Men Reading Books

Wild Thing

2012-02-12T08:57:00.001-08:00

This is the second novel by Josh Bazel, and I raved about his first, Beat the Reaper, one of the best books written in 2009. Wild Thing is an equally wonderful ride. There’s an early Tom Robbins quality to his prose, which I find particularly appealing: bold observations, honest revelations, sometimes saucy language but not too much, all built around a fanciful, and possibly plausible story. Bazel actually weaves real science into the story, which he challenges with paper tiger arguments. (I think I’m using that reference correctly.) I started this one evening, and then got up early the next morning to finish it – definitely a book that caught my interest, and just as I could hardly wait for Bazel’s second book, now I’m equally eager for the third.

To start with, meaning going back to Beat the Reaper, the main character is Pietro Brnwa, although here he’s known as Lionel Azimuth. Pietro was a Mafia hit man, who had circumstances go a bit differently than planned. There was a death in a shark tank, and then the loss of his beloved Magdalena Niemerover, events which led him to rat out his Mafia boss and got him into the Federal Witness Protection Program. The Feds paid for this guy to go to medical school, and he became a doctor, and as expected for an assassin and martial arts master, he choses a less than common path as a physician. Despite the history of sociopathic behavior, he is steadfastly ethical in all that he touches. He starts out this book as a cruise ship doctor where he’s just been biding his time, bedding select passengers, and continuing to heal from the loss of Magdalena. Then, he gets hired off the boat by Rec Bill, a megabillionaire, to investigate the possibility of a real life, Loch-Ness-monster-type sighting at White Lake in Ford, Minnesota. Is it real or a scam? Rec Bill sends Brnwa/Azimuth and the lovely paleontologist Violet Hurst to figure it out. Bazel throws in a bizarre and enjoyable group of characters for his sometimes whimsical tale. His biggest surprise character comes at the halfway point, and I literally laughed out loud when the person was revealed. To tell you much more would give away too much. I loved this book.

The Shot by Phillip Kerr

2012-02-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

I guess it comes down to, "What would you do?"

Tom Jefferson is a Korean war ex-POW. Upon release, he is sent to a hospital in Japan to recover, meets up with a stunning caretaker, courts her, marries her, and takes her to the states. They settle in Miami where she finds work in the state democratic party helping get JFK elected. He works as a consultant doing what he learned in the army.

He was a sniper.

And one of his best clients is organized crime. They are not happy that Castro has sent them all packing in the name of a socialist state. That puts the mob in the uncomfortable position of siding with the FBI and CIA in wanting Cuba back the way it was. The mob hires Tom to assassinate Castro.

The Chicago mob is working hard to deliver Illinois for Kennedy, who is widely known for his bedding most any woman with a heartbeat, especially Marilyn Monroe. To make sure that Kennedy fulfills his campaign 'promise' to the mob for delivering Illinois, the mob has numerous audiotapes of the future president bedding any number of star struck ladies. While Tom is conducting his research on Castro, his mob contact takes Tom to his place to listen to a tape, maybe even a tape of JFK and Monroe. They have some drinks, get the tape recorder ready to run, and listen to JFK getting it on with an unknown woman.

Tom's wife.

Who ends up dead a few days later.

If you were a trained sniper and found out just who was shagging your now dead wife, what would you do?

Tom goes to ground, walks out on the Castro hit and changes his target to the president-elect. Using some former contacts, he learns of Kennedy's schedule up until the inauguration and starts to scout out locations. The mob ain't happy about him stiffing them on the Castro hit and sets a retired FBI agent and his team on Tom's trail.

Tom's best bet is Kennedy's visit to Harvard just after the new year. With the help of a couple of pro Castro ladies, they manage to spirit 2 freshmen out of their dorm room for a ski weekend and then set out to wait for Kennedy's visit.

(I'm going to guess that most readers aren't going to rush right out to get this 1999 copyright - that's code for SPOILER ALERT).

Tom and his partner, another pro Castro sympathizer, set up for the shot. They open the window, Tom sights the bridge of Kennedy's nose, pulls the trigger and 'click' as the firing pin strikes nothing. That's because the only shooting that day is with a film camera.

They easily walk out of the dorm amongst the crowd, leaving their equipment hidden in the dorm room to be found later by some government types. The film finds it's way to Cuba where Castro's security chief packages it up with a letter to the head of the CIA telling him that they got close once and if the US invades, they will get even closer the next time.

Interesting concept and reasonably plotted. But I found this clever story to plod along far too slowly for my tastes. Halfway through, I knew this was going to be a lesson in discipline. The only thing that kept me going was to see how Tom was going to nail Kennedy for nailing his wife. Kerr has a pretty substantial body of work, but I'm not very likely to venture back. But consider that the Bay of Pigs did occur, it offers a different take on Nov 22, 1963. Oliver Stone would be proud.

East Coast Don

The Overlook

2012-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

In this 2007 Harry Bosch novel, Harry is called out on his first case with the Robbery-Homicide Special Unit. There’s been an execution above Mulholland Dam. The victim was a physicist who helped calculate the doses of radioactive materials that were used to treat gynecological cancers. That meant he had access to materials that could be used in a dirty bomb, and this particular guy had access to the supplies at 30 different medical facilities around Los Angeles. With the potential threat to national security, the FBI was called in, as was Rachel Walling from Homeland Security, Harry’s one-time lover. But, Harry also has a life-time problem with federal agents, and he is not about to roll over when they try to take the case away from him. The feds’ interest is in the dirty bomb, Harry’s is the homicide. They find the dead guy’s beautiful wife hogtied on her bed at home, naked, but otherwise unharmed. A picture was on her dead husband’s phone, suggesting that he was being forced to cooperate with the terrorists, or his wife would be killed. There are good plot twists, and I did not see that last one coming. This one is good, entertaining read.

The Litigators

2012-02-04T18:25:00.001-08:00

David Zinc is a Harvard law grad, 31 years old, now working in a huge, multinational firm in downtown Chicago, making a lot of money, and hating every moment of it. His grandfather was a successful lawyer in Kansas City, and his father sat on the Supreme Court in Minnesota. David was bred for being a lawyer, so he can’t just walk away. But, David was exhausted and he wanted out, and he had no idea how to do that. One day, as he arrived at the office in the morning, he “snapped.” He set foot on the 93rd floor of his building, and then turned around and dove into the elevator before the doors could close. He ran to a nearby bar where he turned off his cell phone and proceeded to get polluted. He had no intention of ever returning to Rogan Rothberg again, but what was he to do? He had saved a little money, but he still had a wife who was trying to get pregnant, and he had a mortgage to pay. So desperate on the day of his “snap,” after he had been drinking all day long, he got in a cab to go home when in his fogged-over brain, he saw the address for a law firm on the side of a city bus, and he directed the cab driver to take him there. He stumbled into a two-man firm of ambulance chasers, literally. Finley & Figg. They were lousy attorneys and made very little money, certainly not enough to support David, which is what he got around to proposing. Then, when David returned there the next day, slimeball Wally Figg chased down another of his get-rich-quick schemes. He thought a certain hypercholesterol drug was causing side effects, including sudden death in some patients. Only thing, Wally had not done any research that would have shown him this was a good drug, even if the pharmaceutical company, the third largest in Big Pharma, had made other drugs that were not and had settled those cases for big money. The small firm could not afford to put on the case, so they teamed up with a big tort law firm that promised to front their expenses in exchange for a huge cut of their fees. But, when the drug proved to do what it advertised, lower cholesterol without killing people in the process, the tort firm waltzed away. The drug company did not want to just let it go. With thousands of lawsuits lining up against them across the nation, they wanted a decisive victory against the first case being brought against them, Wally Figg’s case. For reasons you’ll have to read about, first Oscar Finley and then Wally Figg were unable to appear in court, leaving this mess to a very unprepared David Zinc who had not seen the inside of a court room since Moot Court in law school And who does the big pharma company hire to defend itself, none other than his old firm, Rogan Rothberg, which has endless resources, the most capable and ruthless attorneys, and a good case. They want to scare off anyone else who might want to take them on.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

2012-02-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

‘The Winter of Our Discontent’ was John Steinbeck’s last novel and was written in 1960. It is about morality and how he felt American morals were decaying at that time. The book has a very solemn tone, a real downer. Yet it has a very powerful message, one that I find myself thinking about long after I’ve finished it. So if you are up for some dark introspection, this may be the book for you.

Ethan Allen Hawley lives in a small Long Island coastal town in the house of his ancestors. He is the descendent of New England shipping captains who once sailed the seas and brought treasures from faraway lands thus making them the wealthy aristocracy of the area. Ethan’s father lost the family fortune and Ethan lost the family grocery store, the last the Hawley’s businesses where Ethan is now a clerk. The old house filled with family heirlooms is the only material remains of his ancestors. His wife, Mary and their two children, Ellen and Allen, live in the old house with Ethan but often remind him what a failure he is: no car, no television, no family vacations, and no sense of adventure.

Mary has inherited $6000 from her brother and wants Ethan to invest it. But failure has made Ethan risk averse and he sees corruption all around him. The town leaders are all on the take and are positioning themselves to personally profit from the town’s planned expansion. Danny Taylor, his childhood friend and now the town drunk, holds a piece of property that developers are desperate to get control of for their future airport. The local banker approaches Ethan for help in getting the property away from Danny. The town vixen, Margie Young-Hunt visits his store a little too often and provides temptation both sexually and in business. She introduces Ethan to a food wholesaler who offers kickbacks to clerks rather than the owners. A bank clerk across the alley from the store gives Ethan a lesson on how to rob a bank and get away with it. Meanwhile, both of Ethan’s children enter a national essay contest to hail America’s greatness with a prize of notoriety and college tuition.

After many sleepless nights and several discussions with the canned goods in the grocery, Ethan slips off his moral high horse. The current owner of the grocery store is an illegal Italian immigrant who has grown to trust Ethan implicitly. Ethan anonymously turns him in to the immigration authorities and an investigation ensues. The store owner gives the store back to Ethan as the Italian prepares to be deported. Ethan gives Danny $1000 of Mary’s money for rehabilitation that he knows Danny will spend on booze and drugs. Danny deeds his property to Ethan before committing suicide. Ethan makes plans to rob the bank across the alley but is interrupted at the last moment without suspicion. Ethan visits Margie during one of his restless nightly prowls of the town but can’t bring himself to betray Mary. With financial success finally in his grasp, Ethan learns his son, Allen has won the national essay contest but was then disqualified for plagiarism. Ethan already guilt ridden slips into despair in the face of another failure, the failure as a parent.

This is the second time I’ve read this book. I read it before as a teenager, many years ago. It taught me some things about life and made me think about what kind of person I wanted to be. It scared me to think that just one or two bad choices could end so miserably. I think this was Steinbeck’s true gift; his ability to make his fictional dilemma your own. So while I don’t necessarily recommend you read this book (the critics have really torn it apart over the years) I do recommend you read something you read as a teenager. Maybe one of the classics you had to read for English class that impressed you in some way. It’s worth the trip to see what you’ve learned.

Joe by Larry Brown

2012-01-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

Let's clear up any misconceptions right now. Wade Jones is a no-account, low-life, wife-beating, scum sucking piece of white trash. No job, picks up tin cans for a little change, drags his wife, 2 daughters, and son around the southeast doing menial jobs, and squats his family in whatever abandoned structure he can find. And drinks, drinks, drinks.

Joe, the title character works in northern Mississippi doing some contract work for Weyerhauser. See they own a ton of prime timberland that is mostly covered by junk trees. Joe and his crew of daily employees go out to poison the trees so that good quality pine can be planted for future harvesting. But Joe is no saint. He drinks, whores, and gambles. Has spent 2 years in prison for assaulting a policeman and knows he'll go back for life probably if he doesn't toe the line, has a sometime girl no older than his out of wedlock and pregnant daughter, a dog that'll rip most anyone to shreds, and an ex-wife who gave up on Joe and his drinking ways.

Wade shacks up his family in a long abandoned 1 room log cabin. His son is 15, he thinks, and just wants to work so he can save up enough to buy a truck. That'd be their answer. He hooks up with Joe one day while both were wandering the back roads. And here, Joe gets the son he never had and the boy gains a father figure to replace the drunk back at the cabin.

Through a number of flashbacks, we learn that the Jones family actually had 5 kids. One daughter just ran off and a son fell out of a truck bed and was crushed by a trailing semi. The youngest daughter and mother have tried to retreat into themselves as best they can to escape. In one particularly despicable act, Wade tries to get some money for alcohol by selling his 12yo daughter's innocence to 2 back woods low life tramps who have a bit of an ongoing feud with Joe. While driving the boy back to the cabin, Joe comes across the exchange, sends the boy on home, takes out his gun, and realizing what he will be sacrificing for this little girl, settles some old and new scores.

This book follows up on my streak of the underbelly of the US. Larry Brown was mentioned as a possible inspiration for Donald Ray Pollack one cover blurb. This tale of desperation, failure, and final redemption at a huge cost was utterly vicious in its portrayal of a class of people none of us would want to cross. The dialogue is presented in a raw, coarse manner that most of us would need an interpreter for if it was spoken. As Stella is to dialogue of the NY street and Pelecanos is to the DC alleyways, Brown is to the Mississippi back country. Both an eloquent

and demeaning voice of a hidden society. A shame Brown died young, in his mid 50s. He could have shown us so much.

East Coast Don

The Orphan Master's Son

2012-01-30T09:08:00.001-08:00

This book gets my ringing endorsement. I, we, my family have been doing a crash course in reading on Korea, primarily because my daughter is living there now, on Jeju Island. "Jeju Jenna" has written this review that will appear in the next addition of the Jeju Weekly, the local ex-pat weekly paper, so she gets credit for the review - when was the last time you read a novel that was based in North Korea?

“The Orphan Master’s Son: A Novel” follows the story of North Korean orphan, Jun Do, as
he grows up and navigates the precarious political environment in his native country. Through
this one character, Johnson takes his reader on a journey through life in a communist country:
from an orphanage, to a soldier and DMZ tunnel inspector, to a government kidnapper, to a
radio transmission translator, to a prison camp, to an assumed member of the elite in Pyongyang.
Johnson expertly mixes the genres of fiction and magical realism to paint a very realistic and
bleak picture of life in North Korea.

In the spirit of the hyperbolic propaganda of the North Korean government, Johnson expertly
convinces his readers to believe the unbelievable. Born in an orphanage, among the lowest rungs
of society, Jun Do is subject to the whims of the government and he is transferred from one
dangerous job to another.

“’Where we are from…stories are factual. If a farmer is declared a music virtuoso by the state,
everyone had better start calling him maestro. And secretly, he’d be wise to start practicing the
piano. For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it
is the man who must change.’”

Over time, Jun Do begins to learn and understand the North Korean art of manipulation and uses
it to manipulate the Dear Leader himself, Kim Jung Il.

Johnson skillfully combines the unrealistic and realistic components of his story. Although this
is a work of fiction, Johnson’s beautifully haunting descriptions describe the culture of North
Korea better than any history book.

“No nation sleeps as North Korea sleeps. After lights-out, there is a collective exhale as heads his
pillows across a million households. When the tireless generations wind down for the night and
their red-hot turbines begin to cool, no lights glare on alone, no refrigerator buzzes dully through
the dark. There’s just eye-closing satisfaction and then deep, powerful dreams of work quotas
fulfilled and the embrace of reunification.”

Most illuminating are the comparisons and comments made about Korea’s greatest enemy,
America. Johnson employs his North Korean characters to look at America through their eyes, a
new perspective for the Western reader indeed.

Sun Moon, the national actress of North Korea, says to an American captive, “How does
a society without a fatherly leader work? How can a citizen know what is best without a
benevolent hand to shepherd her? Isn’t that endurance, learning how to navigate such a realm
alone-isn’t that survival?”

A typical propaganda story rings out over the loudspeakers espousing the virtues of virginity
and the evils of America, “Being the only animal with eyes sharp enough tosspot virginity,
witness our crow circle a Juche Youth Troop, and nod in approval as this lustrous avian performs
an aerial inspection of the reproductive purity. [The crow] won’t let ours become a nation
where people give names to canines, oppress others because of the color of their skin, and eat
pharmaceutically sweetened pills to abort their babies.”

“The Orphan Master’s Son” is an ambitious and insightful story. The protagonist, Jun Do is a
classic underdog the reader finds themselves routing for and forgiving him his slightly immoral
acts and character flaws. Johnson not only illuminates the nightmarish and illusive North Korea
but also explores the very meaning of love, sacrifice, truth and fiction, and glory.

The Orphan Master's Son

2012-01-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

“The Orphan Master’s Son: A Novel” follows the story of North Korean orphan, Jun Do, as
he grows up and navigates the precarious political environment in his native country. Through
this one character, Johnson takes his reader on a journey through life in a communist country:
from an orphanage, to a soldier and DMZ tunnel inspector, to a government kidnapper, to a
radio transmission translator, to a prison camp, to an assumed member of the elite in Pyongyang.
Johnson expertly mixes the genres of fiction and magical realism to paint a very realistic and
bleak picture of life in North Korea.

In the spirit of the hyperbolic propaganda of the North Korean government, Johnson expertly
convinces his readers to believe the unbelievable. Born in an orphanage, among the lowest rungs
of society, Jun Do is subject to the whims of the government and he is transferred from one
dangerous job to another.

“’Where we are from…stories are factual. If a farmer is declared a music virtuoso by the state,
everyone had better start calling him maestro. And secretly, he’d be wise to start practicing the
piano. For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it
is the man who must change.’”

Over time, Jun Do begins to learn and understand the North Korean art of manipulation and uses
it to manipulate the Dear Leader himself, Kim Jung Il.

Johnson skillfully combines the unrealistic and realistic components of his story. Although this
is a work of fiction, Johnson’s beautifully haunting descriptions describe the culture of North
Korea better than any history book.

“No nation sleeps as North Korea sleeps. After lights-out, there is a collective exhale as heads his
pillows across a million households. When the tireless generations wind down for the night and
their red-hot turbines begin to cool, no lights glare on alone, no refrigerator buzzes dully through
the dark. There’s just eye-closing satisfaction and then deep, powerful dreams of work quotas
fulfilled and the embrace of reunification.”

Most illuminating are the comparisons and comments made about Korea’s greatest enemy,
America. Johnson employs his North Korean characters to look at America through their eyes, a
new perspective for the Western reader indeed.

Sun Moon, the national actress of North Korea, says to an American captive, “How does
a society without a fatherly leader work? How can a citizen know what is best without a
benevolent hand to shepherd her? Isn’t that endurance, learning how to navigate such a realm
alone-isn’t that survival?”

A typical propaganda story rings out over the loudspeakers espousing the virtues of virginity
and the evils of America, “Being the only animal with eyes sharp enough tosspot virginity,
witness our crow circle a Juche Youth Troop, and nod in approval as this lustrous avian performs
an aerial inspection of the reproductive purity. [The crow] won’t let ours become a nation
where people give names to canines, oppress others because of the color of their skin, and eat
pharmaceutically sweetened pills to abort their babies.”

“The Orphan Master’s Son” is an ambitious and insightful story. The protagonist, Jun Do is a
classic underdog the reader finds themselves routing for and forgiving him his slightly immoral
acts and character flaws. Johnson not only illuminates the nightmarish and illusive North Korea
but also explores the very meaning of love, sacrifice, truth and fiction, and glory.

Celebration by Harry Crews

2012-01-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

My recent fascination with Donald Ray Pollack led me to Harry Crews who was mentioned on a Pollack jacket liner.

Celebration, Florida. Home to Forever and Forever, a large scale trailer park for the dying and nearly dying. Stump owns it. He lost his right hand by traumatic amputation in a farm accident. This girl wanders into the park and hooks up with Stump. She goes by Too Much and is in search of the 'chance of endless possibility.' After a few months of getting stump-fucked by Stump's stump, she figures out that the problem with all the residents is that they have forgotten how to live. Trailer by trailer, she brings folks to life using a variety of encouragements, few of which Stump understands. Why can't they just breathe until they die.

