Identical by Scott Turow

Scott Turow gained notoriety in the early 1990's for his first work of fiction, Presumed Innocent which was later made into a movie starring Harrison Ford.  Turow has attempted to repeat that success several times since but has never quite written the novel that could measure up to that first mega hit. Identical is his latest attempt.

Paul and Cass Gianis are twins who grew up in a Greek neighborhood in Turow’s favorite mythical setting, Kindle County. The twins are identical in appearance but very different in character and personality.  Paul is the dutiful and ambitious son headed for law school whereas Cass is the carefree prodigal son.  In his early 20’s Cass falls in love with Dita, the beautiful but spoiled daughter of Zeus Kronon, a millionaire bad-boy with Greek mob connections.  Dita is murdered in her bedroom and Cass ends up pleading guilty to the crime.  He serves a 25 year sentence in a nearby minimum security correctional facility.  Paul faithfully visits his brother throughout his incarceration while finishing law school, becoming a Kindle County prosecutor and entering a life of politics.  At the time of Cass’s release, Paul is running for mayor.  Dita’s brother, Hal Kronon has never forgiven Cass and runs negative ads accusing candidate Paul of being involved in the murder of Dita.  Hal is now the CEO of the conglomerate his father founded.  With his company’s resources behind him, Hal assigns his chief security officer and ex-FBI agent, Evon Miller along with a retired cop, Tim Brodie to resume investigation of the 25 year old case.  Together they uncover new evidence that points the finger of guilt in a direction Hal never intended.

On the surface, Identical has all the ingredients of great fiction but the plot never seems to find traction.  The premise of identical twins and their relationship has promise of interest and intrigue but instead comes off as creepy.  The twists and turns of the plot were predictable and uninspiring in comparison to what we know is within the bounds of this author’s capability.  His first work, Presumed Innocent set the standard for bait and switch legal thrillers.  His latest work is in no way “identical” to that first effort… not even close.

Remote Control by Stephen White

Let me define “airplane book:” a book that is entertaining enough to occupy your time for a cross country flight, but not one that is so gripping that it would interfere with a nap, or even break your heart if the flight ended and you left it in the seatback pocket when you deplaned. Remote Control by Stephen White is just such a book. Alan Gregory’s wife, Lauren Crowder, a deputy Dr. Alvarez who is losing her vision to multiple sclerosis, has fired her gun in the midst of a snowstorm in Boulder, Colorado. A gravely wounded man is found a distance away, and she is arrested for what may become a capital crime. Alan’s good friend, detective Sam Purdy, can’t be the lead investigator because of his relationship with the perp who has become persona non grata with the Boulder PD. Meanwhile, White develops a subplot about Emma Spire, the daughter of a world renown politician who was assassinated because of his pro-choice stance. Emma was caught on video as she cradled her father as he died from his wounds. She is a sort of Caroline Kennedy type, well-poised, loved by most, and a tabloid sensation to everyone. A few years after the assassination, Emma decided to go to law school, became an intern at Lauren’s firm, and this ultimately lonely woman has been befriended by Lauren. Emma’s privacy is being threatened in the most intimate way possible and the shooting had to do with Lauren’s attempt to defend her friend. The story moved along quite well until the extraordinarily convoluted ending. This story did not live up to the other books I’ve read by this author, who I’ve already identified as being a possible member of my power rotation of authors. One average read won’t turn me away from more of his novels.

Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz

So after talking up the Dean Koontz's single, Wilderness, a couple reviews earlier, I checked his latest book out from the library. This is the most recent in his series about his psychic/crimestopper Odd Thomas, aka OT.

Our boy is a 20-something Southern California oddball with some unique talents. With a touch or a vision he can 'see' a crime that is due to happen so he goes on a mission to stop what he has foreseen.

OT has crossed paths with a Rhinestone Cowboy/big rig trucker and has seen that this guy will use a propane torch to mutilate 3 children. With the aid of a LOL (little old lady who needs a driver), he follows said trucker trying to learn more about when/where the crime will occur by using his 'psychic magnetism.'

When he goes into some storage building, he 'sees' not only his real-time universe, but also an alternate reality, and something from a parallel universe.

