The Guardians by John Grisham

Cullen Post, just call me Post, is a lawyer turned minister whose goal in life is to free innocent inmates from prison.  His nonprofit organization, The Guardians is based in Savannah, GA where his staff of only a handful of do-gooders frees on average about one innocent prisoner a year.  Reinvestigating crimes and trials for innocent inmates who have exhausted all other options is time consuming and sometimes dangerous work... especially when the real perpetrators are still around. 

One prisoner, Quincy Miller is convicted of murdering a lawyer in the small town of Seabrook Florida.  The police after finding no clues, no witnesses and no serious suspects arrest Quincy, a disgruntled former client.  Quincy is convicted with planted evidence and junk science from bogus expert witnesses.  Twenty-two years later his appeals have run out and Post decides to take his case.  But as Post turns over rocks and finds proof of foul play, the real murderer intervenes to squelch Post’s investigation by whatever means possible.

Grisham is the legal thriller master of our time.  He has written a book a year since 1991, all number one best sellers and several made into movies, and has sold over three hundred million copies.  The word “prolific” falls short in describing his literary accomplishments.  The Guardians is his latest and maybe one of his best.  He uses his masterful storytelling talent to highlight both racial injustice and the misuse of “junk science” in our country’s law enforcement process… very thought provoking and entertaining… a must read.

Secret Service by Tom Bradby

Kate Henderson’s life in London seems pretty good if a tad ordinary. She works for a multinational that sends her abroad on frequent business trips. He husband works for the Minister of Education. A rebellious teenage daughter and a tween-age son round out the cast.

Oh, did I mention, her multinational employer is MI6?

She works for the Russia desk. Pretty high up, too. She has a team in the Mediterranean following the yachting adventures of the (gay) son of an Russian oligarch. Through some clever manipulations, the team manages to get a microphone placed on the yacht, coincidentally when the father and 2 or 3 other major political players in Russia are discussing plans to influence upcoming changes in the British leadership.

OK. The Russian’s play the same what-if scenarios about their adversaries as does everyone else. Only this time, the Russian’s know exactly why and when the Prime Minister will be stepping down – Info that even MI6 doesn’t have. Not only that, the Russian’s mentioned a highly placed source from an operative code-named Viper.

Sure enough, a few days later, the PM tells the country he is stepping down due to prostate cancer. Now begins the circus of who wants to move into #10 Downing Street. MI6 is left with two major questions. First, how did the Russians learn about the PM’s health? Second, who is Viper? What ensures is a complicated hunt on two fronts, one of which is a mole hunt. Both inquiries seem to point to one of the two major candidates for the PM job as being a Russian asset.

In the tradition of Le Carre, Greene, Deighton, Frosyth, et al., this book is crammed with misdirections, distrust, feints and double feints galore to drive speculations about various suspicious identities. Enough to make your head spin. A perfect choice for lovers of traditional spy novels.

East Coast Don

The Deserter by Nelson Demille and Alex Demille

Desertion is serious. When the deserter is a member of Delta Force, it’s even more serious. When the deserter is a decorated Captain in the Delta Force, that’s even worse. Then, this Captain shows up as a prisoner in a Taliban video. Next, he is rumored to have escaped and disappears into thin air. Another classified video shows Mercer beheading five Taliban before looking directly into the camera and ‘resigning his commission.’ Lots of people want to find Capt Kyle Mercer and bring him to justice.

Any clues about a deserter are to be brought to the Army. A few years after the reported escape, a former bootcamper of Mercer’s was in a Caracas bordello, saw a man he thought was Mercer and approaches him. The guy just up and leaves. The report of a Mercer sighting is relayed up the chain of command. The head of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division assigns Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, an investigative team known to aggressively carry out the CID’s motto: “Do What Has to be Done” to find, arrest, and bring Mercer back to the US. But under no circumstances, was Mercer to be interrogated.  

Brodie and Taylor arrive in Caracas and meet their local contact, a Colonel Worley who is of questionable loyalties (Army or CIA? Hard to tell) and agendas. He helps Brodie and Taylor navigate the many conflicting issues currently at play in Venezuela. But so does Brodie's driver, Luis.

It’s a complex chase through various gangs, cops, secret police, barrios, and hookers, but Brodie eventually finds Mercer’s favorite girl at the bordello (that specializes in underage girls). Her information sends Brodie and Taylor deep into the jungle where they find Mercer leading a bunch of local mercs that do the bidding of Venezuelan General Medoza.

Brodie and Taylor are captured, but then they escape and take Mercer into custody. Now loyalties are seriously tested, and trust becomes a casualty.

Full disclosure here: I’m a Demille fan and have most all of his books, many before we started this blog. Three books of his are reviewed here. The first book of his I read, The Charm School, is still probably the best spy novel I’ve ever read. His book, The General’s Daughter, made the big screen. Alex is his son who works in various capacities in Hollywood. Demille is a decorated Vietnam vet and proudly cites his Mensa membership. Why The Charm School hasn’t been made into a movie or one of those 6-10 episode features is baffling. He also does something interesting. People who donate money to his favorite charities get their names used as characters in his books. Two such characters appear.