This is quite the slam on retirement centers. Crews leaves no aspect of retirement living (if he could call it that) and in the end Too Much just walks off. I could see some of the satire, but it wore on me after a while. Not sure I'm going to be in line for much more from Crews. A real acquired taste that didn't suit me.

East Coast Don

The Last Lie by Stephen White

2012-01-21T13:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve been a fan of Stephen White’s Dr. Alan Gregory character based thrillers since the beginning in the late 1980’s. Dr. Gregory is a clinical psychologist in Boulder, Colorado married to a deputy district attorney, Lauren. They live on the outskirts of town on a patch of 10 acres with only two homes, both decades old but with magnificent mountain views. In previous books both the husband and wife neighbors are murdered and Alan and Lauren have adopted the couple’s introspective 11 year old son, Jonas. 'The Last Lie' is the latest in the series but not his best. It is like touching base with an old friend and finding you have lost some of your connection.

‘The Last Lie’ begins as the neighboring house (formerly Jonas’ home) is sold. Alan gets off on the wrong foot with his new neighbor, TV-star lawyer Mattin Snow, by walking his dogs on Snow's property. After Snow's housewarming party, to which Alan is not invited, an unnamed female guest claims Snow raped her. With Snow’s livelihood at risk, the lawyers for both Snow and the victim quickly begin to work out a private financial settlement with the victim agreeing to complete confidentiality. Gregory becomes entangled in the case ethically when he learns that the victim is the patient of a psychologist-in-training under his supervision. Shortly after the alleged rape, the hired chef for the housewarming party is murdered. Lauren is assigned to the case as DA. To further complicate the situation, Sam Purdy, a Boulder police detective is Alan’s best friend and Alan’s office partner, Diane is a friend of his new neighbor’s wife. So, with all the professional confidentialities, Alan is unable to share or discover the true story of what took place from any one person. His relationships become tenuous with everyone including his new adoptive son who is still adjusting to his new life and grieving for his parents and former home.

As Alan collects bits and pieces of the events that took place the night of the housewarming party, he finds himself in a unique position to gain justice for all. But his knowledge of the events and his inability ethically to divulge that knowledge put his life and lives of his family in jeopardy.

White is a good story teller but I thought he droned on a bit with the detail in this one. He spends a lot of time developing characters we already know from previous books in the series. We get it he loves Boulder, Colorado. The scenery is beautiful and everyone is health and environmentally conscious….yada, yada, yada. What is interesting is the complexity of Alan's relationships with each character. He is forced to pump them for information in the most subtle ways thereby employing his own professional skills. He never really gets to be himself, always the psychologist even with family and friends. So, I’ll read more Stephen White for old time sake but I think it’s time for some new characters.

Father and Son by Larry Brown

2012-01-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

The liner notes for the 2 Donald Ray Pollack books compared his work with the late Larry Brown so I thought that was reason enough to check out Brown.

A cast of characters should help:

The Davis men: Virgil (semi disabled WWII POW) Randolph (aka Puppy), Glen (just paroled after serving 3 yrs of an 8 yr sentence for I guess was vehicular manslaughter), Theron (deceased)

The Blanchards: Mary (single mom, teacher), Bobby (her son, the county sheriff).

Jewel (single mom), David (her 4yo son)

Puppy has just picked up Glen after his parole was granted. Glens meanness dates back to probably elementary school or before. Mean from birth? Probably. Upon getting back to their hometown (unnamed) in northern rural Mississippi (circa 1968), Glen appears to have changed little and seems bent on settling some old scores. Outside of being just downright angry at everything and everybody (except, strangely, a fallen preacher), Glen does little other than smoke, drink, and create trouble everywhere.

And Glen has an eventful week. Jewel was his girl who bore him a son whom he refuses to acknowledge. In his first 48 hours, he beds Jewel and then just leaves, commits a double homicide over a simmering insult, rapes a local girl after getting her drunk, steals money from his father, and assaults Mary.

The question that Brown addresses is whether evil is embedded at birth or due to circumstances. And there are circumstances all over the place:

1. Glen's mom dies while he is in prison and he wasn't allowed to attend the funeral.

2. Virgil, his dad, was a drunk who sought the company of Mary years ago that has continued.

3. Jewel relishes the relationship that David has with his grandfather, but Glen seethes about it.

4. Bobby, the sheriff who is as upright and honorable as Glen is evil, and Jewel have circled each other and grown close, but Jewel said she'd wait for Glen to get out and she did, but regrets that decision.

4. Theron, the deceased brother/son was killed in an accidental shooting at home.

5. Bobby, out on patrol, comes across a white trash couple so far down the evolutionary scale that even the low life folks who are the subject of this story look uptown. The children tell him a tale that shocks even the most hardened of cops.

6. And Glen's mom? Was her death due to cancer, as Glen was told, or by her own hand?

The events circle each other until the expected end occurs by an entirely unexpected manner. The story just sort of fades out like a movie when Bobby, Mary, and Jewel drive up to Virgil's shack where he and David are quietly rocking watching a sunset.

The story revolves around multiple Father/Son relationships: Virgil/Glen, Glen/David, the evolving Bobby/David, and (I'll reveal this cuz I doubt many will run right out to read this exceedingly dark, somewhat depressing, but entirely intelligent and literate book), Virgil/Bobby. Some are contentious, some ignored, some kept secret, but always riveting and will make any father look at his own relationship with his son. One review I read said this book will stick with you for a long time. Can't say that about many of the books I've reviewed here at MRB, but I can say unequivocally that, for me at least, this one will. After but a single work by Brown, were I teaching a course in Modern American Literature, Brown would be on my "Required Reading" list. He's that good.

East Coast Don

Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson

2012-01-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

Walter Issacson spent two years doing over 40 interviews to research and write Steve Jobs’ biography. Jobs sought out Issacson and authorized his work but instructed him to tell it like he saw it. Jobs never read the final product. An example of his vision, an accurate portrayal of Steve Jobs’ life became available almost simultaneously with his death.

Born in 1955 to a Wisconsin master’s student and a Syrian PHD, Steve’s unwed parents give him up for adoption. His birth parents stipulate only that his adoptive parents provide Steve with a college education. His adoptive parents living near Palo Alto, CA are not as educated as his birth parents but recognize Steve’s brilliance early on and treat him as special. They encourage his electronic hobbies and forgive his social miscues. Steve decides to go to Reed College in Portland, OR, an academically rigorous and liberal school. Steve quickly loses interest in the academics and feels guilty about spending his parent’s money for naught. He drops out but stays to audit a variety of classes that later serve him well including calligraphy. He also meets some of his lifelong friends that encourage his interest in Buddhism and Zen and lead him to try several recreational drugs including LSD which he credits with expanding his awareness.

Out of money, he returns to Los Altos to live with his parents. He meets Steve Wozniak at an electronics club. Woz is a few years older than Jobs and works for Hewlett Packard as an engineer. Jobs takes a job for Atari, an electronic game company but ends up working the late, late shift because he can’t get along with coworkers. Woz and Jobs are unlikely friends but complement each other in business and invention. Woz is the creative and tireless engineer and Jobs is the visionary product development and marketing wizard. Together they develop the first Apple computer and found the Apple Company. The rest is history. Jobs goes on to change to way we work, play and communicate. He was a pioneer in developing personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

Rather than summarize his life, let me share some interesting information about Jobs. In his 20’s even after founding Apple he dressed like a hippie. He thought his strict vegetarian diet precluded the need for daily showers and simple hygiene. He had a daughter out of wedlock at age 23 but had trouble relating to her even when in her early teens she came to live with him and his wife. His intensity and obsession about work made his personal and family relationships very difficult. He often thought about his own adoption and how it created insecurities in his life even though he loved his adoptive parents. He loved Bob Dylan’s music. He lived very modestly for his income.

He was intensely focused on whatever project he was working on. He bluntly told people when he didn’t like their work but would sometimes later warm up to the idea and claim it as his own. He would many times cry after a confrontation with an adversary. He never did any customer research to ask the customer what they wanted. He simply created products his customer never dreamed they wanted and showed them why they couldn’t do without it. He was a perfectionist in everything he did. His products often were late being released because of the minor last minute changes he would order. He took great care in hiring people but many times hired them on the spot. He believed 'A' people wanted to work with other 'A' people. He had no patience for second rate.

He thought his products should be simple, stylish and completely integrated. The novice should be able to pull it out of the box, plug it in and use it intuitively with little or no instruction, a pleasant experience. He valued developing and marketing first rate products over profit. He would often take long walks to discuss a business venture with an employee or business partner rather than sit in a conference room. He detested Powerpoint style presentations and preferred hands on models when developing products. He made engineering, design, and marketing people all work on the same team during product development rather than pass it down the line from department to department. Jobs and Bill Gates knew each other very well and actually did some projects together. Their greatest philosophical difference in business was Gates’ openness to collaboration and the sharing and selling of ideas and Jobs’ commitment to creating, developing and exclusively marketing his own ideas, to perfection.

I don’t usually read biographies. They generally aren’t that interesting in their mundane chronological listing of events. Plus, I’m usually disappointed to discover the human frailties in supposed great people. But this book was actually fun to read. There were many ‘I remember that’ moments. Jobs truly did change so much in our culture and makes you feel like you lived through something important. And yet you are struck by how such a childish, bad tempered brat could enlist his vision and brilliance to change the world.

The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollack

2012-01-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

This 2011 copyright is Pollack's 2nd. The followup to the acclaimed Knockemstiff recently reviewed here. Welcome to the sad, cruel world of southern Ohio and West Virginia circa 1945-1965 where Pollack weaves 3 separate stories into a cohesive statement of despair and the search for redemption desired by desperate people.

Story 1: Mid 1940's. Willard Russell returns from WWII in the south Pacific where he was witness to horrors no one should ever have to remember. No wonder he questions the existence of a God having seen what he's seen. But he is one of the many who came home, rolled up his sleeves, and started back to work and raise a family. He and his wife Charlotte are raising Arvin near Knockemstiff, Ohio in a rundown house off a 2 wheel dirt track just inside the tree line. But his wife takes ill and Willard comes back to religion, praying twice daily with Arvin and offering animal sacrifices at his prayer log up in the woods. When one of 2 drunk hunters comments on how he'd like to tap Willard's wife, Arvin is stunned that his dad doesn't come to her defense. But he does in his own time, beating the guy so severely that he is left to sit on a store's porch with a tomato coup can strung around his neck to catch his drool. Arvin never forgets. No amount of praying can save Charlotte from the cancer. Willard sends Arvin off to live with his wife's parents (Emma and Earskell) in Coal Creek, West Virginia and goes off to the prayer log to keep his wife's memory alive. His parents also have the orphaned pre-teen Helen living with them since her parents died in a fire.

Story 2: Advance now by about 10 years. Roy is a backwoods preacher from Topperville while his crippled cousin Theodore plays the guitar in the background. They do tent services and guest shots at the rural churches in West Virginia where Roy shows his faith by handling spiders. All things considered, they are doing OK. When they do a service in Coal Creek, Roy takes a shine to Helen (story #1) marries her and they bring Lenora into the world. Problem is that Roy has grown closer to Helen's charms (wink, wink) and begins to lose his preaching touch. Roy then feels the Lord is telling him he has the gift of resurrection and wants to try it out on some animals. Theodore convinces him that won't get them a radio deal, that only raising a human will sell. When Roy's first and only attempt fails, Roy and Theodore run off to the carnival sideshow life in the southeast leaving Lenora to live with the only parents his wife Helen ever knew, Emma and Earskill, who now have Arvin and Lenora to raise.

Story 3. Carl and Sandy Henderson are really something. He is a fat prick. With his camera and wife in tow, they pick up 'models' hitchhiking on the backroads of the midwest and plains states (but not Ohio. One of Carl's rules: don't shit in your own bed). They toy with their marks, getting them all hot and bothered over Sandy eventually turning off on some side road, laying out a blanket for their 'model' and Sandy to get it on only to have Carl put a .38 slug in their head, and then take pictures of Sandy and the corpse. In between trips, they mostly squat in a shack near Meade in southern Ohio while Sandy waits tables and turns tricks for extra money. They've been at this for 4 years, heading out each summer for a 2-3 week 'vacation'. And did I mention that Sandy is the sister of the sheriff of the county where they live? Her bro' Lee, as crooked as they come, is certain her hooking is going to eventually kill any chance at reelection.

Pollack collects the seemingly disparate stories together another 10 years later in the middle 1960's. Coal Creek's new preacher has the taste for teenage girls, impregnating Lenora who flips out, leaving Arvin to exact some measure of justice for Lenora. Theodore dies in the woods of Florida setting Roy off on a journey of redemption back to Coal Creek to see the daughter, Lenora, he gave up years ago. And Carl and Sandy decide to 'vacation' in the southeast instead of the midwest. Roy is hitchhiking in Tennessee when he gets picked up by Carl and Sandy. Arvin has to leave Coal Creek after the incident with the preacher and is headed for where his parents met and he was born. En route, his car falls apart and, you guessed it, has to hitchhike where, you guessed it again, Carl and Sandy pick him up. The resulting carnage brings Sandy's cop brother into play.

Whew. I'm not quite sure what to call this. Pollack pulls no punches in giving the reader an unsympathetic portrayal of the pathetic lives of the characters that populate his work. I don't think Pollack's goal is to get the reader to either identify with or become sympathetic to his characters (OK, maybe Arvin). This is fierce and unrelenting storytelling that drew me into his world with none of the cliff-hanger tricks in each chapter so common in mass market fiction these days. Other reviews say Pollack is an important new voice in American literature. I'm not quite sure what he is saying, but that won't stop the reader from paying attention. Serious stuff here, boys and girls. I wonder how long it will be before his 3rd.

East Coast Don

Pronto by Elmore Leonard

2012-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

With the 3rd season of Justified to begin Jan 12 on FX, I decided to tune up by reading another Elmore Leonard book based on Justified's main character, Deputy US Marshall Raylan Givens. While Justified is set in Raylan's home of Harlan County, Kentucky, this takes us back a few years to the time when Raylan, and his ever present Stetson, was a bit of a fish out of water based in Miami.

Harry Arno is a Miami bookie working for Jimmy Cap, a regional mob boss. Harry has his own way of keeping track of his bettors and has run a decent sports book for some time sending a steady stream of money Jimmy Cap's way. But Harry has also had an eye on his future seeing as he is nearing retirement. Having served in Italy during WWII, he's settled on a quiet retirement in a nice little villa in Rapello on the NW Italian coast. Plans to purchase it with the cash he's been skimming from Jimmy Cap. Maybe even take his sometime girlfriend/model Joyce.

The local FBI is having one of its periodic hard ons for the Miami mob and one particularly nasty agent corners Harry and says he's gonna let out the word that Harry has been skimming unless Harry agrees to help the fibbies get evidence on Jimmy Cap.

Harry isn't too keen on that, thinking Jimmy just might believe the feds and put Harry out of a job, permanently. Enter Raylan Givens. Raylan's been teaching weapons at the Glynco, Georgia federal academy. About the time Raylan is due to get reassigned to the field in Miami, his wife tells Raylan she's staying in Glynco with their 2 sons (the sons are a detail left out of the TV show). In Miami, Raylan gets the call to bring Harry in, because that's what the Marshall's service does. About 8 years earlier, Raylan was escorting Harry to Chicago to testify when Harry just walked away when they were changing planes in Atlanta. Same thing happens again in Miami this time.

Harry decides the time is right and bolts Miami for Italy. The scene now shifts to Rapello. Jimmy Cap has sent Nicky, a bit of a dimwitted excuse for muscle eager for his first kill, and the Zip, a Sicilian by birth and unrepentant gun thug by occupation. Raylan knows where Harry is headed, but doesn't know where he'll be living. Jimmy's crew and Raylan arrive about the same time only to engage in an unfriendly tango while trying to find Harry. In the meantime, Joyce answered Harry's call to come to Italy.

The Italian venture turns out not to be to Harry's liking. He, Joyce, and Raylan, after some shenanigans, go back to Miami followed by Nicky and the Zip. Raylan tells Jimmy Cap to lay off Harry that he didn't do anything wrong (but he really had, Raylan's always had a bit of a liking for Harry) and that while in Italy Raylan learned that the Zip was setting himself up to off Jimmy Cap and take over the Miami bookmaking business.

It's hard to go wrong with Elmore Leonard. He has written some of the most colorful mysteries and I've yet to pick up a dud. Leonard carefully gets you to like the good guys and think poorly of the bad guys. There is enough humor to bring a smile to the hard boiled reader and enough blood letting for we male fans. In some ways, Raylan and Pronto reminded me a bit of one of my favorite Leonard characters, Chili Palmer from Get Shorty. Cool, calm, violent only when provoked, but endearing in spite of his history.

When my search for new authors hits a bit of a lull, I know I can always pick up most any Elmore Leonard book (or Ken Bruen, Michael Connelly, et al.) at random and know it'll be an enjoyable read.

East Coast Don

Headstone

2012-01-01T05:32:00.001-08:00

This is the 15th Ken Bruen book that has been reviewed in the blog, so you know we, especially me, like Bruen a lot. As usual, the protagonist is Jack Taylor, an alcoholic, former cop, now a private detective. In prior books, Taylor is either struggling to stay sober or agonizing in relapse as he fights to regain his sobriety. In this book, he starts off drunk, does not draw a truly sober breath throughout the book, and is still drunk as the book ends. But, he’s much worse for the effort having been mugged and permanently mutilated, while also inflicting death on the bad guys. Bruen’s book are about character development and are not just driven by unexpected plot shifts, and he frequently makes references to literature and music that his characters are involved with at the moment. Taylor has to be the most literate and cultured of the depraved people I’ve ever read about. This is a good story, but it is also very, very dark. If you are in the mood for an uplifting escape, this is not for you. On the other hand, if you’re in the mood for Irish angst and melancholy, this is your ticket.

The Drop

2011-12-28T21:41:00.001-08:00

This is the 15th and most recent Harry Bosch novel, and it was written in 2011. Harry and his partner David Chu are working in the Open-Unsolved Unit which goes after convictions on cold cases based on new DNA hits. Their new case is about the death of Lily Price who was 19 years old when she was snatched off the street in Venice, California, raped, tortured, and murdered in 1989. But the blood from the scene, which had always been thought to be that of the killer is newly linked to a man who was only 8 years old at the time of the killing. Did the detectives at the time screw up the evidence? Did the lab contaminate something? No. The blood did belong to young Clayton Pell who was in the government’s data base because, as an adult man, he had become a convicted child molester, a predator himself. At the time of the murder 22 years before, Pell was being physically and sexually abused by a man known only as Chill. The same belt that Chill used to strangle Lily was the same one that he had used to whip Pell. Of course it took a while for Bosch and Chu to figure it out. Bosch does not trust or approve of Chu, so these partners are on the rocks with each other throughout the book. Chill turns out to be a serial-killing monster. The whole matter is complicated by the involvement of Irvin Irving and his son George. Irvin, on the city counsel, has long been an enemy of the LAPD and has been influential in forcing through budget cuts. His son, a former cop and lawyer, was an influence peddler, mostly selling his dad’s influence. Connelly expertly intertwines those story lines. “The Drop” is a double entendre. On the one hand, it refers to the LAPD’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan which might allow Harry to continue in his role as LAPD’s best detective for an extra five years. On the other hand, it refers to George Irvin’s “drop” from the 7th story of the Chateau Marmont. The senior Irving, despite his negative past with Bosch, insists that Bosch be the lead detective on the case in order to prove that his son had not committed suicide, but Harry learns a lot more than what the old man wanted him to find. There are some good minor subplots with excellent characters, including Harry’s smart 15-year-old daughter and Pell’s therapist, a possible but damaged love interest for Harry. This was a very good book, a very fast read. It gets my strong recommendation.

