The Voter File by David Pepper

Haven’t had enough pre-election nonsense? This one should scratch that itch. And it should send chills right down your spine. And don’t think this is about Russian meddling in our elections. This one is entirely homegrown and won’t reinforce any belief that our elections are free of any untoward mischief.

 

Jack Sharpe blew it. He was a top tier investigative reporter who made his bones by blowing open a number of political scandals . . . until his national news network and his sense of right and wrong collided. Now he’s scraping by doing the odd freelance assignment. With his reputation, not many assignments beckon.

Until Tori Justice, a lowly staffer working on the campaign of a judge in Wisconsin makes contact. The judge she is working for won the primary, but based on district demographics and basic campaign polls, there is no way he should have won by as much as he did. She has tried unsuccessfully to pitch what she knows to various reporters without luck. Jack needs a story to get back in the game but is not so sure about what this girl is telling him.

Reluctantly, he meets with Tori and she lays out just how votes and voters can be manipulated to dang near guarantee most any outcome. The Voter File. A piece of election preparation that every candidate has. Starting with the primary that launched the judge into the general election, she details the ubiquitous practice of manipulation and deception that will curl your eyelashes, grow hair on your teeth, and plainly piss you off because you know that every damn thing she says went on in that local election . . . is actually going on. Right now. And it’s not a result of ambitious staffers. The deception begins at the top of both parties. T

he winner is generally who is best at a dirty game.

This one is for those who naively trust the election system to be a truthful representation of voter wishes. Even folks how know our elections aren’t as pure as advertised will be stunned at the depth of deception that has become ‘the campaign.’ A well written (the 3^rd Jack Sharpe book) and frightening story that will make you both squeamish and seriously pissed off. Look closely at what you see and read in this election season. You'll see most every thing Pepper describes.

Perfect preparation for the coming election. It might even get you to draft letters to every elected official on your upcoming ballot to tell them that you know. 

ECD

 

Near Dark by Brad Thor

It’s early fall and the pre-Christmas rush of new books in getting into full swing. Brad Thor’s annual contribution comes right when we all need Scot Harvath.

Near Dark begins two weeks after last year’s Backlash ended. In Backlash, his mentor, Reed Carlton, had developed Alzheimer’s Disease and to protect the treasure trove of secrets in The Old Man’s head, Harvath had sequestered Carlton in the Maine woods. At the same time, Harvath had married Lara at a time where Carleton was reasonably lucid. The small ceremony also included Lydia Ryan, a former CIA section director and new head of The Carleton Group. While all were in Maine, Russian assassins attempting to kill Harvath took out his new wife, Ryan, and Carleton.

Near Dark picks up two weeks later after Harvath has gone off the grid in the Keys to drink away his pain. Does a pretty good job. His alcohol issues plague him throughout this book. But even when drunk, he can’t help sticking his nose into other people’s business, especially when a woman is on the wrong end of an altercation. One such attempt at helping a woman under duress leads to a 2 on 1 duel in an alley. Make that 3 on 1. As the 2 thugs are working on Harvath, a third comes in ready to end Harvath’s pain. Raises his weapon and  . . . the shooter gets a few bullets to the head. Some of Harvath’s compatriots with The Carleton Group have his back.

They inform Harvath that over the past two weeks since the slaughter in Maine, an unknown benefactor put up a bounty on Harvath. $100 million. The contract doesn’t go to one killer. It’s a general announcement. First to kill gets the payment. Not to mention that Carl Pedersen, a Norwegian Intelligence Service colleague of Reed Carlton, was tortured for information about Harvath and killed the week before.

From here on, the story is about tracking backwards from the dead shooter to find out who sent the shooter, who might be the next to try, who is/are the intermediaries between the money and the triggers, and ultimately, who put up the money. Harvath is after the source of the money behind the Maine slaughter. The Norwegians are on the same trail to find out who took out Pedersen and assign one of his proteges, a recovering drug addict/agent in need of redemption to work with Harvath.