And after about 100 pages of this, I lost interest. Which surprised me. I've read my share of Stephen King (but stopped with The Stand - I guess 1000 pages was my limit) and plenty of early Robert McCammon dealt with the supernatural, but I just could not keep straight which reality OT was in at any time. I know there must be a substantial fan base for this storyline considering the number of titles and times these have been best sellers.

Think of this as sort of a cross between TVs The Early Edition (a very underrated show) with Spielberg's Minority Report (overrated, but that's just me), and Driving Miss Daisy.  To me, the best parts of this book were OT and the LOL driving around and picking at each other. No idea if that partnership continued through the entire book.

But this won't stop me from reading Innocence, the book that the Koontz single was previewing. Should be getting that from the library in a couple weeks. But I'll not be venturing any further into the world of Odd Thomas.

ECD

The Double Game by Dan Fesperman

Now this has MRB written all over it.

Bill Cage works for a DC-based PR firm and hates it. He started out as a journalist, but one column killed that career. See, Bill grew up an embassy brat (sort of like an Army brat, but his dad was in the State Department’s Foreign Service) and lived in exotic locales like Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Berlin. His dad, now retired and living in Vienna, is a confirmed spy novel aficionado – and the nut didn’t fall far from the tree on that love. The both covet their collections of old spy novels.

It was in the early 90s that Bill, a journalist for the Washington Post (or was it the Times?) interviewed one of his favorite authors, Edwin Lemaster, who while being a highly successful spy novelist was also a cold war era warrior. Actually, he was one of James Angleton’s 3 primary operatives (code names headlight, blinker, taillight) on that ill-fated mole hunt within the CIA back in the 60’s. In the interview, Lemaster admits that most all spies consider being a double agent, to make the job more interesting. The edited version of the article says Lemaster was a Russian spy, effectively killing Cage’s cred with the clandestine arm of the CIA and, effectively, his journalistic career.

Fast forward to around 2008. Cage gets an anonymous note that he dropped the ball on Lemaster and should’ve dug deeper. A clue is attached: a cutout of a page from a classic LeCarre novel. The clue sends him back to Vienna for a meeting with his dad, then a trip to a bookseller where the next clue is delivered by old his girlfriend from his teen years in Vienna, and each was the other’s first, if you catch my drift.

They follow more clues, more snippets from classic spy novels, tracking Lemaster’s courier ring, all the while learning more about each other and their inadvertent tangential roles in Lemaster’s passing of information and his dead drops. Not only do they want to know if Lemaster really was a double agent, they also want to know who is pulling Cage’s chain with all these clues.

For spy thriller junkies like the MRB guys, this book is a loving homage to the genre, tracing the genre from its beginnings all the way to its heyday in the cold war. Deciding I needed to write down the names of some of what are, at least to me, some of he more obscure titles, I kept a pencil and paper nearby. On a whim, I thought I’d look at the back of the book for maybe an index only to find the entire development of spy novels; alphabetical by author and chronological by year – over 200 titles and over 40 authors. Needless to say, I photocopied the list and have it close at hand.

So, if you like spy thrillers, especially cold war era tales, you must find this one. The slightly befuddled Cage and his now gently frumpy old girlfriend are an engaging couple, each with a few tricks and secrets up their sleeves. Especially revealing are the ‘come to Jesus’ revelations by old spooks who, though retired, never really left the game and miss the thrill.  I’ve read two Fesperman books, now this. Very enjoyable. I will find more . . . and sooner, not later.

ECD

The Square of Revenge by Pieter Aspe

Another one of those mysteries by a European author. Splashed across the title is “The #1 International Bestseller.” Like I haven’t seen that before and been disappointed.

Not this time.

Family secrets and the quest for revenge based on a decades-old wrong are at the core of this fascinating tale. Set in the gorgeous medieval town of Bruges, Belgium, a prominent jewelry store has been broken into. But nothing has been stolen. Rather, all the jewelry has been melted down, leaving a fortune of stones in large far of acid. Looks like someone doesn’t like the owner and is trying to make a point. Only clue is a bizarre puzzle:

ROTAS

OPERA

TENET

AREPO

SATOR

Bruges Police Inspector Van In gets the case. Looks like in Belgium, the prosecutor is called in right from the start and for this crime, Van In will have to work not only with a rookie, but with a woman (apparently this is rare over there).