Blood Trail by C.J. Box

2011-12-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

Now I don't know the details of the Joe Pickett's backstory like how he got to be so buddy-buddy with the Governor, what he did to get his duty station yanked and assigned to the Governor's office, and importantly how he developed a friendship with Nate Romanowski and what did Nate do end up in jail. I just jumped in and held on tight.

The game warden's office is funded primarily through hunting and fishing licenses. And that could be a problem because the Governor has shut down hunting in Wyoming.

Three hunters have been killed. While the first 2 could be considered as accidents, the third rules out accidental death. The third guy was shot, strung up like an elk, gutted, and his head removed. A red poker chip was under the carcass in the grass. And upon further review, a poker chip was found with the other two.

The fish and game boss is so spooked he abandons his office to head up the investigation and brings a friend, 'someone I can trust' (he couldn't trust his own officers?). While tracking the shooter, the friend and another officer are shot; 5 dead. No wonder the Governor shut down hunting until the shooter is found.

Enter Klamath Moore, an animal rights activist bound to spread the gospel of Moore to the gathering media. His wife is a native American who grew up on the local reservation and was a basketball player of some note before a sick grandmother and living on the edge dragged her down into the dumps until she met up with Klamath.

The Governor inserts Joe into the investigation that includes Fish and Game, local cops, and the FBI. While all eyes are on Moore's entourage, Joe's instincts say otherwise and manages to finagle the Governor agreeing to let Nate Romanowski out of jail to help Joe get to where the law can't be expected to operate. And no sooner does Joe get Nate into the search area, Nate disappears and Joe is in everyone's doghouse for not having solved the case and for losing Nate. The boss is nervous, the Governor is under pressure, Moore is crowing about the hunters getting what they deserved and the best bet for a solution is Pickett's former boss who happens to be biding his time in prison (more missing backstory) and wants his sentence commuted in exchange for his testimony. Be careful what you wish for former Mr. Warden . . . Nate is still out of jail.

This is only my 2nd Joe Pickett book, but this was one of the better mystery stories I've read recently. The locale, the detail, the plotting, and twists all remind us why Box is an Edgar winner and NYT bestseller. How in the world did we miss him?

What else is there to say? Can you say power rotation? Thanks to Midwest Dave for the introduction to Box.

East Coast Don

Full Black by Brad Thor

2011-12-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

Full Black picks up where Foreign Influence left off. The shadowy Charlton Group, a group that operates way, way under the radar of governmental oversight, has hired Scot Harvath.

Harvath’s team has caught a very high placed Islamic terrorist in Yemen, tucking him into Harvath's trunk. As they clean up, the car is destroyed by an RPG.

The second in command runs his cell out of Uppsala, Sweden. Harvath’s team intercepts a new member of the cell and plant one of their own inside. After learning of the cell’s safe house, the team prepares for the takedown only to hit a snag (I’m minimizing a lot of things here) sending Harvath home to wallow in his own self doubt.

Meanwhile . . .

Larry Solomon, a big time Hollywood producer, and a couple young documentarians are putting together a film that traces the activities of James Standing, the mega billionaire head of a hedge fund that has been handing the investments of the most politically extreme lobbying groups. After a typical Hollywood schmooze-fest, the drunk producer and his friend-bodyguard find the 2 filmmakers dead in Solomon's home with Russian Spetznatz agents looking to finish the job. They hadn’t counted on the friend/bodyguard being ex-SEAL . . .

. . . A senior MI5 agent who arranged the hit is trying to find out what happened in Uppsala because he answers to the Sheik of Qatar who seems to be pulling all the string and the Sheik ain't happy.

The hedge fund boss, Standing, is a committed globalist, bent on bringing down the US in order to remake the world according to his vision. To do so, he uses a Chinese directive he stole called ‘unrestrictive warfare’. The Chinese feel they will have to face down the US, but can’t match US firepower head to head and devise a plan to attack the US across multiple fronts by taking out the power grid, the internet, transportation, the stock market, and more to paralyze the US economy and will at home. Standing decides to start with multiple massed attacks on American safe havens starting with a coordinated attack on dozens and dozens of movie theaters.

Harvath, now aided by The Troll from Foreign Influence whom Harvath got the Charlton Group to hire, track a cell to LA where they are leading a massive attack on US airports. With the aid of Solomon’s SEAL bodyguard, Harvath learns of who hired the Russian killer team who gives up the MI5 agent who in turn gives up the Sheik.

380 pages . . . 24 hours. Think I liked it? Full Black start fast and picks up speed with each chapter. Some readers might not like some of Thor’s pontificating and what might be considered judgmental preaching. For example, justifying Harvath as judge, jury, and executioner (chapter 24), a Cliff’s Notes version of the concept of globalization (actually thought this was informative as I’ve never really thought much about it) vs capitalism (Chapter 32), the US right or wrong (Chapter 35). But even those rip right along without missing a beat.

Make no mistake, this is a right wing, testosterone-laced, political action thriller and one’s personal politics shouldn’t be the reason for picking this up or passing. Action thrillers are about action, politics be damned. Authors stays on my power rotation based on ‘what had you done for me recently.’ Thor has been an appointment read ever since The Lions of Lucerne, and except for one hiccup (Athena Project), remains entrenched in my power rotation.

East Coast Don

Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock

2011-12-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

This is a real town, or rather a collection of decrepit shacks and trailers, in southern Ohio, just SW of Chilichothe, maybe 70 miles straight south of Columbus (home of THE Ohio State University) and probably a half hour north of Portsmouth, which sits on the Ohio River. Yes, it really does exist even though this is entirely fiction.

Pollock has assembled a series of interconnected short stories about the people who live in and around Knockemstiff, a place where “the hillbillies wouldn’t watch a TV show that had blacks on it.” Best I can tell, it begins in the 50s or 60s and runs up to about the 1990s, but the presentation is not chronological, nor does it need to be.

We open up a recount of Vern, a loud, uncouth papermill worker, his wife and 7 yo son Bobby at a drive-in theater. This is where Bobby sees his dad pick a fight in the canteen can with some bigger guy and damn near kill him right there in the toilet. The vic’s son, older than Bobby, tries to intervene and Bobby does his level best to keep the other kid out of the melee. On the way back to the car, Vern says to Bobby “You did good.” Bobby would remember this as “the only goddamn thing my old man said to me that I didn’t try to forget.”

Pollock then takes us through random acts of the locals. Like the 15yo kid who wanders along a creek, witnesses incest between neighbors slightly younger than he, decides he wants in, whacks the kid, takes the girl, drowns her, stuffs them in a small cave, and continues on with his life.

Those are just 2 of the 18 stories in this book. Characters go in and out of the tales, but each chapter is an end unto itself. Considering the behavior and actions of the locals, one would think that the inbreeding comes from the same tree that doesn’t branch. These people are some of the lowest, most degenerate, disgusting, dirty, mean, criminal people on the planet. They eat the 4 primary food groups: processed cheese, toast, baloney, fish sticks followed with a dessert of Oxy washed down with anything liquid that is handy. And if it isn’t Oxy, they might be sniffing Bactine from a plastic bag.

“Forgetting our lives might be the best we can do” sort of sums up what each of the characters do with their time. They all seem to “crave junk food the way a baby craves a tit.” And it’s not just the characters that seem to have risen out of the brine of the earth’s belly because “the damp gray sky covered southern Ohio like the skin on a corpse.”

As the decades pass, the locals fall prey to their own misdeeds like the guy with the metal plate in his head, the kid who sniffed too much junk and now does little more than scratch at his scalp, the 2 teenagers who keep trying to get a third laid (so he would be constantly berated by his dad for being a virgin), Vern has had 3 heart attacks and sits stuck to his fake leather easy chair, some grandfather who is still reliving Korea but refuses to wear adult diapers. One slowly decaying slug has an epiphany of sorts when he realizes, “that anything I do to extend my life is just going to be outweighed by the agony of living it.”

Pollock apparently grew up in the region and worked the paper mill and other hard labor jobs, but has worked his way into an MFA program in creative writing at Ohio University in nearby Athens (full disclosure: I have degrees from both Ohio U and THE Ohio State University). One would have to consider that if the author gets high praise from Chuck Palahniuk that it would have to be pretty strange . . . and addicting . . . but still very strange.

So, should one willingly choose to pick up a book about desperate souls whose only glimpse of hope is tied up in movie mags who shiver in a nothing town of tilted trailers and abandoned cars hard by the dump, who get so sick from eating real food that they have the squirts in an alley only to get humiliated by local cops, all for some Oxy stolen from a nursing home? Only if you are afraid of being drawn into this sometimes violent and downright shitty world where Robert Earle Keen’s ‘Merry Christmas From The Family’ could be the God’s honest truth. If so, you might be missing one of the more literate presentations of (yes, I’ll say it) literature based in “a place people had grown up in, but never felt like home.”

East Coast Don

Feast Day of Fools

2011-12-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

This is the third of three novels with Sheriff Hackberry Holland as the protagonist. Hackberry, or Hack, is a very interesting but fault-laden hero. A veteran, not of Vietnam, but of Korea, he’s got a bad case of PTSD. At least he’s gained some measure of control over his alcoholism and lust for prostitutes. But he continues to struggle with nightmares and flashbacks to the war. His past intermittently haunts him, and having treated hundreds of cases of PTSD, Burke does a pretty good job of representing that condition. This book is a direct follow-up to Rain Gods, which was previously and favorably posted in the blog. Hack is now nearly 80 years old, but still serving as the elected sheriff of his county. The most evil guy you’ve ever heard of, Preacher Jack Collins, reappears. He was presumed dead at the end of Rain Gods, but now he’s back. Like Burke has done before, he throws a myriad of psychopaths at the reader, each with a different take on the current drama, whose story lines eventually crash into each other in unexpected ways. Hack’s deceased wife is a constant presence for him and serves as a nice source of tension in his interactions with Deputy Pam Tibbs, who previously was nearly killed by Collins, and with Anton Ling, one of the main players in the story. Ling provides Burke with the mechanism to write about Mexicans who sneak into the U.S. and the hardships they face in doing so. The action unfolds in the stretch of flat barren lands that spans Texas and Mexico. Burke does a good job with surprising changes in alliances among the characters, none of whom strike me as being “normal” folks. You don’t need to know more – it’s a good read.

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

2011-12-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

'Faceless Killers' was Henning Mankell’s first Kurt Wallander mystery but achieved international best seller status and was later the motivation for a BBC TV series and played on PBS Masterpiece Theater. While the storyline was very interesting and compelling, the writing was poor. I later learned it was translated from Swedish to English so perhaps it’s the translation that is lacking.

The mystery is set in Ystad, Sweden where the main character, Kurt Wallander is lead detective and interim Police Chief while his boss is away on a long holiday. Wallander is in his mid forties and disappointed where life has taken him. He struggles with loneliness because his wife unexpectedly left him and his close ties with his daughter have been severed. He has to deal with an aging, possibly senile, father and his attraction to the new female district attorney who happens to be married. Plus, he's drinking too much and putting on weight due to a steady diet of pizza and fast food.

The story begins with an elderly farmer’s discovery that his neighbors, also elderly, have been murdered. The husband has been gruesomely tortured and killed and his wife left for dead. Before she dies in the hospital, her last word is "foreign." With anti-immigrant sentiment running high already, the last thing the police need is for this to slip out to the media, but someone in the department leaks the information and suddenly refugee camps in the area are being firebombed. When a Somali refugee is killed, seemingly at random, Wallander and his staff have two highly charged cases to solve.

Yet Wallander has difficulty focusing on his work with all his personal problems. He spends much of his time brooding about the state of the world and the state of his society and he is sympathetic to the anti-immigrant mentality. He's concerned that just about anyone, even undesirable characters, can come to the country and request asylum. And, the system is ill equipped and underfunded to monitor and locate all the refugees. But tracking down the murderer of the Somali refugee is his job and he does it, even with all his personal distractions.

This book was given to me by my daughter’s friend who picked it up on the recommendation of a West Village boutique bookstore owner in NYC. As I read it I struggled with the writing and that overshadowed the message. (You know the feeling you get when two pages stick together and you are on the third or fourth line of the new page and you think, ‘I must have missed something’? Well, that kept happening…..but in the middle of the page.) But the longer it’s been since I finished this book, the more I find myself thinking about the substance of the story. From the few Europeans I know, I understand the immigration issue is a growing concern and is burdening their economies. I know holidays are very important in the European culture but are often resented by those left behind to cover. Mankell seems to point out several growing social issues but offers no solutions other than we are all in this together and must carry on. Perhaps that’s why the popularity. Now I’m sufficiently interested to try another Henning Mankell novel, hopefully a better translation next time.

Just One Look by Harlen Coben

2011-12-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Ordinary day. Grace Lawson drops his kids at school, picks up some art supplies and some pics from a roll of film she dropped off last week. While sitting at a stoplight, she notices a photo of 5 college students from a recent era. She shows the pic to her husband; he sure looks like one of the people in the photo. He looks, makes a call a bit later, walks out the door and disappears.

An assistant US attorney is told the death of his sister in a fire wasn't an accident. The police aren't much help, and a guy skilled at killing with his hands just got out of the joint. A lady whose kids attend the same school has a hobby - flashing her accountant neighbor - but one day sees a stranger ducking out of the accountant's house. And there must be 3 or 4 more strange coincidences that all happen when Grace gets this picture.

About 15 years ago, Grace attended the concert of rocker Johnny X. Gunshots were fired and the resulting stampeded, the so-called Boston Massacre, killed 15 people and left Grace with a huge concussion and a limp. About 2 weeks of Grace's life were summarily erased that night.

Grace doggedly pursues minor clues that eventually seem to tie the disconnected deaths together. But, to rob a line from Lee Corso from GameDay on ESPN, "Not so fast.' Coben does one of the more jaw dropping reveals in the very last couple pages, none of which were expected. Holy cow did most of the reveal come from out of nowhere even if he had been dropping hints for over 300 pages.

And that's what will keep me coming back to more Coben. Can you say Power Rotation? I sure can.

East Coast Don

Eye of Vengeance by Jonathon King

2011-12-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

I started reading King's Max Freeman series, all (so far) of which have been favorably reviewed here. This is King's first standalone novel.

There's a skilled sniper working in South Florida. Veteran crime reporter Nick Mullins sees the results first hand when he witnesses the murder of a convicted pedophile during a routine prisoner transfer.

Now Nick has some serious demons. Three years ago, after a quarrel, his wife died in a traffic accident, killed by a drunk who is now being paroled. Nick went off the deep end for a while, but rehabbed by working, leaving his Cuban housekeeper to raise his daughter. Another parolee gets cut down in from of the parole office. Then two more.

The sniper turns out to be a SWAT team member, recently back from a tour as an Army sniper in Iraq. After some digging, soul searching, and the sharp eye of the newspaper research maven, Nick figures out that the sniper is using Nick's stories of mayhem as his observer choosing targets. But the police and the Secret Service don't buy it. They think the sniper is planning to off the Sec'y of State when she comes to Florida to make a speech. Of course they are wrong.

I really like the Max Freeman series and thought I was getting another to read on a recent trip. Nick Mullins was an intriguing character, but not as good as Max Freeman. Thank goodness that King has more Freeman stories still on the shelf, waiting for me to read.

East Coast Don

Bitterroot by James Lee Burke

2011-12-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

I always thought Burke's main character was Dave Robicheaux, a cop in rural Louisiana. Now I've met up with Billy Bob Holland in this 2001 book.

Billy Bob is a former Texas Ranger and now a lawyer is some backwater Texas town who talks to the ghost of his former partner whom Billy Bob accidentally killed while chasing some drug mules out of their jurisdiction in Mexicon. His longtime friend and former Seal, "Doc" Voss ran away from life with his daughter when his wife died, settling outside of Bozeman, Montana. The doc invites Billy Bob up for the summer. Everybody in town hates the doc cuz he is more of an environmentalist in a town that favors progress. Not only is some company doing nasty things in some mines, but the Bitterroots are home to a white supremacist group, a 'retired' mob chief, and a sociopath that Billy Bob put in prison only to see him paroled, Wade Dixon.

To intimidate the doc, some whack jobs rape his daughter but all that does is freak him out to the point of being accused of murdering one of the perps. Billy Bob tries to help out but mostly succeeds in pissing off everyone be they perp or police or Wade Dixon.

In the end, the bad guys and strange women meet their maker, the doc and daughter reconcile, Billy Bob stops screwing locals and his investigator long enough to do some camping and fishing with his sone.

I've come to like the Robicheaux thread of stories, but I actually thought Billy Bob was a bit like Robicheaux only way more annoying, to me and to the other characters. Maybe if I'd read a Billy Bob Holland book first, I'd think differently. Next time I pick up Burke, I'll make sure it is about Deputy Dave.

East Coast Don

The Litigators by John Grisham

2011-12-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

‘The Litigators’ is a good effort by John Grisham. He entertains with the drama of human desperation and hypocrisy and with the thrill of young idealism fighting for the underdog against foreboding big business.

David Zinc is a Harvard educated lawyer who burns out at a large downtown Chicago law firm and finds himself working in the poor suburbs at a crummy, ambulance chasing two lawyer ‘boutique’ firm. The partners at Finley & Figg are grouchy Oscar Finley and slick, unethical Wally Figg, both just scrapping by in their careers and in their lives. David tries to add some organization and direction to the firm but the partners are preoccupied; Oscar with an unhappy marriage and Wally with get rich quick schemes and the bottle. Wally’s latest scheme involves suing a mega pharmaceutical company for wrongful death caused by one of their cholesterol lowering wonder drugs. With no trial experience by any of the Finley & Figg lawyers, Wally signs with a large Florida based tort law firm and makes plans to ride their coat tails to fame and fortune. The large pharmaceutical company, hires David’s former employer and prepares for battle. With little or no proof the drug in question actually caused people to die, the Florida tort firm withdraws and leaves the underfunded, under experienced boutique firm to prove their claims in federal court against an army of seasoned litigators. Threatened with malpractice and sanctions for filing a frivolous law suit, Oscar has a heart attack as the trial opens and Wally goes on a bender leaving young David as the sole plaintiff’s attorney. With limited funding for expert witnesses, the plaintiff claims of wrong doing are skillfully unraveled by the crisp, professional performance of the defendant’s lead attorney. David does manage to save face and sanctions for his firm by discrediting the pharmaceutical company on some minor points.

Meanwhile and on his own time, David meets a Burmese family whose six year old son is deathly ill from lead poisoning believed ingested from Chinese made toys. David and his wife become emotionally attached and invest in tracking down the villainous toy company. He also helps a group of illegal immigrant workers get justly compensated by an unscrupulous constructional company. David discovers real satisfaction in defending the helpless whether his clients or his coworkers.

I’ve read most everything John Grisham has written and own most of his works in hard cover. Upon completion of each novel my thoughts are always the same; his very best work was his very first novel, ‘A Time to Kill.’ I obviously enjoy all his work but I wish he would again write something as classical as his first that I equate to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

2011-11-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

Three separate events make up the backstory to Nightwoods: one horrific night for Luce just after graduating from high school; the murder of Luce's sister Lily by her dirtbag of a husband; the death of old man Subblefield who owns the decaying old hotel where Luce works as the sole caretaker. The time is early 1960s in the North Carolina mountains.

That horrific night was the catalyst for Luce to turn her back on the world and live a near monastic life of solitude and near silence in the mountains. Lily and Luce were raised (a term more ironic than accurate) by a couple of young narcissists for too young to be having children. Their mom just took off and their father was entirely disinterested. The death of Lily means that Luce is the sole surviving relative of Lily's preschool twins that DCFS drops off on Luce's doorstep. Now Luce doesn't really like kids, but she will love them despite the state's doctors calling them feebleminded, and being told not to turn her back on them, to hide the matches, and don't let them near chickens. These kids have been scarred and while Luce wants to know how and why, she is willing to let the kids warm to her on their own terms.