Solvi Kolstad has her own history of demons. As a teenager, she was a runway model. A stunning Nordic beauty who got a little too involved in the model lifestyle. She did get married and out of the jet set for a while  finding work with the NIS. But when her husband wanted kids and she didn’t, the hubby bolted and she went back to the drugs. Pedersen pulled her out and got her head back into the intelligence game. Backing Harvath is her first real frontline assignment since coming back. These two wounded warriors form a working alliance where their physical skills and mental dexterity complement each other.

This Thor’s 20^th Scot Harvath book, most of which were NYT best sellers. This made the 2020 best seller list simply based on pre-release orders. Harvath continues to deliver the goods. Being one of those authors who churn out a book each year, he’s got to be good and this one is no exception. While this one is short on non-stop action and long on thought and reasoning that goes with dogged investigation in no way detracts from the tension of the story. A one or two sitting read if you give it the chance.

ECD

The Forger's Daughter

The Forgers Daughter by Bradford Morrow is his ninth novel, but he’s written many other things as well. Do you think of yourself as a bibliophile? Do you love mysteries. There’s no doubt that you’ll love this book. It is magnificent. It’s the first such review of a work by Morrow in our blog, and now I have yet another author with whose work I must get familiar. The Forgers Daughter will be released on 9/8/20, less than two weeks from now. My advice, get it in your reading queue now.

After starting my last review with a quote from Alfred Hitchcock, this book starts with one by Poe from “The Imp of the Perverse”: “I am more certain that I breathe, than that the assurance of the wrong or error of any action is often the one unconquerable force which impels us, and alone impels us to its prosecution. Nor will this overwhelming tendency to do wrong for the wrong’s sake, admit of analysis, or resolution into ulterior elements.”

Will has a distant history of having forged old manuscripts, but he’s gone legitimate for at least 20 years. He has a skill with letterpress printing which allows him to forge old books, in this case, Tamerlane ,an early and unsigned book by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s not only the art of printing, but the paper and ink have to be right to get by the experts, and Will is just the man for the job. Since going straight, will has helped in his wife’s used book business, but he was essentially blackmailed by Henry Slader, a sociopath who has long been more than a thorn in the side of Will and Meghan. Together they had a daughter, Nicole, who is now a late teen, and then they took on the care of Maisie, who had already grown up without a father, and then at the age of five, lost her mother to cancer (Meghan’s sister). The titled character was Nicole to whom Will had taught his knowledge of printing books which included learning to do calligraphy. Nicole was a natural talent in that art and she quickly mastered it. As Will’s skill began to deteriorate, Nicole was needed to take over for him on the calligraphy tasks. Wise beyond her years, she soon realized that they were involved in the illegal creation of the Poe book.

Slader commits a murder in the course of the book, although that is not central to the action, He had assaulted Will in their earlier years, causing great permanent damage to Will’s printing hand, leading to a long prison term for Slader. These were the stories that legitimized Will and Meghan’s fear of him. Also, the book starts with a mystery as to Maisie’s paternity. The author introduces a number of characters in the book business, and then there’s the unsolved murder of Adam, Meghan’s brother, which happened around the same time Will began leading a more lawful life.

There is artful character development, and the plot development is flawless. This novel rates as my favorite for the year 2020.

Watch Her Vanish

Watch Her Vanish by Ellery Kane is at least his sixth novel, and this book gripped my interest from the first few pages, and the fascination with this eerie story did not end until the book ran out of pages. The author’s website indicates he is a forensic psychologist during the day, and a novelist at night. If his other books are as good as this one, then he can say goodbye to his day job.

As an indication of the nature of the story to come, the author starts with a quote from Alfred Hitchcock from The Birds. There’s a restaurant in San Francisco called For Harbor, which is the fictional location for Kane’s maximum security prison which is somewhere on northern coast presumably, of California. In the prologue, he introduces as to Bonnie McMillan, the married mother of two boys who works at Crescent Bay State Prison as a creative writing teacher. Her husband has taken their boys whale watching, and he too works at the prison where he manages the GED program. Like so many other employees of the prison, it had never been the intent of Bonnie to stay in Fog Harbor and to work in this remote corner of the state, but sometimes thing work out that way. Bonnie took advantage of the absence of her husband and boys to go to a late showing of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Only, she never made it home, and her body was discovered a few days later. That is the first of several serial murders.

