her most regular client is Raoul.  Professional ethics prevent him from sharing this with authorities.

Elliot Bellhaven, the Boulder District Attorney and Lauren’s former colleague has ambitions for higher public office.  Paranoia envelops Alan when he discovers Elliot is investigating him. Is he after Alan for Lauren’s murder or for Alan’s involvement in a murder his friend, Sam committed in another county some years earlier?  Can Sam be trusted?  Is he the one behind Elliot’s inquiry of Alan?  Or is Elliot threatened by an old crime Sam is investigating that may implicate Elliot?

   

In the midst of all this, Alan learns that Lauren had not been totally faithful to him.  Ironically, the extraordinary psychologist is himself in need of the healing he has administered for decades.  He finds himself on the brink of emotional collapse not knowing who he can trust or if anyone is truly trust worthy.

And so we say farewell to Dr. Alan Gregory and Sam Purdy who had become Stephen White’s life-long venture.  I’ve read and enjoyed every one of his books going back to the 1980’s.  Interestingly, one of my blogger buddies, West Coast Don has recently dipped his toe in the water of one of White’s earlier works.  This is truly the best way to experience White’s talent.  Buckle in and enjoy a deeply satisfying ride.

Truth in Advertising by John Kenney

Fin Dolan is a cliche. He's coming up on 40, writes copy for an a Manhattan ad agency in Manhattan, is close to a year after bailing on his fiance. He tolerates his job, most of his boring co-workers (except the younger Phoebe who is his lifeline to sanity), hasn't spoken to his 2 brothers and his sister in nigh on 20 years - family issues that make Ordinary People seem like a sitcom. 

Obviously, this isn't typical MRB fare. This isn't about an alpha-male dripping with testosterone. This is about impending middle aged angst. 

Did I spell that right?

Fin's main account is a company that makes diapers. When the story is about the ad biz, Kenney's biting satire oozes of the page (or the screen for the Kindle-inclined). And that I liked. When the story drifts to Fin's childhood, siblings, mom and dad, it seemed to me to be a tedious Lifetime movie. In fact, most of Fin's rambling thoughts on what he is experiencing get translated into how he'd tell this snippet of his story in a commercial or a movie. Or making wise cracks like, "God must've been bored with his humans. That's why he made alcohol."

I get it that books have a target audience, which I am definitely not. Had I not been waiting for the new Pelecanos or Bruen to hit the library, I doubt I'd have given this a 2nd thought. It filled the down time, just not with a lot of substance.

East Coast Don

Privileged Information by Stephen White

I’m on a streak of finding well-seasoned prolific authors that I have not known about, and thanks goes to friend Mark Rogers for this excellent psychological thriller/crime novel. Stephen White has written 20 novels and this is the first of the Alan Gregory series, a clinical psychologist. There are lots of similarities in this novel to the work of Jonathan Kellerman, a comparison which is a favorable one for me. As a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, I found Privileged Information to be better than most such novels which, among other things, explore the sexual boundaries of doctors and patients. Although Gregory is accused of doing so, in this story, the doctor does not sleep with his patients. Rather, White works a clear understanding of transference into the story and explains how that plays out with his patients and their fantasies. How does a doctor deal with false charges while still honoring a patient’s right to confidentiality? Of course, death does not change a patient’s right to confidentiality.

The book starts with Gregory being informed by a police detective of the apparent suicide of one of his patients, a death which greatly surprises him. Then, more of his patients die, and he struggles to understand the connections between those events. The character development and the unfolding of the plot are very well done. This is an old book, written in 1991, and since it is the first of the series, I guessing that I have lots of good stories to look forward to. I literally did not put this one down, finished it in less than a day. I’ll immediately acquire another one of his books and put it in the "to be read" stack.

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny

Louise Penny has written nine books in the Chief Inspector Gamache series, and How the Light Gets In is her latest, written in 2013. This is the first time she has been reviewed in Men Reading Books, but it won’t be the last. I was so taken by the quality of Penny’s writing, as well as her character and plot development, that I’ll be right back to her soon. I’ve already downloaded the first book in this series, Still Live, and I plan to read them in sequence. If the next book is as good as How the Light Gets In, Ms. Penny will immediately move into my “power rotation” of authors. From my quick Google research, it is clear that this author is well known, very successful, and has won many awards. Thanks to Marilyn Canepa for introducing me to Louise Penny.

The protagonist is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, the police force for the province. There are two very interesting plot lines, one having to do with the death of a secretive woman, the friend of one of the Inspector’s friends who lives in Three Pines, an idyllic village just outside of Montreal. The second plot has to do with the rapid deterioration of Gamache’s department. His personally trained and successful investigators have nearly all been transferred out of the department and replaced by rookies who are obviously loyal to the Inspector’s boss, the corrupt Chief Superintendent Francoeur. To Gamache, the most worrisome defection came by Jean-Guy Beauvoir, the man who was being groomed to take over his position and his former son-in-law.