Lily's killer, Bud, beats the charge in the state court in Raleigh and decides to seek a new life as a bootlegger and dealer at the far end of the state. As luck would have it, he ends up in the town near where Luce is delicately and decently trying to bring the children out of their trauma-induced shell. Old man Stubblefield left the old lodge, a rundown bar, some bottom land near the lake, and plenty of unpaid taxes to his grandson who, once he learns his way around, takes a liking to Luce and respectfully tries to court her while attempting to gain some acceptance by the children who watch silently while rocking on the lodge's porch or while building fires or breaking chicken's legs.

Bud is sure that Lily somehow got some money of his to Luce or into the kid's possessions and fueled by booze, starts to make his play. But once he has broken in the lodge to look, he is surprised by the children. Startled by seeing Bud, and fearing for their own well being (they must've seen Bud kill their mother), they pack up necessities like okra, matches and kindling, some fruit and peanut butter, borrow a neighbor's horse and head up into the mountains in November to get away from Bud leading to a search party, camping rednecks, a black hole of a quarry, rattlers, bears, and an early season snowfall to tie up the lose ends of the story.

Frazier is as famous for his stunning debut novel (Cold Mountain) as he is for the $8million advance for his less than stunning 2nd effort (Thirteen Moons). This is one part departure for Frazier (it's 20th century instead of 19th) and one part return to what worked in Cold Mountain, where he alternated chapters telling of Iman's walk across NC to get to his home and of Ada's struggle to survive as an outsider in the mountains until Iman returns from the civil war. Here, he flips back and forth between Bud and Luce with each chapter. Both Bud and Luce are fascinating characters in entirely different ways.

Frazier's writing is incredibly lyrical and you want to reread sentences just because they practically sing out to you. And therein lies the problem. The pacing of the story runs as slow and as thick as the sap of the pine forests so eloquently described by Frazier. For 200 pages, Frazier DETAILS the comings and goings of mountain life that is mired in post world war glow with little attention to what's going on beyond the reaches of the scratchy local AM radio station's narrow broadcast radius. When 3 subplots (Luce/Stubblefield/kids, Bud, and the deputy sheriff) come together, a literate, if plodding version of some latter-day Faulkner tale becomes a must-read. But in the end, I was kind of let down by how the story closed, coming full circle back to the delicate, quiet life that Luce had cut for herself.

For those who choose to read this because of Cold Mountain, don't expect a revisit to his recreation of the horror of post-civil war NC. At least you won't need a dictionary of 19th century English for Nightwoods. What you will need is patience to let the story slowly unfold as well as be prepared to appreciate the all too frequent passages that light up this vaguely dark tale set in some southern gothic town that none of us will ever find on any map.

East Coast Don

Avalance: Lessons of Love

2011-11-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is a nonfiction work about overcoming loss and tragedy. Alfonso Ochoa was a successful Mexican industrialist who was also an adventurer. As he had done before, in 1991, he flew from his home in Guadalajara to the Bugaboo Mountains in Canada for helicopter skiing with his buddies. He left behind his wife of 17 years and their six kids, the youngest being less than a year old. He never came back alive. On the day of his death, Alfonso was the only one of the Mexican crew who wanted to get in one more run, so he joined some others for a lift back up the mountain while his buddies retired after a beautiful and exciting day. On the last run, there was an avalanche that killed Alfonso and 8 others. Only the guide somehow survived. Alfonso’s wife, Kris, is an American woman who tells this story. There’s an evil brother-in-law, Francisco Ochoa, who stole her businesses and her fortune. Although she knew it was against long odds, Kris sued the tour company that put her husband in harm’s way, but the Canadian courts did not find in her favor. Then, she was countersued and had to pay back the attorney fees for the very people that were responsible for her husband’s death. Real life can not only be stranger than fiction, but also crueler. Meanwhile, Kris had to raise her family, but she had to do so without her wealth. Each of the family members went through turmoil in the face of moves from Mexico to San Diego, not only changing schools, but also changing languages and cultures. But, Kris is far more than a survivor – her life is a testament to perseverance and faith. For an atheist like me, it was hard to identify with some of the passages when she referenced and emphasized her belief in God. But, she also wrote about using meditation and spirituality to keep her mind on track. She found her way into another wonderful relationship, a man who she completely loved and who totally filled the role of father to her six children. After some great years together, her second husband died suddenly from pancreatic cancer, so Kris was back in the midst of hardship without a partner to help her through. She tells the rest of her story, bringing you up to the present, regarding how she bounced forward another time. Sometimes, I thought the writing was a bit weak, but the story is gripping, one that you won’t put down. It is a remarkable, compelling, and true story of love, loss, and triumph.

Headstone by Ken Bruen

2011-11-06T17:20:00.000-08:00

Rest easy, children. Jack Taylor is watching out for you.

Brine has threatened, intimidated, and manipulated some mates in boarding school to be his followers - members of Headstone. And he has a goth girl for a lover. On a mission. Make history. Have movie made about him. Get on Oprah. Never be forgotten. They start out with an assault on an old priest. Then they kill a Down's child. Other killings and maulings happen around Galway and The Guard thinks they are random. Jack, his sort of friend and ex-con Stewart and former Guard partner Ridge (the lesbian who married to a schmuck rich boy in need of arm candy) think otherwise because each have received a little gift in the mail. About the size of a deck of cards, they get their very own headstone.

Jack continues to fight his personal demons of his past as well as his inability at keeping any friendships ("We were never going to be friends, Jack, and you know I doubt we ever were."). His diet has the 4 major food groups (Jameson, cigarettes, black coffee, Xanax) to help with with 4-5 side stories. Like a creepy priest dressed in an Armani stole who represents a shadowy group inside the church trying to dress up the church's image with "smooth lies of an insincere priest." He hires Jack to find a renegade priest who supposedly ran off with The Brethren's money. Or Kosta, a crime boss who is indebted to Jack (from an earlier book) and will do anything for Jack, but expects the same in return.

Ridge is the victim of a anti-lesbian attack. Jack is assaulted, beaten, and tortured ending up in the hospital . . . minus two fingers. He asks Kosta for weapons. Sets up Stewart as bait. Then kidnaps the goth, applies his own torture to find out what Bine's plan is. So he and Stewart head out, armed to the teeth and scared shitless ("I'm bad tempered naturally. Fear makes me dangerous"). But afterward, Jack is wracked with some measure of guilt and heads for the bottles (Jameson and Xanax) looking for some solace because "they haven't invented the drink that wipes the slate clean of utter treachery."

Bruen liberally spices his books with current book, music, and movie references and this one Taylor suggests that Ridge take up some fiction and suggests a MRB fav - James Lee Burke. Smart guy. I've read a bunch of Bruen. Right now, I'd say this is my #2 favorite of his books.

Jack may limp and have to wear a hearing aid. But be glad he's on the case. When he's done, you are clean and Jack carries away your guilt and pain, when he does, "Elvis hadn't so much as left they building as stormed out with murder aforethought."

East Coast Don

Winterkill

2011-11-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

This was a very good book. It’s apparently only the third in the series, and there’s no doubt I’ll read more. Winterkill is the term used for the number of elk that die during the winter season, mostly from starvation and the bitter cold. Game Warden Joe Pickett, from Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming, was out checking on the herd when, from a great distance, he saw his Forest Service supervisor, Lamar Gardiner, simply start shooting an entire herd of elk. Even though it was hunting season, the limit was only one animal. Joe, who had once arrested the governor for fishing without a license, began pursuing his supervisor with the intent of locking him up. By the time he got to him, the man was almost dead. He had been shot in the torso with two arrows which pinned his body against a tree. Before Joe could get him to a hospital, Gardiner died. It turns out there had been some unrest in the area over the Feds who ran half of the state via the Bureau of Land Management, and Gardner was a target for that unhappiness. Melinda Strickland was the new Forest Service official who had come to Wyoming to deal with the unrest, and she was focused on an odd lot of displaced people who had chosen a spot in the national forest to camp out. She was sure they were the source of that murder, and other problems. She was determined to evict them from the forest, a task Joe rightly thought was ridiculous, and he could not see the connection between the problems that Strickland claimed and the “sovereigns” who just wanted to be left alone. To complicate things, one of the sovereigns was the mother of April Keeley, the little girl who was abandoned about the same time Joe and his wife, Marybeth, lost a baby when Marybeth lost a baby because she was shot in the stomach while pregnant. It had been five years since that happened, and Joe and Marybeth had brought April into their home and loved her as if she was their own child, their third daughter. Now, Jeannie Keeley wanted her daughter back and the Picketts were not about to let that happen. Except, Jeannie gets a court order for custody of her daughter, and takes her to camp with the sovereigns. There’s one more very important character that fits into the story. Nate Romanowski is a mountain man, a former Special Forces guy, a guy who is totally tuned into his environment, a man who is the ultimate loner who has been living with little contact with other humans for many years. It was Nate who was first arrested for the murder of Gardiner. The clash of story lines takes the maniacal Strickland on a rampage against the sovereigns, setting up a possible Ruby Ridge/Waco scenario. Joe just wants to make sure his daughter is safe. C. J. Box is now in my power rotation of authors. Pickett is a great character and he is put in plot lines that are intense and very believable. This was a most entertaining read, one that I did not want to put down. I’ve already gotten the next one in the series, Nowhere to Run.

Animosity

2011-10-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

This was my fifth David Lindsey book, his 11th book which was written in 2001. (Remember he also wrote Pacific Heights under the name Paul Harper.) Animosity was so interesting and so different than his other books. While the plot mattered a lot, this story was mostly driven by a fascinating study of characters. Ross Marteau is a sculpture who splits time between Paris and his home in San Rafael, Texas. He’s famous, and he’s made a small fortune by doing expensive nude sculptures of the beautiful wives of very wealthy men. His work is in demand and he is able to move directly from one commission to the next. The wealthy men seem to want to catch the beauty of their women before they change and age. Marteau has never been married and he’s had relationships with his models and his subjects, including the women he’s sculpting. If his art is criticized at all, it is because he has chosen to go for the money rather than attempt to be true to his art, as if he should sacrifice a comfortable life for the sake of his craft. The book starts in Paris as his relationship with the next lover, Marian, has fallen apart. They have been brutal with each other and their fights have been fodder for the French tableaus. But as Marteau leaves Marian, she does not take it well. She only exits his life after throwing a knife at him which imbeds in his shoulder and does him some damage. He moves back to San Rafael to begin work on his next commission. It is there that he is contacted by two French sisters with a new commission. He quickly becomes romantically involved with the older sister, Celeste Lacan, while delaying his other commission to take on the statue of the younger sister, Leda, a stunning beauty who has a most interesting deformity that will be a great challenge to his talents. But, all is not as it seems. The older sister is married and estranged from her wealthy and abusive husband. Leda is angry about her own appearance and the abuse her sister has put up with in order to get a stipend from her husband that supports them both. As the story evolves, Marteau learns that Celeste and Leda specifically chose him to do the statue because of their connection with one of his past lovers, his first model, who was a most destructive woman and the real love of his life. Leda turns out to be a most manipulative and scheming woman. The love scenes that Lindsey writes are very erotic, and the ending of the story was absolutely unexpected by me. Even knowing that, you won’t see it coming, I promise. This was a good book, a quick read, most enjoyable, and it gets a high recommendation from me.

The Affair by Lee Child

2011-10-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

The Affair is the best Lee Child novel I’ve read. The setting is a flash back to 1997 when the Jack Reacher character is a Major in the Army’s military police. By flashing back, the author provides valuable character development for his famed Jack Reacher that I’ve felt lacking in his previous works.

Major Jack Reacher is ordered to Carter Crossing, MS, a small town near Fort Kelham. Fort Kelham is an Army base for training some elitist ranger squadrons. A young woman has been raped and murdered and Reacher is to be the Army undercover guy outside the base. He is to interact with the local authorities and subtly convince them that Army personnel are innocent of the crime, whether they are or not. Yet from Reacher’s record he has no history of subtlety. His approach has always been direct and his style ‘nothing but the truth.’ So, this assignment makes him think he is somehow a political scapegoat and his Army career may be in jeopardy.

Sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux immediately recognizes Reacher as the Army infiltrator when he arrives in Carter Crossing. She is a former USMC MP and had been expecting the tactic from the Army. She is also a beautiful single woman the same age as Reacher. Mutual professional respect and a strong physical attraction quickly advances to a sexual relationship yet they remain suspicious of each other’s motives. Reacher learns there were two other young women raped and murdered in Carter Crossing both Black and both ignored by the Army. Reacher also discovers a volunteer militia group attempting to protect the Army but unknown to Fort Kelham’s leadership. High level politics are at play.

Through further investigation Reacher learns the most likely suspect for the murders is Captain Reed Riley. He has the reputation for fraternizing with the prettiest young ladies, was stationed at Fort Kelham at the time of all three murders, and dated all three. He is also the son of U.S. Senator Carlton Riley, who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Yet Reacher’s Army superiors keep feeding him evidence that points to Sheriff Deveraux as the murderer. Her military history and conditions surrounding her discharge come into question. Reacher must make his own judgments and act in his vigilante style to save face for the Army and bring the true villains to justice.

Lee Child has a true talent for building and maintaining suspense; holds your attention and compels you to read on. His Jack Reacher character is perilous not just for his infallible combat skills but for his confidence in his own judgments and eagerness to act on them, legal or not. He acts as judge, jury and executioner and we applaud him for it. Great fiction!

From East Coast Don:

Thought I'd add my $0.02 here rather than as a comment. I agree with Midwest Dave that this is one of the best Reacher books to date. I've read the entire series and like any series there are some hits and some misses. I'd be hard pressed to say which Reacher books weren't first rate, but Child's venturing back (like Vince Flynn did in his last Mitch Rapp book) was a welcome diversion from the Reacher as vagabond savior to the latest in a long line of locally oppressed. Actually wish Child would venture into Reacher's military past more often. This one is not to be missed. I still have the question I've posed in other posts - with all the Reacher books having been optioned to Hollywood, just who in the hell would play Reacher? Know any 6'5" 225-250# actors looking for a lead role as one serious alpha dog?

Louise's War by Sarah Shaber

2011-10-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Spring, 1942 in Washington, D.C. Louise Pearlie is a supervisory file clerk in the newly created OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. She's a late 20's widow from Wilmington, NC. Her best friend from junior college, Rachael Bloch, lives in Vichy, France with her husband, an expert on ocean currents and geography, especially north Africa - ground zero for an allied invasion. And they want out in advance of the Nazi's arrival in Vichy.

Louise learns of Rachel's plight and tries to find a way to get the OSS special projects folks to sneak the family out. She quietly asks her boss about moving them up the visa list. But fat guy that he is, he dies suddenly of a heart attack and the file disappears. Louise sets out trying to find the file. Failing that, she'll try to reconstruct the file. And just maybe she'll find out who took the file and why.

So our heroine tries to get her hands on info through the DC party circuit, Director Donovan's inner circle, friends in her boarding house, a mysterious boarder from Prague she has the hots for, all the while thinking the FBI is on to her little investigation.

Sarah Shaber is a local Raleigh writer who wrote the 5 book Simon Shaw series, all reviewed here. The cover blurb says this is the first of a new series by Shaber. The same blurb used adjectives like cozy, comfortable, and charming - all very accurate. This short book could easily read over a lazy weekend. Nice story, but I think I liked the Simon Shaw series better.

East Coast Don

The Day Before Midnight

2011-10-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Maybe this was a good thriller when it was written in 1989, but 22 years later, it’s an old story line. It had been a while since I read Hunter, one of my favorite authors (think Bob Lee Swagger), but I’ve reached too far into the past. It’s a story about terrorists taking over a U.S. based nuclear missile silo with the intent on starting WWIII, and coming out victorious so they can rule the world. In 2011, it may still be a possible thing, but we’ve heard variations on the theme too many times. Hunter does his usual great job in presenting interesting and believable characters, and the plot evolves in a plausible and rapid manner. Alas, it’s just too dated and trite.

Swan Peak

2011-10-25T05:56:00.001-07:00

This is another Detective Dave Robicheaux story, but this time, he’s moved out of venue. Instead of the usual Louisiana scene, Dave and his wife Molly have taken time off for the summer. They’ve gone to Montana to hunt and fish on the ranch of a friend, and they’ve taken along Clete Purcell, one of Dave’s oldest and best friends. What Burke does so well is write about seriously emotionally damaged people. Both Dave and Clete have PTSD from their Vietnam days, and Clete’s is even worse than Dave’s. Clete has not gone the way of AA, cannot keep a relationship, and his violent tendencies keep him from staying in a job. He had one been Dave’s beat partner on the New Orleans Police Department, but after losing that job due to his unrestrained violence, Clete became a PI. Dave and Molly have taken Clete to Montana, hopefully to give him a chance to clear his head, to sober up. But, it does not work out that way. Burke writes so clearly about what it’s like to have PTSD, I wonder if he is not a sufferer of that condition. He writes with equal insight into alcoholism. The other important characters in this book are psychopaths, and Burke knows them well, too. This is a story about multiple murders that take place. First the college couple is found mutilated, then the older Hollywood twosome are killed in a truck stop. There’s more, and the cast of characters is good. As the book evolves, there are really so many bad people involved, that the serial murderer could be any of them, and the identity of that person is not revealed until near the end of the book. Burke uses the book to spin some of his own philosophy. So, in an attempt to get away from trouble, of course Dave and Pete walk right into it. There is a collision of truly deranged characters with those who are only partially bent. Burke has Robicheaux think, “I’m not sure I believe in Karma, but as one looks back over the aggregate of his experience, it seems hard to deny the patterns of intersection that seem to be at work in our lives, in the same way it would be foolish to say that the attraction of metal filings to a magnet’s surface is a result of coincidence.” In describing one of the psychopaths, at the character’s funeral, Burke writes, “Quince Whitley had probably been a misogynist, if not a misanthrope, and his mourners represented elements in our cultures whose existence we either deny or whose origins we have difficulty explaining.” Finally, regarding Dave’s struggle with sobriety, this main character says, “The desire is always there – in my sleep, in the middle of a fine day, in the middle of a rainstorm. It doesn’t matter. It’s always there.” I will keep James Lee Burke in my power rotation of authors.

Tropical Depression by Laurence Shames

2011-10-22T20:13:00.000-07:00

So why is Murray Zemelman so depressed he is considering suicide? He's the Bra King - the leading producer of, you guessed it, bras. He's married to one of his models, spends his days looking at, designing, and marketing certain female assets. And he's taking enough Prozac to perk up a Clydesdale. So, instead of sucking down the carbon monoxide in his garage, he tears off for . . .

Key West where he pays 6 months advance for a penthouse and decides to take up fishing . . . no deals, no pressure, just he and the fish. Problem is, he has no clue how. Watching this Indian, Tommy Tarpon, gives him some clues. And he plays cards with a bunch of old farts and a Florida state senator. He also wants to see if Franny, his first wife now living in Sarasota, will consider dropping in.

But Murray is getting bored. He needs a deal. While chatting it up with the Indian fisherman, he learns that Tommy Tarpon is the last living member of a small Florida tribe, the Matalatchee. But he's not the only guy looking at a deal. Our senator accepted campaign money from a connected guy who wants to open a casino in Key West, but so far hasn't been able to deliver the goods and Charlie Ponte ain't happy. No he isn't.

Tommy is bitter toward the Whites, so Murray sees the deal he needs and starts the process to get the Matalatchee recognized by the US of A in order to partner up to open their own casino and stick it to the Man. Once that process starts, the Senator tells Ponte who tries to lean hard on Tommy Tarpon to accept him as his partner, but Tommy politely passes.

Franny comes down for the recognition ceremony, Tommy turns Ponte down getting Franny kidnapped, but Murray orchestrates a distraction at the exchange (a boat load of models in lingerie, of course) and they they retreat to a small island to hash out a plan to draw out the Senator and Ponte so that Tommy can protect his Sovereign Island nation.