Next, the  reader learns about the sisters Olivia Rockwell and Emily Rockwell. Olivia is the chief psychologist at the prison and Emily works there as a dental hygienist. The story centers around the character Drake Devere who is in prison for murder. But he’s a literate guy, in addition to being a total narcissistic personality disorder and sociopath. Bonnie has helped him with his writing and Olivia is his treating psychologist. Self-referred as the hawk, Devere has penned a book about a man who can slip in and out of a maximum security prison in order to murder women in the neighborhood. The book became a best seller, and Hawk has sent the proceeds of the book to a charity. He has become famous and promised a sequel. The next murder was that of Laura Ricci who was Devere’s work supervisor in the kitchen, although he was often late for his shifts and about to be booted from his job.

The author filled out this story with a rich group of characters including Warden Blevens, Sergeant Wickersham, and Detective Will Decker. The story is quite believable and there were suspenseful surprises right to the end. This book gets a fabulous recommendation from me, and Men Reading Books needs to invest some more time with this author.

The Last Trial by Scott Turow

Sandy Stern, a Kindle County, Illinois defense attorney, has appeared in Scott Turow’s novels since 1987 in the renowned Presumed Innocent.  Now at age eighty five and contemplating retirement, Sandy is asked to defend his friend and fellow Argentine immigrant, Dr. Kiril Pafko of insider trading, fraud, and murder charges.  Pafko and his company Pafko Therapeutics have developed a cancer treatment drug that has saved many lives, including Sandy’s life five years earlier.  However, during the clinical trials to gain FDA approval, Dr. Pafko is accused of altering the data to remove from the study patients who have died, then selling stock in his company when his missteps are about to be publicly exposed.

Pafko’s missteps during the drug approval process are revealed to the jury as the prosecutors draw the story out of the witnesses.  But Pafko’s life long character flaws are revealed as Sandy investigates and interrogates Pafko’s family and known associates in addition to the witnesses… many with some grudge against the doctor.  Sandy can’t help but compare his own life with that of his friend’s and finds himself late in life pondering his own life choices and how they have impacted his relationships with family.  But even distracted by his reflective thoughts and at age eighty five, Sandy uncovers the motives of his client and of those around the doctor who are intent on revenge.

Most readers will see this book as a legal lesson because apparently the legal points are rare and well developed.  But I see this more of a reflection of a man on his life… his exile from Argentina, his marriages and his children, his choice of clients and the time he spent representing criminals instead of nurturing his family… how his choice to practice law molded his relationships with each of his children and grand-children and how they feel about him today… what he should do about it now… all in all a lesson in humanity.  This is the author’s true theme and a lesson well worth learning at any age. 

A Little Rebellion is a Good Thing

Although it is not the author’s first book, A Little Rebellion is a Good Thing is his first venture into this kind of story. Duncan L. Clarke is a professor emeritus at American University’s Department of International Relations. The title of this book comes from a quote by Thomas Jefferson. In this story, David Pritchard, a newly minted Ph.D. takes on his first post degree teaching assignment at Traymore College, an all-girls college rural Virginia. It’s 1969, when women’s rights movements were heating up in the U.S., but had not yet found its way to rural Virginia. Not everyone agreed that changing the rules was progress. Pritchard had gotten a law degree before he pursued his Ph.D., having wanted to teach and not to become a practicing lawyer. He was stunned by the old college rules about the expected behaviors of the girls and the sorts of punishment handed out for any perceived violations, including expulsion from the school for students and teachers. Pritchard was headstrong and he quickly waded into a battle with college president Elzic Barton. Barton saw his role of being the protector of the school and all the undergraduates. Prichard disagreed.

Clarke filled this book with a slew of rich characters from Barton, to the Dean of Students, Evelyn Baird, to a series of co-eds including Valerie Tavernetti, Sue Ewal, RJ McKenna, and Kim Sherman. Pritchard’s dog, Xen, a Labrador retriever, played a key role in the novel. This book is well-written and well-conceived. It gets my recommendation.

Act of Revenge

See below for an except.

