When the Music's Over by Peter Robinson

When the Music’s Over is Peter Robinson’s twenty third book in his Alan Banks series.  The series was the basis for a TV series in the UK for five seasons starting in 2010.  Although Robinson’s genre falls in the wheelhouse of Men Reading Books and he is an Edgar award winner, the author’s works have never before been reviewed on MRB.

Alan Banks is a long time detective with the UK police force stationed in Eastvale, a fictional town in Yorkshire, England and has recently been promoted to Detective Superintendent, DSI.  Banks is known for his empathy to the victims of crime and extends that empathy to his subordinates having recently been in their shoes.  He’s not particularly opposed to bureaucracy or department politics, he just tends to prioritize solving crime above those distractions- thus the slow climb up the hierarchical latter.

DSI Banks’ first assignment in his new position is a cold case nearly fifty years old.  Celebrity entertainer Danny Caxton allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted a fifteen year old girl, Linda Palmer after one of his concerts in 1967.  Linda Palmer is now a semi-popular poet who is recently widowed.  Although she outwardly shows no signs of long term damage from the assault, her profession makes her particularly articulate and believable in her description of the event.  Banks relates well to Palmer on several levels due to his love of music and poetry.  He learns from her a second man known to Caxton also sexually assaulted her and was murdered later that same year as the assault.  As other victims of Danny Caxton step forward, Banks is hot on Caxton’s trail to expose the lifelong deviate and predator.

  

DSI Banks' other case involves the supervision of DI Annie Cabbot and DC Gerry Masterson.  These two detectives are assigned to investigate the murder of a fourteen year old girl found along a country road bludgeoned to death after being drugged and sexually abused.  The victim, Mimosa Moffat is identified by publishing a drawing of her face in the local news.  Turns out Mimosa’s mother is a drug abuser living in a rundown estate with her unemployed boyfriend and Mimosa’s older brother.  The detectives learn that a group of second generation Pakistani immigrants had been seen hanging out with Mimosa. The local rumor mill suspects the Pakistani group of belonging to a ‘grooming gang.’  Cabbot and Masterson are well aware that grooming gangs are becoming a problem.  These young men primarily of Pakistani heritage prey on young poor white girls, hail them with attention and presents, have sex with them, and then force them into servicing their paying clients.  But police investigations of such groups is politically tricky since pursuing those of a particular heritage is considered racist and unacceptable to British societal sensibilities.  The two detectives need to tread lightly to uncover evidence that can implicate the ethic gang.

I had no particular expectation of this author so I was pleasantly surprised.  His protagonist, Alan Banks feels real and human.  In fact with all his characters, the author spends sufficient time to properly develop their histories and motivations.  His plot and subplots address timely and current issues.  His style while not particularly suspenseful, held my interest to the end.  I look forward to exploring more from Peter Robinson.

Camino Island

If you didn’t know the name John Grisham then you’ve found this blog my mistake. This is a different kind of crime novel, one about what Grisham calls “the murky world of private espionage.” In the case of Camino Island, the author writes about the theft of five original manuscripts by F. Scott Fitzgerald directly from the Firestone Library at Princeton. The originals are a treasure, worth $25,000,000. First, there is the faking of the identity of someone in order to gain access to the library and the manuscripts. There’s hacking of the university’s computer systems and then the theft. But of course, someone has to be willing to buy and trade in the stolen goods, and that is what gets us to Camino Island, a small community on the Florida Coast, just north of Jacksonville. Next, there’s the efforts of the insurance company to find the documents so they don’t have to pay the claim. And Princeton does not want the money, they just want the documents returned.

Grisham has put forward a great cast of characters: the team of five thieves (Denny, Mark, Trey, Jerry, and Ahmed), the FBI agents, Bruce Cable (the charismatic book store owner and book dealer in Camino Island), the group of authors who made Camino Island their home, Noelle Bonnet who is Cable’s open-marriage wife, the insurance agent Elaine Shelby, and Mercer Mann a literature professor who hates teaching in Chapel Hill but cannot write anything of her own. The community of writers on Camino Island thrived on petty jealousies while still hoping for each other’s success.

I’ve always thought Grisham was at his best when he was writing a drama that ended up in a courtroom – but there’s no courtroom in this novel. It’s entertaining, maybe not Grisham at the very top of his game, but if you read this one, you will be hooked. I couldn’t put it down.