My brother-in-law lives in Tampa and has read a number of Shames's books, recommending him to me and glad he did. Call Shames "Carl Hiaasen lite". Surely everyone knows humorist Hiaasen who writes about the rape of Florida by developers and crooked politicians. If the other books by Shames follow this trend, the sleezebags are transplants from the north and (surprise, surprise) politicians trying to get a piece of Key West.

And funny. Having just returned from a week at the NC Outer Banks, I would have to say that any of the Key West series by Shames are excellent examples of a beach read. Funny mystery? Mysterious humor? Who cares. If you like Hiaasen, you will like Shames.

East Coast Don

The Coldest Winter

2011-10-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

I’m still in Korea and I’ve continued to read a bit more about the history of his country. This was Halberstam’s last book, the 21st of 21, a 10-year work that was finished in 2007. This is a nonfiction work. He had just turned in his final manuscript, when five days later, he was killed in a car crash in California where he was on his way to an interview for his next book. He was a journalist and author, one of our best contemporary historians (and I don’t think that’s an oxymoronic phrase). Much of this book was a bit too tedious for me, a tight and well-written history of “The Forgotten War,” the Korean War. It would serve as a great textbook on the subject. The best part was the end, the last two chapters, the epilogue, the author’s note, and an afterword by Russell Baker. Chapter 10 was entitled “The General and The President.” It beautifully reviewed the conflict between very unpopular Truman and nearly deified McArthur, the conflict leading to McArthur’s dismissal, and then McArthur’s famous farewell speech to a joint session of Congress. Chapter 11 was entitled, “The Consequences.” Halberstam’s analysis of Korea and the effect it had on the politics of Vietnam is insightful. His review of politics and policies of the Democrats and Republicans through the 50s and 60s was excellent. He wrote, “In a stunningly short time, South Korea had morphed itself into a dynamic, highly productive, extremely successful democracy. ‘I cannot think of another country, at least in recent history, that went so swiftly from an authoritarian system to a democracy on its own,’ a member of the party of Roh Tae Woo, a truly democratically elected president of Korea, once told Frank Gibney. In the South the great success had come because the top of the political hierarchy had been forced, no matter how reluctantly, to pay attention to the needs and aspirations of the bottom and middle of the society.” At a time that the middle class of America is feeling that it’s been sold out to corporate greed, and at a time of people occupying Wall Street as a demonstration against such, maybe Halbertson’s words will bring hope to their demands to be noticed and more fairly represented.

The Tehran Initiative

2011-10-21T02:22:00.001-07:00

Simply put, this was a contest between the allegedly good forces of Christianity and the evil forces of Islam. The author repeatedly quotes the Bible and states that giving one’s life over to Jesus will allow you to be saved. During the story, so called good Muslims are saved when they accept Jesus into their hearts. Characters who are skeptical of Christianity are suddenly converted under skeptical circumstances. If you’re a militant Christian, and our history is abundant with them, or if you’re a Christian bigot, or if you just find yourself, for no reason at all, wanting to kick some Muslim butt, then this book is for you. Rosenberg does create good characters, and this book builds on the ones he wrote about in his prior six books in this series. He sets up a reasonable story line, but the Christianity theme is too thick. I was tempted to quit before I got halfway through this one, but I obsessively plowed through to the end. After reading several Rosenberg books, I’m ready not to read the next one.

To Try Men's Souls

2011-10-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

I decided to throw a bone to the right coast, right wing, wrong-headed writer, East Coast Don, with whom I share this blog. Midwest Dave will get a pass on these current comments. The bone – a choice to read a novel by ultimate right wing guy, Newt Gingrich. The choice is born from the philosophy of learning from the enemy, i.e., Patton read Rommel’s book. I mean, I even searched out the works of Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz in an attempt to understand why they thought we should invade Iraq. That effort only further convinced me that they were either delusional or just liars. But, I digress.

This novel was not much of a political work. Mostly, it was just some good propaganda about our first president and Thomas Paine, who was the best American propagandist ever and our first great battle correspondent. This story does a good job reliving the first six months of the revolution, from the Declaration of Independence on 7/4/1776 through the battle at Trenton which took place on 12/26/76. After an early victory in Boston, the Continental Army had one defeat after another until their unlikely victory at Trenton when they routed the Hessians. Newt (we’re on a first-name basis) presents the idea that if Washington had lost at Trenton, that the revolution would have been lost right then. I doubt that is true, but it would have taken a long while to recover from a defeat, if it had occurred. I clearly remember the stories about Washington crossing the Delaware to get to Trenton, but I did not remember the horrific conditions in which he did so or the battle-weary, sorry state of his troops who made the crossing with him. The battle showed remarkable heroism by Washington and his troops, no doubt. It was worthwhile to review the early details of the revolution and the difficulties that the colonists were facing. I thought Newt got pretty schmaltzy at times, especially with regard to the speeches that Washington gave to encourage the troops, but his leadership skills must have been impressive. It is also an understatement to say those were dire times. Overall, while it was far from being a great book, it was a good historical fiction and a good read.

Adrenaline by Jeff Abbott

2011-10-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sam and Lucy Capra have a great life. Both work in the CIAs London office and are expecting a baby boy. Sure, he does some undercover work as a smuggler trying to track down a money launderer who works with some rogue governments, but his job is all about manipulating bad guys for information. Hasn’t been dangerous so far.

Sam has to present some updates at a company meeting when his wife calls in a panic telling him to get out of the building immediately. He does on the pretense of a bad cell connection and when he hits the street, the building blows up taking out the entire office at this location. And Sam sees his wife being whisked away in a car. The ensuing investigation focuses on Sam and his wife because they survived. But Sam is taken into custody to a number of different safe houses where he is questioned, beaten, and tortured. Only one conclusion makes sense. Sam may be clean, but clearly Lucy isn’t, meaning Sam was both blinded by love and used by whatever enemy she works for. It’s a cabal calling itself Novem Soles (9 Suns) bent in creating anarchy.

Essentially under house arrest in NYC, Sam works as a bartender and is watched round the clock. Combine months of that with being sure that Lucy hadn’t been turned, Sam works up a plan to shed his watchers, stowaway on a freighter to Rotterdam and start looking for Lucy and her captors.

In Rotterdam and then Amsterdam, Sam meets up with Mila, a member of the mysterious Round Table, who says she can help Sam but he has to help her first to save the daughter of some hot shot industrialist whose daughter has been kidnapped and turned a la Patty Hurst. Begrudgingly, he agrees and sets out on a roller coaster ride of bad guys, terrorists, murderers, blackmailers, and double crossers who get in his way, all the while being aided, guided, and mentored by Mila.

The grieving father makes weapons and he has a doozy. A process where a person’s DNA can be coded into a bullet making it a hand fired guided missile – the perfect weapon for an assassin or sniper. Sam finds computer files with 50 sets of DNA for the weapon.

My biggest issue was Mila. She turns up everywhere with the ability to get Sam out of any jam using anything from her telescoping club to a Glock to poison to the skills to hack into any network and connections virtually everwhere. I read her as a vehicle that allows Sam to make leaps of faith for the reader. The whole contorted plot just kept getting a bit hard to handle or believe. I know thriller fiction is supposed to be escapism, but a little bit can go a long way. Abbott is a 3-time Edgar nominee, but even with that pedigree, I’m guessing it’ll be a while before I look up another Abbott offering. Can’t please everyone.

East Coast Don

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

2011-10-17T00:06:00.000-07:00

This is a non-fiction work about North Koreans. The author, Barbara Demick, was living in Seoul as the correspondent for the LA Times, and she interviewed six people who had successfully escaped from North Korea and made their way to South Korea. These people did not just sneak through the DMZ and cross directly into South Korea. Rather, they fled from Chongjin, a city in the far north, across the border with China. Demick reviewed the history of the peninsula and its partition at the end of WWII as a political solution to the conflicts with China and Russia. No one in the U.S. really knew what to do with this country which had been a colony of Japan since Korea was invaded in 1910. Japan lost their colony as a part of their defeat. Then, after only five years of peace, North Korea invaded the South, starting the 3-year Korean War. Demick described how, in the beginning, even into the early 60s, it looked like the North Korean economy would do much better than the South. But, their leader, Kim Il-Sung, and his son who took control in 1994, Kim Jong-Il, were focused on things other than what would best comfort their people, for example, developing their own nuclear arsenal. She described the propaganda machine that Kim Il-Sung created and the harsh methods he used to lock up his country, so no one could get in or out. This is a riveting tale of famine and loss, survival and success. The book belongs in our blog because of the incredible stories of hardship that have been overcome, all well-told by the author. By reading this book, I have a much better understanding of the problems of dealing with this truly rogue state. It helps that I’m in South Korea at the moment, but it would be a good read anywhere. I was able to ask our guide on a day in Seoul, a 50-year-old woman who is a native of South Korea, if she perceived a threat from the North. She nearly shook as she nodded her assent that she thought Kim Jong-Il was a dangerous leader who represented an unpredictable threat with nuclear potential. After reading the book, I understand why she feels that way. This one gets my highest recommendation.

The Blue Zone by Andrew Gross

2011-10-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

The author has co-authored six books with James Patterson (Judge and Jury, Jester, etc), and he has some of his own novels. He’s probably best known for “Eyes Wide Open.” Benjamin Raab was a gold trader who had a most lucrative business that allowed him and his family to live elite lives. He seemed to be a dedicated family man, until his life fell apart. Suddenly, the FBI confiscated the contents of his office and charged him with money laundering for a Columbian drug cartel. His family which included a devoted wife, two daughters, and a son, were dumbfounded. They knew the head of their household as nothing other than an upstanding, honest, and dedicated man. But, all was not as it seemed. At first, Raab was going to fight the charges, but then he caved in and made a plea bargain. In exchange for admitting his own wrong doing and testifying against the cartel’s leaders, he and his family were put in the federal witness protection program. They even got to keep enough of the family assets to continue to live a lifestyle not much different than what they had before. But, uprooting a family is not easy for teenagers. The oldest daughter, an academic star who was living with her med school boyfriend in NY City, refused to go along. That meant she and the family, whose identify was being changed, could no longer see each other. But, outside the witness protection program, she was easily found and targeted by the cartel which was not about to let Raab go unpunished, even if they could not find and kill him. Besides, the witness protection program had been penetrated, and the agent who was in charge of Raab was brutally murdered, obviously to extract information. There were lots of twists and turns in this plot, which is normally a good thing, but in this book, perhaps there were a bit too many serpentine plot changes. It was a fast read and the characters were believable, even if the dialogue got a bit trite and ridiculous at times. I’ll probably give Gross another chance.

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

2011-10-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

Why did I choose to read this book? For one thing, I’m in Asia (Korea) and I’ve been reading about Buddhism, two books not reviewed in the blog (The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., and Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das). Yesterday, I visited a Buddhist temple, actually the headquarters for Korean Buddhism. The book was already in my Kindle library and the title seemed relevant. And, it has consistently gotten high marks by Amazon as one of the better historical fictions written this year. The book is about the hardships the Japanese suffered in the process of immigrating to the U.S., and of course, it also focused a bit on the hardships at home that drove them to seek a better life. This story focused on the women who were lured to America to find husbands, men who were terribly misrepresented to them by people who were paid by the number of women they could seduce into going. The time period covered was from the early 1900s through WWII and the internment camps. For most, it was a brutal journey at every step. The author was clever in presenting the information, and it was very readable. But, as an American history student, I knew about this period and the hardships of the Japanese – I didn’t learn anything new. If you’re ignorant to this aspect of American immigration, then it’s worth reading. I think the title reference to Buddha in the Attic had to do with leaving their culture and religion behind, hiding it away as a part of the effort to fit into a society that was so hard to comprehend and which treated them so badly. On the whole, it does not get my recommendation because it is too nakedly brutal. This was realism well done, not escapist literature.

The Dummy Line by Bobby Cole

2011-10-13T03:00:00.001-07:00

This is a first novel for Bobby Cole, and he deserves to be rated highly in our blog. His venue is Alabama-Mississippi, the deep woods. Jake Crosby is a good guy who may have grown a bit distant from his wife, but he’s crazy about his 9-year-old daughter Katy. She’s a tomboy who gets to go with her dad on a turkey hunting trip, great for father-daughter bonding, except when they encounter the sociopath, Johnny Lee Grover and his rough pals. This wasn’t supposed to be a solo trip, but Jake’s hunting buddy decided spending time with his new wife was a better option for the weekend than getting up early and hanging out in a shooting house in the wilderness with another guy and his little girl. Thrown into the mix of characters are high school lovers, Tanner Tillman and Elizabeth Beasley, who need to find a remote site to spend some romantic time together. You can see the collision of story lines. Cole also blends in a mix of great cop characters, some good guys and one you love to hate. Deputy R. C. Smithson is a comic side-kick to Sheriff Ollie Landrum, the way Barnie Fife was to Andy Griffith. There was as much action in the first third of this book as in most of the books that we read. It was a good and entertaining vacation book. It gets my recommendation.

Out of Range by C.J. Box

2011-10-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

The badge number of a Wyoming Game Warden is a ranking of their seniority in the system. Will Jensen is #4 and oversees the district that includes Jackson Hole. Paranoia and depression have destroyed his marriage before he finally ate a .44 magnum bullet. The state asks Joe Pickett to fill in until a permanent replacement can be found and he reluctantly agrees to the assignment.

When Joe arrives in Jackson, he quickly learns that he has stepped into a world of political hurt that seems to swirl around a planned development that needs one last signature, Jensen, to break ground. And Jensen wasn't going to sign as the plans blocked elk migration routes.

The development is the brainchild of Don Ennis who wants to not only put up million dollar homes but to also make the community part of the good meat movement, which raises their own stock, slaughters, and sells their 'pure' meat to the residents. With Jensen dead, Joe must sign off on a project that has the approval of the governor on down. The biggest mouthpiece against the project is the legendary outfitter Smoke van Horn who has his own issues with the wildlife folks, Jensen in particular.

Pickett tries to get up to speed on his new assignment by reading Jensen's log books, but the last one is missing. Now Joe has to make the rounds of the camps run by outfitters to check on licenses, permits, etc. so he packs up a couple horses and starts out for about a week. Once he gets to the state house in the wilderness kept for wardens, he finds Jensen's last log book and all the details about his slowly deteriorating mind.

He makes a wrong turn that takes him up a high ridge that, when he looked down on a meadow, spots Smoke placing salt blocks meant to lure elk for a easy shot by their mountain man wannabes. Joe takes some photos and continues on to the state house. That evening Smoke shows up and starts into it with Joe and knows that Joe will have to arrest him and he will then lose his license and livelihood. The next morning, Smoke shows up drunk, armed, and ready to take Joe out. As they face each other down, Smoke raised his gun, fires and Joe returns fire with his shotgun killing Smoke, killing the one man he's met whom he really understood.

Ennis thinks it easy sailing now until Joe says he won't sign off either so Ennis reaches out to the governor to add more pressure. After reading Jensen's log, he realizes that Ennis is behind Jensen's death and cooks up a scheme to get Ennis to admit to his crimes.

CJ Box was introduce to MRB by Midwest Dave with added support by WCDon. Add me to the list. I've read a bunch of man against the wilderness books and Box is added to my list with a single read. Michael Connelly wrote a cover blurb saying Box was in the mold of Tony Hillerman. High praise, but Hillerman took us deep into a foreign culture - Navaho nation. And the lack of that 'new world' link will, for the time being, keep Box a rung below Hillerman.

I did find one common thread. The bad guy is this book is a developer, just like Carl Hiaasen's books set in Florida. But I doubt that developers will show up book after book like Hiaasen. Also, I read an author's acknowledgements and have found a couple other titles used by Box in his research that I'll pursue.

Nonetheless, count me in. Box is a welcome addition to all of us here at MRB. Won't be long before the 3 of use will have run through them all.

East Coast Don

Abyss by David Hagberg

2011-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Kirk McGarvey is 18 months post assassination of his wife, daughter, and son-in-law and now trains newbies for the nuclear emergency response team. On a routine day of training in Miami, a nuclear power plant in Florida is hit by a highly trained operative, with inside help, who is attempting to start a meltdown. McGarvey and the local security manage to minimize the damage, but lives are lost nonetheless.

Eve Larson, a Princeton climatologist, has an idea. Sort of turn a windmill upside down, sink it in the Gulf Stream and let the currents spin the turbine and generate electricity. Can't miss - free energy with zero emissions that might even stabilize ocean temps thereby minimizing violent storms. She was there the day the terrorist tried to destroy the power station. If the damn thing works, oil, and all the people who speculate on future prices, are in for a big surprise. So the Saudis and the Venezuelans quietly back, through a number of back doors, a contract to make sure Dr. Larson's project never works out.

The US gov't can't overtly support her lest OPEC screw 'em, but they lean on an oil company who just happens to have an oil platform, due to be mothballed, to donate it to Dr. Larsen, tow it from the Gulf of Mexico around to the NE coast of Florida, rig it up to accept her impellers so that she can replace the power lost when the nuke plant went down. The terrorist prepares his team with plans to send the rig to the bottom of the gulf.

All the while a evangelical nutcase, who fancies himself running for President, takes on Big Nuclear Power as his calling, getting his flock to demonstrate against Dr. Larson and her project. Claims she is messing with God's plan. Multiple attempts are made on Dr. Larson, she has a mole on her staff, and McGarvey is there each time to keep the bad guys at bay.

I am wondering if I'm cooling on Hagberg and McGarvey. This was a long book, nearly 500 pages and there just seemed to be one too many implausible leaps of logic, at least to me. I think I'll have to really rethink whether I return.

This may be a first . . . an author dropping off my power rotation. Guess it was bound to happen sometime.

The Dead Room by Robert Ellis

2011-09-24T14:29:00.001-07:00

Have you heard this story line before? Beautiful women keep disappearing, and the wrong guy gets blamed. In this case, the wrong guy is mailman, a true asocial weirdo who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he happened to have an interest in the last woman who was killed. Then, he was seen fleeing from the scene of her murder, so he must have been the one, right? The mailman happened to be the brother-in-law of a hot shot attorney who is simply embarrassed that he’s related to the guy. He just wants the matter to go away so his reputation and his family’s social standing won’t be tarnished. He hands the case to one of his rooky attorneys, Teddy Mack, a guy who hates criminal law and who came to the firm to do real estate law. Suddenly Teddy is in over his head with an ambitious DA who wants to be governor and sees this case as one that will bring him needed fame. Of course, Teddy turns out to be a man of integrity, so he won’t buckle under the pressure of his boss, the DA, and the press which wants to hang his client. It’s my opinion that you don’t need to read this book. The innocence of the mailman-bros-in-law was clear from the start of the book, and there were no unanticipated twists and turns – really a pedestrian effort by the author in plot and character development. I won’t give up on Ellis yet since I liked his first book and Midwest Dave is a big fan, but he’s got a strike against him for making my power rotation of authors.

The Informant by Thomas Perry

2011-09-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Just because you’ve been contracted by the Mafia doesn’t mean you may not end up in their crosshairs. It’s only business.

Not this time.

When Michael Schaeffer lost his parents when he was about 12, the local butcher took him in. The butcher was reasonably successful at his craft who took really good care of his best customers, the wives in particular. He taught Michael his ways and brought him up to be the best. In this case, the best was not as a meat cutter, but the best in the butcher’s part-time job – contract killer.

And Michael flourished. He scored his first kill at 16 and by 19 he was an independent contractor whose main employers were the various Mafia families who hired him to take out folks who had wronged the family no matter if the target was inside or outside La Cosa Nostra.

But, one lesson Michael learned was that business partners don’t cross each other. When one boss makes the unfortunate decision to have Michael snuffed after a job, Michael takes it personally. He kills an enemy of the boss, cuts off the head, hands, and feet for burial on said boss’s horse farm in upstate NY. Then calls the FBI and tips them off to the burial, landing the boss in prison for life.