Act of Revenge is my third book by John Bishop MD, and it’s third novel in the Dr. Jim Bob Brady series, an orthopedic surgeon. Brady now in his 50s, and after proving himself to be successful in a full-time practice in Houston, he has backed off to working just four days a week. That gives him a chance to enjoy his life a bit more, and it gives him some discretionary time.

The story starts with Brady going to Snowmass for a ski trip with his wonderful wife, Mary Louise. She is a much more graceful skier and he is more of a bomber – which means he aims his skies straight down the hill and hopes no one gets in his way. But, that’s not what happened on every run, and he plowed right through another skier who just happened to be a plastic surgeon in Houston. Jim Bob was okay, but the man he hit suffered a major knee injury which was skillfully managed by one of Brady’s partners. In the process of helping Dr. Lou Edwards and his wife, Mimi, they developed a quick bond of friendship. Lou and Jim Bob talked about their very different practices. Lou was particularly angry about the fact that his insurance carrier, Texas Mutual Life, had cancelled Lou’s malpractice insurance (as well as most other plastic surgeons). The failure of and difficulties with breast implants was leading to many lawsuits. Even Mimi was a victim. Mimi had developed lupus (SLE), a gradually progressive autoimmune disease that  is eventually fatal. Although never definitively proven as being causative, the insurance companies had been successfully sued for many millions of dollars. Mimi had suffered from SLE for many years and she was getting much worse from the disease and long-term use of steroids.

But this story is about Paul Thompson, the CEO of Texas Mutual Life, and the problems that the cancellation of malpractice surgery was causing for Lou and his colleagues. The doctors demonstrated in a march outside of Thompson’s office, and it was picked up by The Today Show where Lou was caught directly threatening Paul who happened to live in the same high rise building to which Jim Bob and Mary Louise had recently moved. Then Paul was murdered. I thought the weakest part of this story was that Jim Bob got involved in the murder investigation, and the Houston Police designated him to be a Special Investigator and supplied him with a gold badge. So, at least with regard to that detail, be prepared to suspend reality.

None-the-less, this story had a number of twists that I did not see coming. The main characters are easy to identify with. Basically, this may not be great literature, but it is a very enjoyable read. Bishop created some great bad men and bad women. It would keep you entertained on a flight from San Diego to Chicago.

Act of Revenge: A Medical Thriller
Chapter 2
by John Bishop, MD

Excerpted from Act of Revenge: A Doc Brady Mystery. Copyright © 2020 by John Bishop MD. All rights reserved. Published by Mantid Press.

Monday, February 10, 1997

“JIM BOB! Jim Bob? Can you hear me?”

I was stunned but not unconscious. My first concern was that I had sustained another head injury. I had been mugged a year and a half ago and had spent ten days in a coma after developing a subdural hematoma, a collection of blood between my brain and skull requiring surgery. The hair on my shaved head had taken seemingly forever to grow back out to a length and texture I could brush. I wasn’t prepared to go through all that again.

“I’m okay, I think,” I said to Mary Louise. She was kneeling down over me, skis off. “Thanks for not being in front of me. I might have hit you, too. Where’s the guy I ran into?”

“He’s up the hill. I’ll go check on him.” And with that, she headed back up the slope.

Since I had landed face down in the snow, I used my corduroy cap to clean off my goggles and face in an attempt to see what was going on. I was partially buried in the foot-high drift, but when I assessed that my extremities were intact and my vision was relatively normal, I managed to turn myself around.

I sat up and saw my wife kneeling down over the man I had run into twenty yards behind me. One ski was off, and the other was twisted about 45 degrees, half-buried in the snow. Unfortunately, his leg was still attached to it. My skis had come undone, and God only knew where they had landed. Probably in someone’s condo.

I had heard of a ski accident that occurred on the same slope wherein a crash between two skiers had resulted in a lost ski sailing down the hill and crashing through a picture window into the living room of a residence. No one was hurt, at least in the home, but I’m sure it gave them quite a start. And some decent kindling.

I abandoned my ski poles, which had still been attached to my wrists with their adjustable loops, and stepped up the hill to join Mary Louise and the unknown assailant. A thought crossed my mind that perhaps I was the unknown assailant. Whatever the situation, I hoped the man had experienced enough of a shock to render him an amnesiac but not unconscious or damaged.