Then, member of the jeweler’s family get the same strange puzzle. And we learn about the rise and fall of a prominent family connected to the crime. And an equally strange kidnapping where the ransom is for the parent to publically burn their art collection.

OK, I see why this was a “#1 International BestSsller!” I thought it had a very clever plot, a flawed but nonetheless highly interesting inspector in Van In (sort of reminded me of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch), a developing attraction between Van In and the new prosecutor (and it’s hard not to root for them to get together), and a very interesting conclusion that I sure didn’t see coming. Aspe’s other Van In mystery (in English) is called The Midas Murders and I’m going to make it a point to find it.

ECD

Wilderness by Dean Koontz

Addison Goodheart is born to a woman who lives on the fringes of civilization far out in the woods. But Addison is different. Disfigured from birth, he barely interacts with his mother, whose own demons send her into her own darkness for days or weeks on end, leaving Addison to fend for himself. Or she boots him out of the house, but still feeds him by putting food on the porch and ringing a bell. This could go on for days.

As Addison grows, he becomes more and more confident in his ability to co-exist with the creatures of the woods. At least until he stumbles across a shack, a body, and the shooter.

This is a Kindle single. It’s a short story that can be read in maybe 30 minutes. Turns out it’s a preview for the next series of books by Koontz that revolve around Addison Goodheart. The first installment, Innocence, is due to be released December 10. I was actually surprised that no one here at MRB had reviewed anything form the vast library of titles by Dean Koontz. He is a prolific writer with dozens of best sellers in his history. I’m betting that we’ll see a steady supply of his books in the future here at MRB.

ECD

Pale Horse Coming by Stephen Hunter

Behind on 4 reviews. Time to get off my duff and write them up!

Was surprised that this Earl Swagger book had failed to show up on our radar, but here we go.

Sam Vincent, former county prosecutor in western Arkansas, has been retained by a Chicago firm to track down an employee of their recently deceased client; an estate matter. This missing black guy, a native of Thebes, Mississippi, stands to get a sizable sum left by his former employer. Sam, being a southerner who has fought for blacks of the early 1950s, was a logical choice. In preparation, he talks with Earl Swagger, old friend and state cop and CMH winner at Iwo Jima, about what he’s going to do and makes a deal with Earl that if he doesn’t return in a week or two, Earl is free to come looking for him.

Thebes is the home of the state prison for coloreds, where the worst of the worst are sent. No roads lead in or out. One gets there only by the river. It’s “the last stop at the end of the world, where there are no rules.” The place is run by stern warden whose dictates are acted on by the albino lead guard BigBoy and the Section Boss with his favored tommy-gun.  After a little too much snooping, Sam is tossed is arrested for a murder to await trial and a quick hanging.

But the clock has run out and Earl packs up to go looking for Sam with plans on breaking him out of this hellhole. Earl does get Sam out but gets captured himself where he becomes the only white inmate at Thebes.

Earl told Sam that if Earl gets captured to not call out the cavalry cuz it’d just sign his death warrant. Sam begrudgingly agrees leaving Earl to undergo unspeakable torture at the hand of BigBoy as well as the black inmates who hate him because he is white. And he learns of some bizarre medical experiments on the helpless inmates. It’s not just the prison. It’s also the experimentation that drives Earl’s sense of revenge.

Over a couple months, Earl develops a tenuous friendship with one of the trustees who offers Earl a dangerous way out, which he accepts.  But Earl is not one to let an injustice go unpunished and says he’s coming back. The rumor spreads amongst the inmates . . . that the pale horse is coming. 

And come back he does. Earl rounds up a group of aging gunmen, offering them one last chance at an OK Corral-style shootout in the Mississippi swamps.

We boys here at MRB are big Stephen Hunter fans and I can’t believe we’d missed this one. We have Earl with his best right vs. wrong view of the world. He detests the Jim Crow racism he witnesses, and experiences. The horror Earl experiences borders on unspeakable. And Hunter delivers on the gunfight, with vivid detail of was Earl tells Sam regarding, “what horror I am capable of imagining.” The Pale Horse Returns, brings with him ‘men of duty, with guns, . . . to bring hell to this little part of the earth”  . . . “but above all else, a man with a gun.”

Classic Hunter  - this kicked some serious ass . . . not to be missed.

ECD