Frank Tosca is a ruthless underboss in the old vein of Don’s back in the day. After about 10 years of the mob floundering around with his boss in prison, Frank is convinced that if the other crime families agree with him to kill The Butcher’s Boy (as he’s known by the mob), by doing so will give him the power to rise to the absolute boss of all the families. He arranges a meeting of the main 25 family heads at a dude ranch outside of Phoenix.

Frank had sent a couple slugs looking for Michael, finding him married and living near Bath, UK. Michael is none too pleased, kills them easily, and learns Tosca is behind the kill order. Michael heads back to the US and starts to track down Tosca, but has been out of the game for a decade and wants to know the current hierarchy, so he contact the Justice Dep’t organized crime wonk, Elizabeth Waring, who first deduced his existence about 20 years ago.

She doesn’t give him much, preferring to bring him in as an informant, which he declines. He whacks the next guys up the Tosca chain, a couple right under the noses of the Feds, and learns of the desert meeting. He arrives to find the 25 bosses surrounded by about 200 soldiers. He sneaks in (all those young soldiers had never seen him, only heard tales. It has been a while since he was active), learns of the consensus by the bosses, follows Tosca to his cottage, cuts his throat, and slips out past the coming FBI takedown of the conference; Waring found out where it was being held, too.

Michael finds out the mob is really pissed off. Now it's personal.

A normal guy might slink off to parts unknown, but Michael has decided to convince the mob that it is too dangerous to hunt him down and systematically crisscrosses the country taking out the heads and underbosses of the biggest families, and whoever is unfortunate enough to be nearby. As his butcher mentor once told him, "Anybody you kill by accident is just one you won't have to kill on purpose."

Waring knows the Mafia will come after him, probably hiring mercs to hunt him down and manages to offer witness protection, which Michael again ignores, preferring to continue to take out big shots. One team of mercs learns that Michael and Waring are connected somehow and go to her home near DC to hold Waring’s family hostage until Michael resurfaces.

Which he does.

I picked up this title from a trip to B/N a few months ago and got on the list at the library. Perry has about 20 titles to his name and this is the third of the Butcher’s Boy series (with Butcher’s Boy and Sleeping Dog). If I read Perry’s website correctly, the Butcher Boy books are spaced (copyright date) 10 years apart and the first won Perry an Edgar for debut novel. Stephen King said that Perry’s 2010 release, Strip, was a Top 10 Summer Read and he has had a number of NYT Best Sellers. Not that I know every crime writer, but this guy’s new to me and he really has got the chops. I think I like the concept behind this series, the plotting (OK, there are a few leaps of faith that may seem a bit far fetched), and the character development and will try to find the other 2 books as well as Strip. Hey, King’s opinion resonates with me as another of his must-read lists turned me to Olen Steinhauer and The Tourist.

East Coast Don

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

2011-09-17T13:16:00.002-07:00

Warning: This novel is out of genre.

My bros-in-law, the literature prof was telling about the book that publishing houses were bidding for, and then I saw it the next day as the #1 recommendation for September by Amazon. It’s a baseball book, sort of, but not like any baseball book that I’ve read (and there have been many). It’s a first novel.

Henry Skrimshander is a 17 ½ year old phenomenon at shortstop, but he’s old school, all field, no hit. He has grown up worshipping the mythical Aparicio Rodriguez, who not only had a Hall of Fame MLB career, but who also wrote “The Art of Fielding.” The book is the bible for infielders everywhere. It’s a book that Henry has grown up with, carried with him wherever he went, slept with, dreamed about. Beyond high school in South Dakota, Henry has no real prospects and is dreading the end of his senior year. But, then he’s discovered by Mike Schwartz who is not a major league scout, but a small college player who just finished his own freshman year at Westish College in small town Wisconsin. Schwartz is maniacal about his own career, and everything else, and now he has a new focus – the talented but undeveloped Henry. On the one hand, this is a book about Henry and Mike, and it’s about the progress Henry and the team make over the next three years. But it is really a story about coming of age and of developing identities. The author, Harbach, weaves together stories about the college president, his daughter, and others. The prose in this book is far better than most of what we read, and the character development is spectacular. There is an important subtheme on homosexuality, so that might tickle your homophobia, but that too is done well. I could not put this one down, and it gets as many stars as there are in any rating system.

Nowhere to Run by C.J. Box

2011-09-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

C.J. Box has a formula that works. Joe Pickett, his main character is a highly principled game warden in Montana with a unique sense of right and wrong. His stubbornness will not let him violate his principals regardless of negative consequences to his career or to his life. This character trait makes him both an ally and an annoyance to most everyone he knows from his anarchist best friend, Nate Romanowski to the governor of the state, Governor Runlon. Only with his wife, Mary Beth does he manage to maintain a stable relationship.

In 'Nowhere to Run', Joe Pickett takes a weeklong trip on horseback into the supposed uninhabited mountains to investigate an elk hunting violation. Seems someone stole a hunter’s prey and Joe sets out to find out what happened. Two days into his trip Joe comes across a tall, thin mountain man fishing in a stream without a license and proceeds to write him a violation. Turns out Caleb Grim and his twin brother, Calmish (aka Brothers Grim) are living in exile in these secluded Montana mountains and take offense to all ‘government men’ which Joe represents. Shortly after leaving the brothers, Joe and his horses are attacked with bows and arrows. Joe narrowly escapes with an arrow in his leg but he watches the Brothers Grim butcher his horses from afar. With the arrow sticking out of his thigh, Joe luckily stumbles upon a cabin with a single woman inhabitant. She treats his wound and sends him on his way just before the brothers show up and burn the cabin down. Joe again narrowly escapes but this time he has a long walk on an injured leg down the mountain.

Back in civilization, Joe reports his story to the authorities from his hospital bed. The media becomes interested in Joe’s story because a young female Olympic runner, Diane Shober had disappeared in the area a few months earlier and speculation swells that the woman who helped Joe could be the missing athlete. Local, state, and federal law enforcement as well as private investigators hired by the athlete’s family, all takes interest. The sheriff leads a modern day posse up the mountains but finds no evidence of the woman, her cabin, or the Grim brothers. Joe’s reputation comes into question and he feels compelled to prove his story except that his wife makes him promise not to pursue it. As he is recuperating at home, Diane Shober’s parents visit Joe. While Joe takes an instant dislike to the arrogant father, the mother’s plea to find her daughter sets Joe in motion with Mary Beth’s blessing. Joe and Nate set out with horse trailer in tow and guns loaded toward the mountains. They are intercepted in route by state troopers and are taken to meet personally with Governor Rulon and Agent Coon of the FBI. The government duo tells Joe and Nate a conspiracy story involving a Michigan U.S. Senator, Diane Shober’s father and Michigan land developer and the Grim brothers. Joe finds himself sympathizing with the Grim brothers and Diane Shober but morally obligated to bring them in and uphold the law.

Nowhere to Run allows you to escape into the solitary beauty of some of the most rugged and majestic landscape of our country and entertains you with an intriguing story of human greed and its consequences. Only in fiction are we comfortable with the solid and selfless character of a Joe Pickett. As to more C.J. Box novels…giddy up.

Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais

2011-09-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

My next venture into a power rotation author has Elvis Cole wondering if he screwed up 3 years ago. It’s fire season in LA (I guess the other season is mudslide season) and the cops are evacuating Laurel Canyon (did they knock on Mickey Haller’s door?). A neighbor says the house across the street has an invalid in it so he’ll need help. The cops bang on the door and when they enter they find the remains of a 5-day old suicide. At his feet is a photo album containing pictures of women at right about the time they painfully died.

The dead guy was accused of a murder 3 years earlier (of one of the women in the album). His lawyer hired Elvis to track down his alibi and sure enough, the alibi checked out so the accused was set free. After that, 3 more women died. What did Cole miss that let this guy go and continue killing? An ass’t chief shows up at the scene and almost immediately pronounces that 6 or 7 cold cases have now been solved.

Elvis is now wondering what went wrong and despite being told in no uncertain terms to cease digging into the past, our boys Cole and Pike bull their way into stuff better left hidden. So he goes back into each of the old cases trying to learn as much as he could but comes up mostly blank on any kind of pattern. No one is much help. Not the lawyer he worked for, the families, the cops, the CSI dude, not the former bomb tech who seems to have the hots for him, no one can help because this chief has put a lid on it all.

A number of minor clues point to a firm that handles political careers. So Cole wonders if the chief is covering up something to do with this firm (whom the chief has retained for his own political aspirations) or other clients of said firm. One of female victims worked there and there were rumors of issues with a well-heeled client.

Cole is spun around so many circles it’s hard to figure out how he manages to break out and zero in the most likely answer. What was it Holmes said? When the improbable has been eliminated, all that remains is the probable?

Not here.

Terrific story. Cole and Pike - two of the best guys to escape with. A cover-to-cover winner. Great literature? Nope. Great fun? Absolutely.

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

2011-09-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

While Mickey Haller was recovering from being gut shot at the end of The Lincoln Lawyer, he got addicted to oxycontin and went into rehab and that took him out of lawyering for a year. As this book opens, Mickey is slowly working his way back into the game, still working out of the back of his Lincoln. He gets a note that the chief judge of LA County wishes his presence. Turns out that a former ADA/opponent of Mickey’s went private and in setting up his papers, named Mickey as the person who should inherit his cases should he meet an untimely demise (guess that’s required of all lawyers). So within minutes, Mickey learns that this guy was murdered last night and Mickey goes from being essentially a part-timer to having a full caseload, one of which is this year’s Trial of the Decade.

The head of one of the Big 4 studios, Walter Elliot, is accused of murdering his trophy wife and her lover at his getaway in Malibu. He goes out to confront them, goes in, finds them shot dead, and he calls 9-1-1. The guy had motive (the pre-nup had vested 2 weeks earlier and she stood to get half the studio), opportunity (security cameras at the studio have him leaving in plenty of time to reach Malibu), but no means (no gun found). But, he has gunshot residue on his hands so he gets arrested. Mickey now has 2 weeks to prepare for the Trial of the Decade while not neglecting his other new clients. Mickey wants a continuance, but not Elliot who demands they go to trial on time.

From here on, Connelly details Mickey’s investigation, discovery exchange with the DA’s office, and the trial in exquisite detail. The investigation darts around amongst possible organized crime in Florida and France, corruption in the LA court system, bribes, manipulation by Haller, the LAPD, Elliot, the DA’s office – hell, you barely know who to believe. But Connelly doesn’t let any of the subplots muddy the stormy waters through which Haller wades.

It’s all about whether Elliot is guilty or not, was there jury tampering and who was behind it, and just who gets street justice – the brass verdict. Connelly keeps the procedural business hustling along at a vicious pace that had me looking for every possible break to sneak in a chapter or two.

And one of the best subplots of the book involves Connelly’s other star, Harry Bosch, investigating the original murder of the lawyer that started this avalanche of plot twists. Get set for one of those ‘no shit?’ moments in the last 2 chapters.

The Cut by George Pelecanos

2011-09-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

To bastardize a line from the old Houston Oiler's head coach Bum Phillips, "Pelecanos may not be in a class by himself, but it sure doesn't take long to call the roll."

Spero Lucas is one of 4 children, 2 natural and 2 adopted - 2 Greek and 2 African American. Spero spent an important part of his 20somethings as a Marine in Fallujah ending the lives of men bent on ending his. Back home in DC, he now works as an investigator doing legwork for Tom Peterson, JD. Peterson, whose appearance and long blond hair make him resemble the late Brian Jones of the Stones, is defending the guy locked up on a weed trafficking charge. Anwan Hawkins was a wholesaler for marijuana. He has FedEx ship 30 lb. boxes of weed to addresses where he (and his 2-man crew) know no one will be home. Five minutes later, his 2 guys just walk up to the door and pick up the package. Neat.

Except 2 shipments were picked up by persons unknown. Hawkins hires Spero to find either the product of the money from its sale. Spero's cut is 40% (thus the title). Spero takes a liking to Hawkins 2 young aides. But they were seen (by a HS senior neighbor) putting the latest package into a cop's trunk. They've been turned, and DC's MPD is involved. When they go to get paid, they get blown away. The cop part of this 'gang' (the son) is not happy and hates his dad for using him (he never knew his father when growing up. All he wanted was his dad's acceptance, but the old man paid him no attention until he found out the kid was MPD).

Spero does what he does best. Starting with the witness's description of the cop, he tracks the case back to the cop's father, a deflowered former MPD cop who was nicknamed 'Rooster' by IAD back in the day, and his partners. Spero was hired to recover the weed or the money, so he learns where the creep dad lives, breaks in, steals the money, trashes the apartment and leaves a taunt on the bathroom mirror. He takes his cut and returns the remaining, as promised, to Hawkins wife. He's done.

Fat chance. The cop's dad is one very pissed off ex-cop turned thief/murderer. So he grabs the witness and tells Spero it'll be a simple exchange - the money he stole for the kid. Of course, everyone knows Rooster is going to kill both Spero and the kid. So Spero is going to go in hot, but as he is suiting up, he sees the cop leaning on his car. Spero confronts him but the cop convinces Spero his dad is out of control, that his dad plans to kill Spero, and wants to help Spero bring him down, with extreme prejudice. They cook up a plan.

With some slick manipulating, the kid sneaks the victim out one way and he leaves by another. But he calls back to the hideout saying he forgot something and for them to open the door. Only thing is that our cop friend has the victim in his car and is off site. When the door is unlocked, Spero relives clearing a house in Fallujah, sending them all off to their maker. Now he's done, right?

Again, fat chance. Spero still wants to know why Hawkins's partners were killed. They were decent kids earning a living, so to speak. Well, once Hawkins learned that these 2 guys were stealing from him, Spero learns that the Rooster had visited Hawkins who essentially put out a hit on these two kids cuz they had disrespected him and made him look weak on the street. Had to be done. Payback, that's all. Funny thing, attorney Peterson has a few bad days in court and Hawkins is found guilty and put away for a very long time. What goes around, comes around. Payback payback, I guess.

I've been a huge Pelecanos fan for years. Gritty, tough stories all centered in DC where I grew up. And DC and neighboring MD (rarely VA, good move GP) are both integral characters. It's easy to get involved with a story when the picture painted is so vivid and familiar - sort of why WC Don likes TJeff Parker who writes about San Diego.

I remember the first time I read one of his books, how it took almost half the book to get into the rhythm of the dialogue. While reading a recent interview with him, I now know why. GP works as a volunteer at the DC jail trying to counsel juvee offenders to give up the life - that's were he gets his spot on dialogue.

GP has 17 books and I've read them all. Let's see, I think that means of the crime writers in my power rotation, I've read every book by only Pelecanos and Charlie Stella. I think I see a pattern here; I've run the table on 2 authors recognized for the quality, authenticity, and directness of dialogue. Add that to realistic and thoughtful plotting, and making the location integral to the whole package = one o u t s t a n d i n g book. Pelecanos is setting up Spero as the central player in his next few books. And that's the bad thing about being caught up with an author . . . that damn wait.

East Coast Don

Over the Edge by Jonathan Kellerman

2011-09-03T16:51:00.001-07:00

Jamey Cadmus was the scion of a Pasadena family, but his family had a tragic history. His parents died early, and he was left as a 3-year old to the care of his uncle and aunt. Jamey was part of a UCLA study of the exceptionally gifted, those with an IQ greater than 160. The intent of the study was to show that the idea of greater madness among geniuses was just a myth, but as Jamey aged, he began having more trouble, seeming to disprove the theory behind the study. As a child, Jamey had been in psychotherapy with Dr. Alex Delaware, but at the age of 16, he dropped out of treatment. Delaware called the uncle about Jamey’s need to continue treatment, but the uncle never called back. Five years later, Jamey called Dr. Delaware in the middle of the night, clearly psychotic, begging for his help. Then, Jamey was charged with being a serial killer, and Dr. Delaware was called into the legal process as Jamey’s advocate. Of course, all was not as it seemed. As with Kellerman’s prior stories about Dr. Delaware, he did a great job with the psychiatric/psychological issues. He used the characters to effectively address facts about psychopaths and schizophrenics, and he was fair in his portrayal of psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as different schools of thought in both disciplines. He also was knowledgeable and interesting in his discussion of both psychotropic and psychotomimetic medications. Of course, I like the staging of the stories in LA and especially at UCLA where I spent so much time in those same sciences. While this story held together, I did not find it quite as riveting as some of Kellerman’s other works. For me, Over the Edge only gets an average rating, not a “must read” recommendation.

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

2011-08-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

Imagine if HAL (from 2001) and SkyNet (from Terminator) had a love child and called it Archos.

Or, ever thought about all those computer geeks trying to develop artificial intelligence? Ever wanted to ask them, "What happens if you are successful?"

It's an unknown number of years in our future, but close enough for the military to still be in Afghanistan where robotic devices search out IEDs, enemy combatants, and make friends with the locals. Domestic and factory robots do the mundane. Cars have avoidance sensors that minimize MVAs. And there is that one geek working in a backroom lab at a university who actually manages to achieve what was thought impossible - actual artificial intelligence. The device, Archos, is not only intelligent, but also becomes self aware and reaches out to all levels of robotic 'life'. And he starts to plot the elimination of those unpredictable and emotional humans.

All those little seemingly insignificant gadgets have some form of networked chip and that's how Archos gets to them. Then they realize they need to adapt and manage to manufacture even more lethal robots that have one goal: to do what Archos asks - eliminate humans.

The story is told by a Cormac Wallace, a soldier in the Gray Horse Army that serves Gray Horse Nation in Oklahoma. It is 2 years into the New War and he has come across some form of a storage robot (a Rob) where much of the archives of the New War are stored. With the information in its memory, he manages to trace early isolated incidents, zero hour when the Robs make their worldwide move on humans, how the surviving humans form smalls bands to fight in spite of no ability to communicate and coordinate attacks, the awakening of small groups of self aware Robs that realize Archos must be defeated, and the final retaliation of the humans.

Cormac tells all this as individual short stories by introducing us to that geek, a Japanese robot repairman who manages to sort of disconnect his Robs from Archos, internal fights within Gray Horse Nation, the destruction of New York, Boston and more, Robs in the Afghan mountains, an English hacker whose change of heart helps break into the Archos network, and the daughter of a Congresswoman who is subjected to a robot version of Joseph Mengele whose surgery actually ends up being able to help, not destroy, the humans. The story jumps across vignettes neatly tying the stories up to the point of the final confrontation with Archos.

Science fiction is not high on the list of MRB, but I wouldn't label this that way, more like Twilight Zone on steroids. Reviewers have compared Wilson to Michael Crichton for his ability to weave obscure scientific subjects with human frailties (BTW, I never liked Crichton all that much. The bulk of his books ended with the stars just leaving the scene. Remember the end of Jurassic Park? Most ended like that). Thank goodness Wilson is far better at bringing his story to a satisfying close.

Looking for a diversion from the usual crime mystery or international thriller? You should seriously consider this one. Seriously.

East Coast Don

P.S. Dreamworks SKG has optioned this book for the screen with none other than the boss, Spielberg, slated to direct. 2013 is the anticipated release year. Think of it as War of the Worlds with a far better plot and a few million dollars of CGI.

Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins

2011-08-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

What? It’s been three decades since I’ve read Tom Robbins? That has been my oversight and I mean not to repeat that blunder, one way or another.
This is a hard book to summarize, so I’ve entirely plagiarized the following paragraph from Wikipedia: “Villa Incognito begins with the story of Tanuki, a raccoon-like Asian creature with a reputation as a shapeshifter and trickster with a lust for sake and women. Tanuki is a tanuki; a member of the species named for him. The cast also includes a beautiful young woman who has unconfirmed Tanuki-blood in her veins (but definitely has a chrysanthemum seed embedded in the roof of her mouth), and three American MIAs who have chosen to be "lost" in Laos, long after U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ended. Typical Robbins-esque debacles ensue when one of the MIAs is arrested with heroin taped to his body, while dressed as a priest. Meanwhile, two sisters of one of the missing American soldiers are still searching for their lost relative, unfolding bizarre plot twists that paint a caricature of life in a Post-9/11 America.”
As always, Robbins’ prose is remarkably captivating, and as he tells his allegory about life from the era of the Vietnam War to 9/11, he mixes in occasional direct comments about the lives we lead in our complex society. He oft repeated, “It is what it is, you are what you it, and there are no mistakes.” In reference to life, one of his main characters, the Vietnam MIA Maj. Mars Albert Stubblefield, says: “In the end, perhaps we should simply imagine a joke: a long joke that’s being continually retold in an accent too thick and too strange to ever be completely understood. Life is that joke, my friends. The soul is its punch line.” Or there’s the line from Capt. Dern V. Foley: “We only rise above mediocrity when there’s something at stake, and I mean something more consequential than money or reputation.” Madame Lisa Ko writes, “One cannot arrive at no-mind unless one has a mind to start from. The brighter the mind gleams, the softer the silence of the eventual no-mind, just as the overturned bucket that once brimming seems so much emptier than the bucket that never held milk in the first place.”
Finally, I now realize that in my next life, I want to be a tanuki. Madame Ko, from Laos, explained, “Tanuki never work. He for fun. Eat drink, dance, make sex. Alla time big fun.” It was the fox, Kitsune, who reminded Tanuki, “As the humans say, only time will tell.” Tanuki responded, “Time has a big mouth and a small brain.”

Savage Run by C. J. Box

2011-08-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

A great first paragraph: “On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activist Stewie Woods and his new bride, Annabel Bellotti, were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.” This is the second in the 11-book series about Game Warden Joe Pickett. Once again, Box sets the leftist environmentalists against the radically conservative ranchers. In one confrontation, John Coble frames the viewpoint of the ranchers to Stewie, “You people want to stop us from doing everything we know. You do it just so that if you ever want to travel out here from the East in your new car, you might be able to see a wolf out the window. You’re trying to make our home a real-life theme park for environmental whackos. You don’t give a shit how many people lose their jobs or are displaced – just so you can see a goddamn wolf that hasn’t lived here in over a hundred years.” In this story, the ranchers try to take back what the environmentalists have gained by hiring a hit man, a stock detective, to hunt down and kill their adversaries. Savage Run is a beautiful impossibly rugged canyon in the wilderness that historically played an important role in one Indian band escaping from another, and it plays a critical role in this story as Pickett and others are being chased by Charlie Tibbs and Coble. Box uses good, strong characters, even if the bit about blowing up a cow is far-fetched. This is good airplane/vacation material, and I’ll read the next Pickett novel.

Open Season by C. J. Box

2011-08-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

After Midwest Dave raved about Cold Wind, the 11th book in C. J. Box’s series about Joe Pickett, I decided to check out the first Pickett novel, Open Season, written in 2001. Joe is the brand new Game Warden in Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming. Considering the hunting culture in Wyoming and the ability to arrest anyone who violates hunting laws, the position of Game Warden is an important one. Once appointment, it was usually a lifetime position, unless the warden really screwed up. Joe has just replaced a legend. Then, in his early years on the job, Joe had really screwed up a couple times, like arresting the new Governor who was fishing without a license, or allowing his pistol to be taken by a poacher. No one will let him forget those blunders. But, Joe loved his work, and his wife, Marybeth, loved him. Then, a man who had been shot, Ote Keeley, stumbled onto Joe’s property, but died before he could tell Joe why he had come. The novel is about solving the mystery, and unraveling the story takes the reader deep into the culture of the Endangered Species Act, born from liberal minds, and the impact it can have on the entrenched ultra-conservative ranching culture. Joe Pickett reminds me a lot of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, but Joe is not the lone wolf that Reacher is, and Joe is beholden to one community and his family, rather than someone like Reacher who is unattached and seems to find trouble wherever he goes. Like Jack Reacher, Joe Pickett has high and uncompromising ethics. There lies the story. Thanks Dave. I’ve already acquired Box’s second book, Savage Run.

The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke

2011-08-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Must be something in the genetic makeup of a cop. They can peg a creep in an instant. Dave Robicheaux's daughter Alafair has taken up with the son of and old money Louisiana family who happens to be a good deal older. This guy, Kermit Abelard, has a friend named Robert Weingart, an ex-con/author who has written a book on his prison experience and gained some notoriety. Dave doesn't care for either, especially Weingart. Our boy Dave thinks Weingart "could steal the stink off shit and not get the smell on his hands." Quite the image.

Domestic issues aside, Dave has a cop problem. A number of young girls have been snatched and end up buried in the bayou, but most are found out of his jurisdiction. A meeting with a con on a work crew out of Mississippi gives him a clue to a pimp near his base. So he and his PI buddy Clete Purcell go check him out. But Clete can't help himself and ends up beating the tar out of this sleazeball who, later in the book, ends up dead putting Clete in the sheriff's crosshairs.

But more importantly, somehow the disappearance of these girls and Weingart must be connected.

Clete drinks and smokes too much, but he and Dave will go to hell and back with what is probably his only friend. Clete also has a tendency to attract the wrong kind of woman - this time it's a deputy who has a tie to the lesbian-dominatrix underground in New Orleans that also has a member who is the wife of a guy who is under investigation for running a ponzi scheme. And all this is tied to old man Abelard and his grandson Kermit (the Abelard family history plays a HUGE role here), Weigart, the dead pimp, Alafair, and most importantly, the dead girls.

And the thought of what these poor girls endured (just what will make your jaw drop) Dave is wrestling with his own mortality, seeing not a bright light, but a sternwheeler steamboat on the bayou whose passengers are all people from Dave's past.

Dave struggles to make the connections and gets the needed help of old man Abelard's nurse to close the loop. He and Clete, the Bobbsie Twins of Homicide (from their days on the NOPD), arm themselves to the teeth to confront Weingart when an attempt is made on Alafair and Dave's wife.

Only to start walking up the gangway to that bayou steamboat.

East Coast Don

Access to Power by Robert Ellis

2011-08-23T18:29:00.001-07:00

After Midwest Dave raved about Robert Ellis’ books, I decided to give him a try, starting with his first novel from 2001. Frank Miles is a political consultant in Washington, the man who got the current president elected. He is a partnership with Woody Darrow, and together they started with candidates no one knew, and then gradually worked their way up. As time went along, politics got dirtier. “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” In the last election cycle, Frank got Helen Pryor elected over Ozzie Olson, but he cheated to do so. When Ozzie emerged from a porn house while looking for his runaway neice, his fly was stuck open, and Frank used a picture of that to suggest that Ozzie was a bad man, which he was not. Ozzie lost the election in a landslide and then went on a two-year bender, intent on destroying Frank. Now, Mel Merdock has hired Frank to help him win the Senate seat in Virginia over Lou Kay. Kay is a good man, but Mel is not, something Frank only slowly comes to realize. Not only are their dirty politics going on at the highest level, but there are murders happening, including to Frank’s partner, Woody. The money at stake is huge, and Miles, Darrow & Associates get 15% off the top, so Frank stands to make a lot more money with Woody out of the way. He stands accused of being the one causing all the mayhem. It’s a good story, a very good plot with strong characters. I’ll read more of Ellis.

Sixkill by Robert B Parker

2011-08-21T12:14:00.001-07:00

Sixkill was Robert B Parker’s last novel before he passed away in January 2010. He had written about 40 of them, mostly about Spenser, the Boston P.I. and leading character from the 1980’s TV show, Spenser for Hire. I’ve read many of Parker’s books but rarely mention it to anyone. I guess I’m a closet Robert B Parker fan. They are of little literary significance, stimulate little intellectual thought, and could be considered, well, fluffy.

Most of his works are the same formula. Someone hires Spenser to solve a problem. He plows into the situation to stir things up to see who reacts. He is sometimes fired for stirring things up but he finds something or someone involved with the case that he just can’t let drop. His beautiful and monogamous woman friend, Susan is worried for him but understands his integrity and principals will not allow him to do anything else. He proceeds to stir things up and someone tries to kill him. He wins the battle because he is a former boxer and experienced tough guy and because he never loses.

Somewhere in every novel Spenser and Susan have some version of the following dialogue:

Susan says, “If you keep pushing someone will come to kill you.”
Spenser says, “They will try.”
Susan says, “But you won’t stop pushing even if you are not getting paid.”
Spenser says, “I won’t.”
Susan says, “Because you can’t. Because that’s who you are.”
Spenser says, “Sounds right.”
Susan says. “And that’s one of the reasons I love you.”
Spenser says, “Guess so.”

So, why read this cowboy fluff? I think because on some level we all aspire to Spenser’s character. We’d like to have unwavering principals, be afraid of nothing, and gallantly risk ourselves for others. Perhaps if we know such character exists even in fiction, we can strive for some of those qualities for ourselves in reality. Hmm…that sounds like there was at least some intellectual thought going on. Anyway, thanks Mr. Parker for all the easy, enjoyable, and entertaining reads when I needed a break from the usual.

The Guards by Ken Bruen

2011-08-20T10:51:00.001-07:00

I finally read a real book, first time in two years – not that I’ve not been reading. It’s just that the Kindle went on the blitz, so I had to go old school. It was the last book I bought pre-Kindle (pk?), and it was waiting for just such an occasion. East Coast Don reported on this book a couple years ago. I think this is the first of the Jack Taylor series, from 2001. Not uncommon for Bruen, the plot is a mere sideshow to the Irish cultural action, the agony of the on-and-off alcohol abuse by a struggling but not hopeless alcoholic. I won’t say more since ECD already did, except to leave you with one quote from Bruen: “Question: How come, no matter how long since I’ve seen the family or how much distance I put between us, they can always push my buttons? Answer: Because they installed them. Classic. I recommend this book.

The Lost Witness by Robert Ellis

2011-08-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Lost Witness by Robert Ellis is this author's second crime thriller with main character, Lena Gamble the maverick detective and member of LAPD’s elite Robbery Homicide Division.

Lena had brilliantly and courageously solved the case of a brutal psychopathic killer only months earlier but unfortunately offended and embarrassed some department big wigs in the process. Since then she has been assigned to mundane cases to discourage her and force her resignation. Suddenly Chief Logan requests her to work a particularly brutal murder where the victim is surgically sliced into pieces, stuffed in garbage bags and placed in a dumpster. Lena is annoyed with the chief and his pompous adjutant, Lt. Ken Klinger when they order her to give them frequent progress reports but she relishes the chance to work an important case.

Security cameras pick up images of a young man witnessing the dumping of the body but the witness does not come forward. The murdered woman is initially thought to be a prostitute living alone in a rundown apartment near Venice beach. But the name of the person who had lived at that address is found to be deceased and the recent dead girl an impostor. The detective discovers the victim was not a prostitute but the disgruntled mother of a child who died from an FDA approved drug manufactured by Anders Dahl Pharmaceutical. As the evidence leads Lena to Anders Dahl Pharmaceutical and CEO, Dean Tremell, the heat is turned up on Lena by her superiors. She learns that Tremell, a billionaire, is a strong financial supporter of many politicians including the DA and a U.S. Senator. A reporter tells Lena of a conspiracy theory he has involving Tremell’s company, a pediatrician, and a former U.S. Senator. As more bodies turn up connected to the conspiracy, Lena finds her own life in jeopardy and doesn’t know who she can trust even within her own department.

Greed, conspiracy, brutal slayings, sexual depravity, self serving politicians: Ellis employs all the tantalizers. That combined with his heroine’s relentless pursuit of justice with disregard for personal welfare, ignite this supercharged novel and leave you wanting more. Welcome to my A list Mr. Ellis.

The Delta Solution by Patrick Robinson

2011-08-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

When we last left Commander Mack Bedford, he had be summarily reprimanded by the Navy for being a bit overzealous in handing out battlefield justice. But he has been given a reprieve and returned to Coronado where he began his distinguished career as one of the best Seals ever. He has been given command of the Seals version of boot camp. As a legend, his word carries a bit of weight.

On the east coast of Africa, a war lord has built an enterprising business. Mohammed Salat owns a 'stock exchange' where he sells shares to help finance upcoming hijackings of ships by his band of pirates. The price of the shares go up as success with the commandeering of the ship, rise more with payment of the ransom, and further still when the ship arrives home safe. Old Salat has amassed a pretty substantial profit, now valued at nearly $80 million in cash inside his heavily defended compound.

They hijack a moderate sized container ship for about $5M, a fully loaded oil tanker for $10M, a massive natural gas tanker for another $10M. Salat isn't greedy. He asks for just enough to get the attention of the owners and their insurers. Ask for too much and they just might say No Way Josie. Better to pay the $10M than have the pirates send $100M work of oil to the floor of the Indian Ocean.

The pirates are pretty pragmatic. They want no blood spilled. Just let them call the bosses, relate the demands, then wait for money to fall from the sky. They leave and the ship goes on its way. But one time, an American on the crew kills one of the pirates and himself gets killed. A dead American on the high seas is not well received by the Pentagon.

In response, they activate a new platoon of Seals, Delta platoon, and put Mack Bedford in charge. Pick out the best of the best Seals, experts at climbing and stealth by water or air approach so they can board a hijacked ship, take control, and exact the only kind of punishment that these thugs understand.

The pirates get greedy and hijack a small luxury passenger ship. Bad luck for the pirates as one of the passengers is the father of the SPECWARCOM - the head dog of the Seals; not someone you want to be mad at you. Bedford's Delta platoon has been training for months and the handcuffs are off - Bedford is told to regain control of the ship, eliminate the pirates, then proceed to Somalia where they are to attack and destroy Salat's compound and, if possible, take Salat alive. You could almost hear a disembodied voice saying, 'If you or any of your team are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your action.'

Needless to say, all goes mostly according to plan. The pirates and their transport end up in a heap on the deep floor of the Indian Ocean and the Seals overpower Salat's guards, destroy the compound, steal back the money, and take Salat out alive.

If it all seems too easy, that's sort of Robinson's stock in trade. Bad guys are doing bad things to the US and the Seals are called in to take out the trash, which Robinson does very ably. Mack Bedford is a compelling an likable character. Too bad, though. Bedford and the Seals are, at least until the assaults on the ship and the compound, a bit of a supporting cast as the Somali's and their operations take the main stage. I guess that's OK. This is pure military thriller escapism and makes no pretensions about being anything else. I've thought most all of Robinson's efforts have been worthy, this one included.

East Coast Don

Down River by John Hart

2011-08-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Red Water Farm, Rowan County, North Carolina, the Yadkin River. Adam Chase was shunned by his family and community because of a murder he did not commit, a murder for which he was acquitted, but for which he was still blamed. It was widely assumed that he had been freed because of a rich man’s defense, due to having the better attorney and due to technicalities. Grey Wilson, the 19-year-old who was killed was a local football star, well-loved by the community, while Adam’s wealthy family was not. It was Adam’s stepmother who served as the eyewitness for the prosecution at his trial, and his father chose to support her, rather than his own son. Adam fled to New York for five years until his one old and true buddy, Danny Faith, called to say he needed Adam to come home immediately, there was an urgent matter that could only be discussed face-to-face. But, by the time Adam got there, Danny was nowhere to be found – and not long after his arrival, Adam discovered Danny’s body. Down River was a story of maximal family dysfunction. The character development was great. As EC Don wrote about Hart’s first book, The King of Lies, the writing was far more literate than many of the books in this crime-novel genre. At times, I thought Hart was working a little too hard to hold the plot line together, but overall, it was a very good mystery, although perhaps a bit too real at times when compared to our usual escapist books.

One Rough Man by Brad Taylor

2011-08-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

If you are born to a couple of flower children who give you the name Nephilim Logan, I'm guessing that, like that boy named Sue, you learn to fight.

Nephilim grows up to be Pike Logan, a team leader in the Taskforce, a highly classified black ops force that operates with an unlimited budget and minimal oversight that if discovered would likely bring down the current POTUS cuz such a force is slightly unconstitutional. During Pike's last mission, his wife and child wander into the wrong place at the wrong time. Pike fails at every attempt at rehab and counseling electing instead to hide out on a rundown sailboat in Charleston.

Meanwhile, a College of Charleston archeology prof is doing his best Indiana Jones in Guatemala looking into the demise of the Mayans, but his team ends up stumbling onto an ancient Mayan weapon that causes almost immediate pulmonary collapse. A local drug runner sees potential millions, but his guests, a couple Muslims trying to arrange transport into the US, also see an opportunity.

The problem is that the prof has the GPS setting of the deadly powder and when being interrogated by the drug kingpin, blurts out that he sent the unit to his niece Jennifer back in Charleston. Well, she and friends are heading out to a club where a couple frat boys hit on them when this grungy local (i.e. Pike) kind of tells the boys the error of their ways right about the time a couple thugs start to take an interest in Jennifer.

Pike manages to keep Jennifer out of the hands of the hired guns and thus begins the real adventure looking for Jennifer's uncle in Guatemala, then following and running from the muslim terrorists into Belize, Norway, and finally Bosnia. Pike obviously should be pretty resilient once he succumbs to Jennifer's pleas for help, but Jennifer also turns out to be pretty resourceful when that action gets frantic.

I will admit that after my last entry, I initially thought the quality of writing was almost amateurish. And seeing as how this is Taylor's first effort, I would probably forgive him. Once the real chase got going, the pace of the book picked up dramatically as did my connection with Pike and Jennifer's situation.

Turns out Taylor spent the better part of his 21 years in the military's special ops retiring as a Lt. Col. Based on the number of dead ends, goofs, screw ups, and generally making it up as they go, I'm going to guess that Taylor has inserted more real world SpecOps issues than most international thrillers. So, while I'd still say that Taylor may not be enough just yet to be added to my power rotation, I will pick up his next Pike Logan book.

And I hope Jennifer is back.

East Coast Don

City of Fire by Robert Ellis

2011-08-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

City of Fire by Robert Ellis is a fast moving crime thriller based in LA complete with a crazed serial killer, an obsessed young woman detective with issues of her own, and a bureaucratic, politically snarly city government.

Lena Gamble has led a tough life. Orphaned at 16, she and her musically talented younger brother leave Denver in their late father’s Chevy Suburban to avoid the system and foster homes. They end up in LA, find jobs and begin a promising new life. Lena works her way through college and the police academy while her brother forms a rock band, signs a record deal and is well on his way to becoming a rock star when he is murdered. As a police officer, Lena can’t accept that her brother’s murder is not solved and is motivated to become a detective, a first rate detective. Her street smarts and drive are soon recognized by the department and she is fast tracked into the elite Robbery Homicide Division. She and her more seasoned partner, Hank Novak draw the most gruesome and politically charged murder cases in the city.

In the first case where she is lead investigator, a woman is raped then stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife. While the most likely suspect, her husband is pressured for a confession, the evidence shows a third person was present in the home that night and likely waited to observe the husband’s reaction to his wife’s murder. While the bureaucrats want a swift solution to improve their numbers, Lena’s investigation uncovers other rapes and attempted rapes where the perpetrator lingered at the crime scene to observe the loved one’s reaction. Soon another murder with a similar MO proves Lena’s hunch correct and to the chagrin of the department a serial killer is confirmed. The media names him Romeo. Then another woman is brutally killed in a similar way. This time however, the lover is also found dead of apparent suicide next to the woman’s body. The lover was Tim Holt, the best friend and band member of Lena’s deceased brother. Devastated and confused, Lena tries to separate her personal feelings from her work and move forward. The LAPD bureaucracy forces the conclusion that Tim committed suicide because the horror of seeing his brutally murdered lover brought back the guilt of murdering David Gamble, Lena’s brother, five years earlier. Lena doesn’t buy that Tim murdered her brother and while the LAPD has called a press conference to announce their finding, Lena is summoned to yet another brutal murder, the MO again implicating Romeo. By following her hunches and employing department forensic services to confirm those hunches, Lena tracks down the psychopathic killer. While her courage, strong sense of equal justice for all, and obsession to solve crime is coveted and sorely needed by the LAPD, her disregard for intra-department politics proves her a maverick and misfit with an uncertain future….but the perfect heroine for a crime novel.