“Are you okay?” Mary Louise was asking him repeatedly as I arrived on the scene. Several other skiers had gathered as well and had already placed their skis in the ground, tips up and crossed, the universal sign of an injury requiring the ski patrol’s attention.

The man was on his side. His eyes were open.

“Listen,” I said, “I’m a doctor. I need to check your pupils and your arms and legs. Don’t be frightened. Okay?”

He nodded.

His pupils reacted normally to light. I felt his neck.

“Any pain here?” I asked as I gently moved his cervical spine from side to side. “Any numbness? Arms or legs?”

He shook his head. “My leg . . . killing me.”

“I’m sure. I’ll get down there in a minute.”

The man’s arms, chest, head, spine, and right leg all seemed to be in working order. It was time to address the crucial issue.

“Listen,” I explained, “my name is Jim Brady. I’m an orthopedic surgeon from Houston. I need to check out this left leg and try to decide if you’ve got a fracture in your femur or tibia or if you’ve got a knee ligament injury. I may not be able to tell, but I’d like to try before the ski patrol arrives. Okay?”

“I don’t want you to move it. Hurts too bad.”

“Well, the medic will have to move it to get you onto the stretcher. Your leg’s kind of twisted out at an angle. If I can figure out what’s wrong, I may be able to make you more comfortable by moving it. Let me try.”

He nodded. I gently felt his femur, the thigh bone, with both hands. No pain. Same with the tibia and fibula, the two bones connecting the knee to the ankle. When I felt his knee, however, even through his bulky, waterproof ski pants, I could feel the enlarged joint. He winced.

“It’s your knee, probably a ligament tear. If I can get your ski off and straighten out the leg, you’ll feel a lot better. I want you to hang on for a minute.”

“Man, it’s killing me! Just leave it alone!”

I paused, then slid down toward his boot release, had Mary Louise support the ski to minimize the torque, and unsnapped his boot from the binding. He moaned for a second, but I quickly untwisted the leg, brought it parallel to the other, and laid it down.

“Damn it! I told you not to—huh. Feels better.”

“See,” I said, “you should have trusted me.”

“Sort of hard to trust a guy who runs you over, wouldn’t you say?”

I assumed amnesia wasn’t going to be a problem for him.

Two members of the ski patrol arrived on separate snowmobiles pulling stretchers. One of them had probably been intended for me. I was glad to decline it. I helped the medics get my victim onto the stretcher and bind him down to minimize the shock of the journey to Snowmass Ski Clinic. I felt obligated to accompany them.

“Are you by yourself? Is there anyone we can notify?” Mary Louise asked. “I’ll be glad to make a call. Whatever you need.”

“Guess you better call my wife, tell her I’m hurt. I hate to upset her, though.”

“Where are you staying?” she asked him.

“Wood Run Condos. Just down the hill. I was headed home.”

“So were we,” Mary Louise said. “Why don’t I just run by there. We’re at the Chamonix. You’re only a block or so away. How would that be?”

He nodded and sort of smiled. “That’d be real nice, ma’am. I’d appreciate

that.”

She looked at him for a minute, waiting. “I need your name and condo number,” she said patiently, like a schoolteacher waiting for a third grader to figure out the times tables.

“Oh, sure. Sorry. I’m Lou Edwards. Her name’s Mimi. We’re in 530 Wood Run. And thanks.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Mary Louise said, looking at me like she was very glad I was okay, but not happy that I had run over the poor man. I didn’t blame her.

About the Author:

John Bishop MD is the author of Act of Revenge: A Doc Brady Mystery. Dr. Bishop has practiced orthopedic surgery in Houston, Texas, for 30 years. His Doc Brady medical thriller series is set in the changing environment of medicine in the 1990s. Drawing on his years of experience as a practicing surgeon, Bishop entertains readers using his unique insights into the medical world with all its challenges, intricacies, and complexities, while at the same time revealing the compassion and dedication of health care professionals. Dr. Bishop and his wife, Joan, reside in the Texas Hill Country. For more information, please visit https://johnbishopauthor.com

The Order

The Order is the 23^rd book in Daniel Silva’s stories about Gabriel Allon, who started as an Israeli assassin who had killed six of the twelve Palestinian terrorists who murdered the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Now, Allon has progressed to being the director in charge of The Office, headquarters for Israel’s secret intelligence and undercover operations. If you’ve been following the blog, you know that Silva is my favorite author in this genre. There are so many great authors that we’ve reviewed in the blog, but he’s the best. He publishes one new book a year, which I read in a couple days and then wait impatiently for the next installment.