In the course of the book, Penny introduced the reader to each of the characters in Tree Pines, and the many characters in the Sûreté. Take my word for the fact that the characters come alive with depth and their interaction with one another is believable, and sometimes comical. Penny’s sense of humor is unmistakable in the dialogue. But, beyond the sometimes comedic interaction of the characters, Penny also provides depth to the experience of the characters. For example, as her lead character struggles to learn about the corruption in his department, she writes, “Armand Gamache had always held unfashionable beliefs. He believed that light would banish the shadows. That kindness was more powerful than cruelty, and that goodness existed, even in the most desperate places. He believed that evil had its limits. But looking at the young men and women starting at him now, who’d seen something terrible about to happen and had done nothing, Chief Inspector Gamache wondered if he could have been wrong all this time. Maybe the darkness sometimes won. Maybe evil had no limits.”

This book gets my ultimate 5-star A+ recommendation. If you like crime novels, read this one next.

The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn-Beer with Susan Dworkin

This story is off-genre for MRB. It’s a crime novel only in the sense that it takes place during one of the greatest crimes against humanity, the holocaust. I typically avoid reading anything to do with the holocaust because I’ve already read enough about it and I don’t need to be reminded about horrors of it. But, the three women in my family have already read this one, and they raved about it, and after five consecutive crime novels, I was ready for a change. It was a 1999 autobiography about one Jewish woman’s survival of the war despite living in Vienna which was the worst place a Jew could have been. The book was made into a 2003 mini-series, starring Julia Ormond with Susan Sarandon as the narrator.

Edith Hahn-Beer, who could pass for an Aryan, described the details of her life, which, as the title suggests, incredibly led to her marrying and having a child with a Nazi officer. The story was boldly and intimately revealing. The author did a great job laying the groundwork for Hahn’s decision to marry, and she only met her Nazi husband halfway into the book. Even though she confessed her true identity prior to the marriage, he was so smitten with her that he still went through with the marriage, even knowing that if the truth was discovered, that they both would be murdered. The book gives an inside look at life during the war, what the characters knew, thought, and feared as the war continued and spiraled downward from a German perspective. This was not just a book which reviewed the usual list of atrocities. It was up close and personal. If you can use the word “beautiful” in regard to anything about the Nazis, then it’s fair to say that this book was beautifully written. It was well worth the time I spent with it, and I give it a strong recommendation.

MISTRESS by James Patterson with David Ellis

MISTRESS by James Patterson with David Ellis is one of those collaborations between a well-known author (Patterson) and an up and comer (Ellis).  The main character, Ben Casper is a geeky 20 something who owns an online newspaper in Washington, D.C.  His ADHD like mind jumps from one thought to another and tends to focus on Presidential trivia when he is most excited.  Since it’s written in first person, present tense that can be both entertaining and annoying.

Ben has a thing for his woman friend Diana Hotchkiss until she mysteriously falls to her death from her apartment’s balcony.  Diana’s death is ruled a suicide but Ben doesn’t buy it and launches an investigation of his own.  He learns Diana is in fact leading a double life and sharing neither with her family back in Wisconsin.  On the surface Diana has a fabulous job at the CIA that brings her into contact with high level government officials.  But Ben soon discovers she has more personal and secret relationships with individuals in government… and not just our government.  Some are willing to kill to remain anonymous.

People formerly close the Diana begin to die suspiciously. Ben attempts to bluff the CIA to flush out the truth but succeeds only in turning the conspirator’s focus to him.  With only hunches, no evidence and two attempts on his life, Ben appeals to the police.  They agree that Diana's death may not have been a suicide but evidence points to Ben as her murderer. With his business and his life in jeopardy, Ben takes one last risk to clear himself and reveal Diana's murderer.

MISTRESS is a good effort for the team of authors.  I’m not sure I understand why the collaboration.  Ellis does the work, Paterson and staff provide the marketing I suspect.  I’ve read and reviewed David Ellis before and see a promising future as a stand-alone author.  If that career fails he is secure in his first chosen career as a prosecutor.  He prosecuted and convicted Governor Rod Blagojevich in the impeachment trial before the Illinois Senate.  I hope he sticks with career number two.

Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is a prolific author who has not previously been reviewed in MRB, and I can’t say that I’ll rush back to read another one of her crime novels. The good news, it was interesting to read one more woman’s take in the crime genre. She wrote about parallel relationships of women and their families among cops and victims – a nice touch, and one that I never read in books by male authors. I also thought it was clever and hysterical when she went straight to the hair stylist of one of the victims to get the real dirt on what was happening in the woman’s life. However, the story was preposterous and the ending was too predictable. At best, I’d give this effort a “B” or “B-“ and it does not get my recommendation.