The Cryptic Crossword Caper

Russell Atkinson aptly named his book The Cryptic Crossword Caper and subtitled it, “A cozy mystery.” Mags McPherson, a pie maker, book club member, puzzler (crosswords, sudokus, cryptic puzzles too), widow, and retiree had landed in Buck’s Gap, a small California town along the Big Sur coast (sounds like Elk, California). She just wanted a peaceful place in order to come to terms with the death of her husband. Mags was being relentlessly pursued by Morris Butcher, the richest and most eligible age-appropriate guy in town, but then she stumbled upon his dead body with a large knife sticking out of his back.

The police department, consisting of Sheriff Rick Moran and one other officer, was already overburdened, so Mags volunteered to be their typist until they could get caught up. Of course, that put her right in the middle of this new murder investigation. It turns out that Butcher was also a puzzle maker, especially cryptic crosswords. Oliver Dunlap was seen in town around the time of the murder and he was a recently released convict who was tied to a significant jewel heist in which only half of the jewels had been found. It was a cold case that the FBI had long been working on, so suddenly Special Agent Lisa Murphy arrived on the scene. She was a pretty and seductive woman who had little regard for the “hicks” in Buck’s Gap.

Was there a connection between Butcher and Dunlap? Butcher had never been associated with any criminal activity. But, Dunlap was also a puzzler and he and Butcher seem to have communicated with one another by puzzles – it was a code no one else understood. This is where the clever and unique aspect of this murder mystery comes into play. The author provided a downloadable crossword puzzle and a sudoku puzzle that one could solve as the story progressed – helping the reader to follow the trail of clues. This was a good cast of characters with the added fun of puzzles. If you like mysteries and puzzles, then this one is a winner for you. I've now read three of Atkinson's book and have another one in my reading queue. This one was fun and it gets my strong recommendation.

Use of Force by Brad Thor

This year’s foray into the realm of Thor/Scot Harvath.

 

A shipload of refugees goes down in a storm off the coast of Italy. A tragedy indeed. But the chatter picked up by the governmental eavesdroppers is more about one passenger. A VIP. A chemist. And it’s not just the guy, but also his laptop and phone. The Italians Navy gets it all.

The Burning Man festival in the Nevada is targeted for a terror attack. Harvath finds his guy’s tent and plenty of bomb making stuff. He gives chase through the tent city of festival goers. The guy is in a silver mask and a floor length cap. Harvath’s 4-man team is closing in from all sides. Each has the guy in sight, but they are scattered throughout the tent city. Could it really be 5 bombers? Each man on Harvath’s team takes down the guy they see as does Harvath. But a bomb still goes off.

There was a sixth.

Harvath and his Carlton Group team are called back to DC. The laptop and phone of the chemist contain a wealth of actionable intel but not the bottom line. Chief amongst the intel is reference to a massive attack coming soon. The President, the CIA and The Charlton Group’s head (Reed Charlton) task Harvath to track down the chemists last known activities to learn what made him so important.

A pilgrim’s mass in Spain is bombed. Hundreds dead and wounded. The park and fairground outside the Louvre is hit by 4 suicide bombers on a weekend afternoon. Even more casualties.

The first place to track the chemist is the boat. It left from Libya. Using the chemist’s phone, Harvath and team learn where the phone was obtained and ‘persuade’ the seller to give up the name of who he contacted to smuggle the chemist out of the country. 

The smuggler is big time. Even has the protection of the Libyan Liberation Front, a well-trained and even better armed militia. Getting this guy did not go as planned. Harvath and friends, with the smuggler in tow, barely manage to get out.

But they do learn where the chemist was headed and who was to meet him. A regional Mafioso. Tough guy, but not so much when Harvath encourages cooperation. This Mafia sub-Don wasn’t so tough after all. Tells Harvath where and when he was to deliver the chemist.

Harvath arrives at a warehouse in Rome only to find whatever job that was underway had been completed.  Chemicals. Lots of chemicals. Everything needed to prepare Sarin gas. The bad guys had a backup plan if the chemist failed to show. And an even more deadly plan that Spain and Paris.

Thor has a legion of fans that breathlessly await his annual Scot Harvath book. Taught, tensely written. Thor's hallmarks. It’s has everything Thor’s fans drool over. Depending on one’s schedule, this could easily be read in a single setting. Thor is that good of a writer.