While reading this book, I saw multiple parallels with Apocalypse Now. Brodie and Taylor = Captain Willard; Mercer = Kurtz; the jungle setting far up a forgotten river; the lawless band of loyal followers; and more. Make no mistake about taking up this book. It’s a beast. Nearly 600 pages. But that’s what Demille writes. Big books. But it’s all tightly sewn together with the smartass Brodie, the deeply bruised Taylor, the deserter Mercer, the settings and the people who struggle day to day to survive in what was once a vibrant country.

If you like our selection of books that we post on this blog, this is one not to be missed.

Available TODAY! 22 OCT 2019

East Coach Don

An Unequal Justice by Chad Zunker

David Adams is flush with his Stanford Law diploma and accepts a job back in his home state with an upscale Austin corporate law firm. His goal is simple: make a lot of money. His history includes a period of time living homeless in a camper with his mom and older sister. After his mom dies while he was in high school, he started making some bad choices until in older sister brought him back in line. A knee injury cut short his college QB aspirations, so he pours his efforts into school, gets accepted by Stanford where he graduates in the Top 10.

When he arrives in Austin, he keeps up the work effort setting records for billable hours, but a slightly older version of himself advises him to be careful with his workload and lust for money. David thinks it’s just alcohol talking and drives him home. The next day, the firm is stunned to find out that guy committed suicide. Sad news, but David carries one and a random pool game results in a hot young thing taking a liking to David and shows him how to look and act now that he is on the rise.

Taking a shortcut walk home late one night, David is mugged in an alley only to be saved by a homeless guy named Benny. The mugger beats up on Benny, and in a fit of guilt and some humanity, David takes Benny to David’s apartment and cleans him up. Benny is grateful for David’s hospitality and invites David to the encampment where Benny lives and David is rapidly accepted by the ‘residents’ of the camp.

The suicide of the associate spooks David and a couple of odd coincidences make David think one of the senior partners may be connected. A few months later, Benny is found dead from a gunshot in a forgotten alley and one of the members of The Camp is arrested. As David takes up the case, the senior partner goes ballistic to straighten David out. Obviously, something ain’t right.

A newly accredited lawyer who pulled himself up from lowly beginnings takes a job at a high-powered law firm only to find they’ve got something to hide. Sound familiar? The main difference between this and many other legal thrillers is that David’s humanity is directed to the Austin homeless population, which is apparently where Zunker has become a strong advocate. While the story is not autobiographical, Zunker has drawn much from his own experience to pen this book.

It’s short, only about 200 pages, and is easily read on a travel day. The tale unfolds rapidly with enough twists to keep you interested. But it’s lack of depth to the backstory was, for me, a disappointment. It’s a good story, just not a lot of meat to it. Think of it as a lighter variation on The Firm. 

Publication date: 1 NOV 2019

ECD

Valley of Spies by Keith Yocum

Dennis Cunningham has had an interesting life. A lifer at Langley, but he wasn’t a spy per se. The bulk of his time was spent in the Office of the Inspector General - CIA’s version of a police department’s Internal Affairs. He looked into Agency folks who went off the rails. When his wife died (an earlier book I assume), he became clinically depressed and went to Dr. Forrester, an Agency-approved clinical psychologist.

Now he’s been retired for about a year and living in Perth, Australia with Judy, an agent for the AFP – the Australian Federal Police (think Aussie FBI). He’s learning to love golf, Aussie Rules Football and cricket. 

He gets a call from Langley. He has been recommended by Louise (an ambitious woman wanting to become the first female director of operations) to be an impartial investigator into the disappearance of Dr. Forrester. Seems she was in New Zealand for a conference and simply disappeared. This initial investigation targets an Iranian couple thought to be manning a NZ-based listening post. The new Director of the CIA wants independent confirmation before approving retaliation on the Irani Intelligence directorate (meaning, you took one of ours, we are coming for 6 of yours). His Agency contact is Philip Simpson, Deputy Chief of Operations. A guy Dennis has no love for.

Oh, and by the way, he has 2 weeks to submit his report.

He starts out with what the Kiwis found and starts to wonder if Dr. Forrester’s disappearance was less about intelligence and more about her other Agency clients. He hops a flight to DC over Simpsons objections. In DC he meets up with Forrester’s husband, Louise, Simpson, and some former friends at CIA. Each time he thinks he has a lead, it dries up. Then, he disappears, Judy’s paranoia meter redlines and she too heads to DC to find out what happened to Dennis. Whether Forrester’s disappearance is solved is not Judy’s concern.

This is the first book by Yocum that I have read and I must say that I’m very impressed. Published by an independent press, Cunningham and Judy are an engaging couple and the plot is exceedingly thoughtful and complex. Friends are not so friendly and former enemies just might turn out to be important friends. There appear to be 2 or 3 other Cunningham books as well as a couple standalones set in Vietnam and the Civil War. From where I sit right now, I think Yocum is definitely worth a further look.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

ECD

The Trojan Plague by Pierce Roberets

The Trojan Plague by Pierce Roberts is the second book I’ve read by this author. Although I wrote favorably of the first book, I couldn’t finish this one, abandoned the story at the 40% mark of the book. Roberts did use the same interesting cast of characters as before, including the husband and wife team of veterinarians, but the story just did not grab me enough to see it through to the end. Once again, this novel was about a Nazi conspiracy to bring about the final solution, and I’m tired of that story line. While the plot itself, aside from the characters was interesting, I was not able to suspend my reality testing enough. Also, the dialogue is weak, and there’s a lot of dialogue that is used to move the story along. So, I can’t give this novel a strong recommendation.