Silva has surrounded Allon with a great cast of characters, from his wife Chiari and heir boy-girl twins to the various personnel in The Office which have been with him since the first novel. This book may have been the most impressive plot yet as he looks at anti-Semitism and the Catholic Church. In this book, he has created the Gospel of Pilate which presents a different story about the responsibility for the death of Christ as it was revealed in Matthew and Luke, a story that prior popes have hidden, much to the detriment of Jews. Silva’s knowledge of the inner workings of the Catholic Church is impressive, and importantly, the Pope he saved in an earlier novel, has now been murdered. A new Pope is about to be elected, and the sinister forces within the Roman Curia, the body that helps the Pope administer the Vatican, become quite active in their attempt to take control of the Pope’s election.

It’s a great story based on thorough research. I’ll write nothing further, except to encourage you to read this book. But damn, now I have a whole year to wait for Silva’s next book.

 A year after the above was written, I decided to re-read The Order prior to reading Silva's next novel, The Cellist. In the review of The Order, I commented that I thought the book contained the most impressive plot yet, and I remain of that opinion. Silva's research is remarkable, and in reading this book, you'll get a good history of the world-wide antisemitic movement, as well as a snapshot of the its current status.

Payback

Lorenzo Carcaterra has written about a dozen books, but Payback is only my second Carcaterra novel and the second with protagonist Tank Rizzo, a disabled and retired New York City police detective. He was disabled following a shooting in which there were multiple deaths, and his beloved partner, “Pearl” Monroe was left a paraplegic who had been confined to a wheelchair for life. Tank was a good guy, honest, and dedicated, and two years after leaving the force, he sometimes was thrown a cold case by the Police Chief. Also, Tank was not afraid to use force to accomplish what he wanted to get done.

We are introduced to Detective Eddie Kenwood who had the opposite values from Tank. He forced some innocent people to sign confessions under threat of doing damage to them. He had put numerous suspects in prison, almost always young black men, for crimes they had not committed including Randy Jenkins. Jenkins had been accused of murder, and it was under threats from Kenwood that he felt he had no choice but to sign the false confessions. It was about two decades later that this matter fell into Tank’s lap. By that time, Kenwood was also retired and living on his pension and other ill-gotten gains. That was about the same time that Tank’s estranged brother and sister-in-law were killed in a car crash. Tank had no prior contact with his nephew, 15-year-old Chris, but since Tank was the only living relative, Chris was sent to live with him. By that time, Tank was living in his own brownstone, and he had Pearl come to live with him. So, now with Chris, three males were sharing the residence, and Chris was convinced his parents had been murdered. It was not clear if this living arrangement was going to work out. Chris was a computer whiz and he was able to hack his way into enough data that Tank thought Chris might be right about his parents’ deaths.

Carcaterra used some of the same characters as in his first book in the series including Carmine Tramonti, the restaurant owning former mobster, and Carmine’s daughter Connie with whom Tank had a longstanding relationship, and others. The author was successful at surrounding his protagonist with very interesting and believable characters. The plot was not simple, but it was also not overly complex. I was able to keep track of the good guys and bad guys without having to reread sections of the book. At no point did the author unnecessarily complicate the story in order to show the reader just how clever he is. In the course of this book, we learn about the reason Tank and his younger brother, Jack had not spoken to one another for years – a heart wrenching story. In reflecting back on the past and the loss of his brother long before death, the author wrote, “The past never leaves us. It hovers over us, hidden by the passage of time, waiting to strike when we least expect it. It can do damage or ease suffering, its path never truly known until it confronts us.”

Just as I raved about Carcaterra’s work in Tin Badges, and now I catch myself raving again about Payback. Great characters, great plot – and I highly recommend this author and this book. I loved it, and now I’ll be impatient until Carcaterra writes the next novel about Tank.