For the uninitiated, be forewarned. This is hard charging, fully stocked with alpha males, loaded with weapons, and graphic descriptions of ‘enha

nced interrogations.’ All that is code for this is not for the squeamish. While Thor fans nervously await each new installment, I’m betting there are an equal number who would be appalled at the violence presented and call for Thor to be muzzled.

But I don’t think Harvath would like that too much.

ECD

The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille

Daniel “Mac” MacCormick is a US Army veteran with two tours of duty under his belt as an infantry officer in Afghanistan where he earned two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star.  Now he lives the good life as captain and owner of a forty-two foot fishing boat which he charters out of Key West.  The good life… drinking heavily, chasing women for one night stands, and smart mouthing anyone who will listen… it’s all good expect for the monumental loan on his boat and a yearn for the adrenalin rush from the action he saw in the army.

One day a Miami lawyer approaches Mac about entering a fishing tournament in Cuba, a promotional event that is part of the US move, known at the Cuban Thaw, to improve relations with long chastised Cuba.  But the lawyer has more purpose in mind than fishing.  He offers Mac two million dollars to help Sara Ortega, a Cuban American from Miami, recover cash ($60 million) and valuable documents now hidden in Cuba that once belonged to her anti-Castro grandfather.  As a cover, Sara and Mac join a Yale travel group to Cuba that is coincidently concurrent with the fishing tournament.  Mac’s first mate captain’s the fishing boat to Cuba with the intent of breaking away from the tournament to rescue Sara and Mac after they recover the treasure.  Mac is skeptical about the mission but he needs the money and longs for the action.  Plus Sara Ortega is beautiful and he has to admit his chance to romance her enhances the adventure.

But the mission is not simple.  Castro regime spies are everywhere in Cuba and are particularly suspicious of Americans.  Many would like to create an international incident that would squelch the Cuban Thaw.  Gathering the guns and transportation needed for a successful mission proves more dangerous than Mac thought particularly when he learns the true objective of their trip.  This caper may be more than he can master even with his combat training and battlefield experience.

DeMille is an excellent story teller.  He delves deep into the personal lives and motivations of his protagonists and gives you a history lesson along the way.  He holds your interest with several key plot twists and with the bold and brazen personality of Mac, the lead character.  The book is well researched, well written, and entertaining.  Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the advance look.

Without Fear or Favor

Robert K. Tanenbaum is a prolific author who has never been reviewed in this blog – 32 books in print, and Without Fear or Favor is the 29^th in a series about Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi. Really, and we’ve not known about him?

This is a most timely, well-written, and important story about racism and perceptions of racism in police departments and by civilians. Karp is the District Attorney of New York City. Ciampi is Karp’s wife, also an attorney who only plays a minor role in this book. This story has to do with the figures behind the scenes in the police shooting of a young black man who was reportedly unarmed. From the beginning, the reader knows that the black kid, Ricky Watts, was armed and he had fired first in an attempt to assassinate a cop, Officer Bryce Kim. However, Ricky had been set up by a sociopath, Anthony Johnson, who went by the title “Nat X,” a mishmash of names in memory of Malcolm X and Nathaniel Turner. It was Ricky who died when he missed Officer Kim who did not miss when he returned fire. It was Nat X who grabbed the gun from Ricky’s body and then blamed the police department of killing another unarmed black man.

Nat X saw himself as a revolutionary who would lead his people to justice in a separate state from the inherent injustice of the white man. It was Nat X who assassinated white Officer Tony Cippio as he was finishing a pickup basketball game in Harlem with a bunch of black kids. Nat X was pushing the public to demand an indictment of Officer Kim and his cause was furthered by an activist Baptist minister from Harlem, the Reverend Mufti, and as Tanenbaum wrote, “known more for his inflammatory politics than his work in any church.” Then there was Peter Vansand, a television correspondence whose career was in the tank, and Vansand was looking for a story that would put him back on network TV. He thought Nat X was his ticket back to national fame.

It was Nat X who got Vansand to hire Oliver Gray as an unpaid intern, and who arranged for Vansand and his TV crew to have the right camera angle when Gray attempted to assassinate Karp as the DA was making an announcement about the delay in a decision about Kim’s indictment. It was Gray who was killed, not Karp.

The racial tensions in and out of the NYPD were believably portrayed. The courtroom drama was just that, dramatic and gripping. I could not put this one down. Now that I’ve learned about Tanenbaum and this Karp-Ciampi series, I’ve downloaded the first of those 29 novels, No Lesser Plea, published in 1987, and I’m ready to learn more about these characters.