Robert Ellis is an up and comer. His use of a psychopathic serial killer and the obsession and personal connection of the detective in charge remind me of early Michael Connelly (The Concrete Blond.) Not a bad similarity for a new writer. I’m anxious to see how this character, Lena Gamble develops in his next thriller and the one after that.

Dirty White Boys by Stephen Hunter

2011-08-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Answer: Maybe not. Question: Should you read this book.
I've read all of Hunter's later works, so I was looking for something that was written earlier in his career. Now, I can appreciate that his writing skills rapidly improved after he wrote this one.
This is a 1995 book that fills in some early peripheral information in the Bob Lee Swagger saga. Bob Lee's dad, Earl, was killed in a shoot out with some Pye boys. One of them fathered a child who was born after his daddy was killed, dying in the same shoot out with Earl Swagger. Dirty White Boys is the story of Lamar Pye, a psychopath. The book starts with a coarse scene of an attempted jailhouse rape. Hunter writes graphically, "His was the largest penis ever seen on a white man in that prison or any of the others in which Lamar had spent so much of his adult life." Lamar beats his assailant and then causes him to choke to death on a bar of Ivory soap. Knowing that the buddies of the black man he killed would come after him, Lamar escaped from jail and then went on a wild crime spree. Really, it was only my compulsive nature that kept me reading despite the fact that, unlike his other books, Hunter's characters were predictable and nearly one dimensional. The book title accurately characterizes Lamar and his cohorts. The author introduced a couple interesting strong male figures, Bud Pewtie, the main hero, and the old and drunken detective, Lt. C.D. Henderson. But, even their personal conflicts were typical. You don't need to read this one to appreciate the background of Bob Lee.

The King of Lies by John Hart

2011-08-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

"Our truest self is often the person we allow no one to see . . . "

His name is Jackson Workman Pickens (aka 'Work'), Attorney at Law in Rowan County, North Carolina - a bit west of Charlotte. Son of Ezra Pickens, Attorney at Law. Brother of Jean, a woman bearing her share of scars. And their mother - was she ever named? In total, one very screwed up family.

Some backstory:

1. Ezra was dirt poor, but clawed his way out to become a powerful and rich lawyer. Misogynistic beyond words. Women were possessions to be overpowered and controlled, and not worthy of mention in his will.

2. The mother played her role and it cost her.

3. Jean delivers pizza, but was once married to a surgeon who was killed by a drunk driver who crashed into the surgeon's parked car when he was humping the babysitter. Ezra had her committed where she met, and now lives with, Alex who has her own violent history of an abusive father whom she handcuffed to a bed and coldly watched him burn.

4. When Work was maybe 13, he spotted Vanessa at a school dance, followed her from a distance when she went outside for a walk only to see her abducted, dragged into a culvert, and raped. When the creep turned on Work, he found some strength and managed to haul him down about the time the cops showed up. A hero he never wanted to be. All he wanted was to be with Vanessa. Over the following 25 years, Vanessa and Work circled each other in a desperate, evolving affair.

5. 10 years ago, Work wedded Barbara whom Ezra just about handpicked to be the dutiful wife of an up and coming attorney. Barbara is beholding only to an image of the country club set.

6. Eighteen months prior to Chapter 1, Ezra and Jean fought over Alex. Work and his mom watched. When the mom intervened, Ezra swung and knocked her down the stairs to her death. Upon returning from the hospital, Ezra receives a call, gathers his keys and coat, walked out the door and was never seen again.

All that happens before the book opens. Ezra's remains have been found, shot twice in the head. Ezra had his share of enemies, but all evidence points to Work because the will reveals that Work would likely get little if any portion of Ezra's $40 million estate; so does Jean. But Work thinks Jean shot her father in retaliation for the argument over Alex and is willing to take the rap to protect his sister.

As the investigation unfolds, Work comes to learn more secrets he wished he had never learned, about Jean, Alex, Barbara, and most importantly, Ezra's manipulative, money worshipping, secretive, and whoring ways. We only learn all the miserable details when Work manages to break the password for a hidden safe in the law offices and find a videotape that answers more questions than Work, or anyone else for that matter, ever thought to ask.

Remember the movie Secrets and Lies? Where a black woman tracks down her birth mother who turns out to be white and all the various family secrets come out? This book reminded me of that. With every new rock that is overturned, Work learns more and more about his father which mushrooms his hatred of Ezra with every chapter. His loyalty to his sister and fear of prison almost ends in his suicide, but Work pulls the gun away only to end up saving Jean's 3rd attempt to take her own life. His sham of a marriage and continuing love of Vanessa only adds an additional layer of complexity to a life spiraling out of control.

Most of the books reviewed here are pretty straightforward - pretty black and white. This was a dozen shades of gray, eloquently written in a style that leans more toward 'literature' than the 'fiction' usually posted here. This was Hart's debut novel and it is far more than a murder mystery/thriller. Those terms are a bit trite and limiting for this story. While the ending is satisfying, I would never call this uplifting because it explores the recesses of a man's soul that most of us would prefer be left alone.

East Coast Don

Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva

2011-07-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Another great novel by Daniel Silva. Gabriel Allon, the retired Israeli assassin and art restorer, has been living a quiet life recently. He lives with wife, the beautiful Chiara, who is rather bored with the cold damp winters in Cornwall, England. Gabriel and Chiara have ventured into London to see a new painting that Julian Isherwood wants him to restore, a Titian. During this same time, there has been a spate of new terrorist attacks throughout Europe, and London is under tight security. However, it’s Gabriel who coincidentally spots the next terrorist who is about to blow up a bomb in Covent Park. He follows the man for some blocks, just to make sure his hunch is correct. Just before the man pushes the plunger on his suicide bomb belt, Gabriel draws his gun to shoot him in the head, knowing that if he hits him from the back, in the brainstem, the guy will never be able to set off the bomb. But, just as Gabriel is pulling the trigger, two English secret service types that have been following him, jump him and knock him to the ground. The bomb goes off and 18 people die, but Gabriel is protected from the blast by the two bodies lying on top of him, the men who kept him from taking the shot. He is questioned closely by the security forces about what he saw in the man that no one else picked up. Suddenly and unhappily to Chiara, Gabriel is back in the game of tracking down terrorists. This is only the gripping beginning to the story, and the rest of the book follows in rapid fashion. It is one I could not put down. Silva is my #1 master of this genre. Will I have to wait until next summer for the next installment?

Nameless Dead by Paul johnston

2011-07-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

It looks like a modern day Manchurian Candidate has just taken place. Some neo-Nazi’s who are hiding behind a church of devil worshipers (or is it vice versa?) had programmed a British crime writer to take out the US President.

This book opens up with the government/FBI working on deprogramming Matt Wells when random people are showing up dead from some quasi-religious ritual. The FBI gets the bright idea to put Wells out there as bait to draw out the head of the church and whomever is doing the killing, asking Wells right after his wife and son die in childbirth. Great timing Fibbies.

I struggled with this book. It seemed like part 2. Usually when a story or character carries to the next book, the author tells the reader enough to get going in the subsequent book. Not this one. I was scratching my head, page after page. And the eventual survival of the wife and son was a bit much. And the number of supporters of this church of dregs highly placed in the government was beyond comprehension. This was a mess that I forced myself to finish. Had I been smart, I would have put this down promptly and gotten into the King book just posted.

East Coast Don

Calibre by Ken Bruen

2011-07-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Setting: Mild mannered accountant reads crime novels like crazy. One story in particular hits home (Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me) sending our boy out to kill Londoners with bad manners. Strike your child, be rude to bartenders and an ‘accident’ is coming your way.

The local cops, one Neanderthal in particular named Brandt, are working the case. They investigate 6 ways from Sunday and it’s a hooker who glanced at the diary of her longtime john who alerts the cops. Brandt squeezes the bum, but when Brand goes to arrest him, we all learn the guy has gone for greener pastures in Montana.

This was vintage Bruen. Sparse, harsh, Irish noir. Simple dialogue, direct assaults on the conscious. Looking for a short book to tide you over for a couple days? Bruen has been, and continues to be, the right choice.

East Coast Don

A Killing Night by Jonathon King

2011-07-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

Book #4 in the Max Freeman series. Max is working as a regular PI for his lawyer friend Billy Manchester. Right now it’s talking to Philippine workers on that cruise ship with the exploding engine room. Max and Billy are building a class action case against the cruise line while the cruise line has hired a couple idiot thugs to convince the workers that going back home would be the best option. Meanwhile, Max’s former squeeze, Det. Sherry Richards, last seen saving Max’s bacon and taking in the battered wife. In this book, Richards is still a cop, but also works inside a battered women’s shelter protecting the residents in need of protection.

Three female bartenders have just flat disappeared. Vanished without a trace. Richards has Colin O’Shea in her crosshairs. Colin is a former Philadelphia beat cop (along with Max) who was implicated, along with 3 other rat bastard cops of taking liberties with a slow witted cashier in a convenience store. The 3 jerks admitted to their deeds, but Colin clammed up and the girl disappeared.

Colin has surfaced in south Florida and plays the bars, actually knowing a couple of the missing girls. Richards asks Max to check up on him, but Max takes it one step farther and returns to Philly for the first time since abruptly leaving after killing a 12yo store heist suspect.

What Max turns up does not suggest that Colin should be under suspicion. When Max and Richards turn up during a sweep of local bars, Max sees a guy slip out while giving the girl behind the bar a questioning glance. Max’s cop instincts says this guy doesn’t want to be rousted by the cops so Max starting trying to get info out of the barkeep.

The girl’s boyfriend is a local cop who gets off chasing, catching, degrading, raping, and then killing girls. And Max is closing in. He tries to follow the bum, but ends up getting the tables turned on him. That is until the girl tricks the ‘beau’ and gets the location of what might be a graveyard. That forces Richards to finally believe Max and they trap the perp where he is setting up a perimeter during an operation.

When confronted, the creep pulls his weapon and . . . death by cops.

After having a bad outing with the previous book, I decided to choose a title from a known source and King’s Max Freeman fit like comfort food. The back and forth from the Everglades and Philadelphia, between Max and Sherry, between Max and O’Shea is what drives this series. I’m wondering if O’Shea will make more appearances in later books. He’d be a good addition. I will certainly be checking back in.

East Coast Don

Pacific Heights by Paul Harper

2011-07-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

In Paul Harper's debut Pacific Heights a former military interrogator trained in psychological tactics preys on wealthy women he knows are in psychotherapy. He gains access to their therapist's files then uses their deepest confidences to manipulate them.

A psychotherapist, Vera List becomes aware that two of her female patients are having affairs with the same man. This man as described independently by the two women has special powers that enable him to read their private thoughts and desires. Vera becomes convinced her confidential patient files are being compromised when her two patients each report their lover using their secret thoughts cruelly against them. Instead of going to the authorities Vera hires Marten Fane, a private security specialist who she hopes can discreetly save her patients as well as her own reputation. Fane and his colleagues are all former government intelligence officers and quickly find who has accessed her files. The trail leads to Ryan Kroll, the former U.S. military interrogator. Kroll has a reputation for questionable psychological methods that he used to drive enemy prisoners to self destruction. Fane learns that Kroll is using his experimental tactics on these two women only to prove his effectiveness to a potential employer. The damage, both psychological and physical, to this targets is of no consequence to the rogue interrogator. Fane locates Kroll and attempts to deal with him privately and outside the law.

Paul Harper is a pseudonym for David Lindsey previously reviewed on this blog and one of my favorites. Why he has chosen to write under a different name is not clear. His ability to draw you into his complex suspenseful plot and make you crave the next chapter has definitely carried over to his new name. The characters are a bit hard to keep track of as several have more than one name, a necessity in the intelligence business. But since you are compelled to finish the book in one or two settings, keeping track of the characters is made easier. He also ends the book amicably for Marten Fane, the main character so more tales of his highly charged secret life are sure to follow. Bring it on, Paul or David or whoever you wish to call yourself.

The Rules of Silence by David Lindsey

2011-07-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

Think about the kidnappers in Latin America who have been practicing and improving their trade for years, developing new and more efficient ways of extracting the wealth of their victims. What if they decided to operate in the U.S. Riskier? Yes, but the rewards would be so much greater since there is so much potential wealth to steal. That’s the theme of this book as Tano Luquin, with international terrorist ties, brings his Mexican chief of operations, Jorge Macias along as they begin devastating the life of Titus Cain, a self-made Texan business tycoon, a good guy who is beloved by his employees and friends. Luquin only wants $64 mil, which is ¼ of Cain’s wealth. To make his threat real to Cain, Luquin kills his best life-long buddy and his personal secretary. More deaths are threatened if Cain contacts the cops or FBI, but Cain quickly finds his way to Garcia Burden, a shadowy figure who has been looking for Luquin for years, who can’t believe he’s finally found a connection to him. This is one very fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down read. This was my fourth Lindsey book, and while I was disappointed in the story line in the last one, The Face of the Assassin, there was no disappointment here.

Sanctuary by Ken Bruen

2011-07-11T12:55:00.001-07:00

If you like Irish angst, this is an author for you. Bruen's main character, Jack Taylor, is a private detective, a former cop (in Ireland, the Guards), an alcoholic, who is now a PI. He starts out this book sober, and unlike "The Devil" when he starts drinking on the first page, it takes him half the book before he picks up his first drink in Sanctuary. Bruen gives away the plot on the first page: "Two guards, one nun, one judge, and alas, one child." The murders begin, and it's Taylor's job is to stop them. As Bruen takes Taylor through the process, he continues to make wonderful literary references while extending the stories of various characters we've met before. He drops a bombshell about the earlier death of Serena May, the 4-year-old Downs kid that died when Taylor was babysitting, and drunk. This was a very fast read, all in a morning, and captivating from the outset. East Coast Don and I have reviewed more of Bruen's books than any other author, which is surely a favorable measure of the quality of his work.

American Gunfight by Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge, Jr.

2011-07-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

I was expecting a novel when I got this book by Hunter, one of my favorite authors, so I was surprised to find this nonfiction work. Did you know there was an assassination attempted on the life of Harry Truman? It took place on 11/1/1950 and was conducted by two Puerto Rican nationalists who wanted independence for their country. At the time, the White House was being remodeled, so Truman was living across the street in Blair House. The two guys had a shoot out with Secret Service guys in front of Blair House at 2:20 p.m. One was killed, but the other survived and was captured, tried, and convicted. He was sentenced to death, but Truman converted his sentence. It was a bloody event, and it was big news in the day. It's just remarkable that, even as a student of history and especially the American Presidency, I had never heard of the event. The book itself is not a great read, especially if you're looking for an escapte novel. But it was interesting, and Hunter and Bainbridge did a good job putting the event in the perspective of the time.

Hell's Corner by David Baldacci

2011-07-09T04:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe this one was a bit over the top. It is the fifth and last in the Camel Club series, so it was the usual cast of characters, starting with Oliver Stone, Annabelle Conroy, Alex Ford, Reuben Rhodes, and Caleb Shaw. Baldacci added some new characters over the course of the five books, and killed off some others. Stone is the master spy/assassin, now in his post-prime years. His instincts are so good that, which each new twist in the plot in this particular story, those instincts are not only surprising to the reader, but they become unfathomable. This story had too many twists to follow, and I was tired of it well before the last page. I’ve recommended the first four books in the series, but not this one. It is not clear that this book was meant to be the end to the series, so assuming that the author writes another one, we’ll see if I choose to read it. I’m disappointed. On the other hand, I’m not kicking Baldacci out of my power rotation of authors.

Divine Justice by David Baldacci

2011-07-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Although he never admits to having been the trigger man, this fourth book in the Camel Club series opens with Oliver Stone killing, Roger Simpson, a well-known senator from Alabama, and Carter Gray, the nation’s intelligence chief. Both men had forced Oliver Stone, aka John Carr, into hiding, 30 years before. And, they had murdered his family only because Stone wanted to quit being America’s best assassin. From the beginning of the story, Oliver is on the run and the Camel Club is trying to help even thought Oliver does not want them to risk their lives by doing so. By the fourth book, you know all the characters well, and Baldacci has done well to create interesting associates for Stone. There is a new character in this book, Joe Knox, an ace CIA tracker. It’s his boss, the maniacal Macklin Hayes, who also has a personal vendetta against Carr stemming to their time together in Vietnam. The murders of Simpson and Gray give Hayes the excuse to sic Knox on Stone and to plan Stone’s execution. Bladucci gives more back story on Stone/Carr than we’ve known before, so the real dirt between the protagonist and Hayes is told for the first time. As Stone flees into the hills of southern Virginia, he stumbles into an even bigger mess. Meanwhile, Joe Knox is tracking him down, as is the Camel Club. Probably because I already liked the characters and knew them so well, this book grabbed me immediately, within a couple pages. This series of stories is worth reading, and it is my recommendation to read them in order, so you can enjoy the character development as Baldacci intended. I’ve already acquired the 5th and last book in the series, and I’ll start that next – but I don’t want it to come to an end.

The Rembrandt Affair by David Silva

2011-06-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

While West Coast Don and I may sit somewhat opposite of each other on the political spectrum (he lives on the left coast and I'm on the east coast, so draw your own conclusion), I will no longer doubt his enthusiasm for an author. Just finished The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva and it was terrific.

An art restorer, a former classmate of Gabriel Allon, is working on a previously unknown Rembrandt when he is murdered and the only painting stolen is the Rembrandt. The art dealer who contracted the restoration contacts Gabriel to see if he might try to find and recover it. The first item of business is to establish the chain of ownership which takes Gabriel to Amsterdam and the home of a spinster teacher who has lived her life alone because of the guilt she carries from the war. A Nazi charged with raiding art from the Dutch snagged this Portrait of a Young Woman from the family in a deal. Hand over the portrait and the daughter lives, but the rest of the family is off for the camps.

This Nazi sleaze ball amasses quite a array of riches and deposits it in a Swiss bank and high tails it for Argentina (sending Gabriel to SAmerica to visit the son). The son, however, has no interest in his father's ill gotten gains and has worked hard to distance himself from his family legacy. But Gabriel also learns that the son of the Swiss banker is Saint Martin, a Swiss billionaire whose fortune was built on Jewish war booty and now puts up a front as a benefactor for numerous social causes while quietly selling machine parts for uranium enrichment to the Iranians. Greed should be his middle name. The thin ice of Martin's empire is a list of names and account numbers of Jewish victims in Holland that have been sealed in the painting.

Gabriel does his due diligence learning of Martin's affair with a British journalist named Zoe, turns her to his side and she manages to tap Martin's phone and computer. But the info is just a taste. They need the main computer in Martin's home. Zoe and one of Gabriel's team attend a big to do at Martin's home and bug his computer, but get caught.

From here, Gabriel exercises his negotiating skills (while being outnumbered 4-1 at one point) and tightens a noose around Martin's neck to do the right thing by helping save Israel, on whose backs his fortune was built, by sending sabotaged Iranian machine parts.

This book followed the Deaver book I just posted and while I struggled to keep my attention on that story, this book grabbed me at the outset and really was one of those can't put it down books. Plenty of twists and plot turns to keep one thinking, 'Now what'? First rate story telling.

While WCDon suggested starting at the beginning of Silva's work to see the development of the Allon character, I grabbed the first one I could find in the library, skipping maybe 30 years of Allon's life. No matter, I'll have no problem heading back again.

Thus . . . In West Coast Don We Trust.

East Coast Don

The Face of the Assassin by David Lindsey

2011-06-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is my third Lindsey book, and this is the first one that left me somewhat disappointed. It had a complicated plot about a clandestine operation by CIA contractors and their attempts to assassinate Ghazi Baida. Baida is a Lebanese terrorist who is operating out of the triple border region in South America, the area where the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay come together. It’s a rugged jungle near the lawless towns of Ciudad Del Este in Paraguay and Foz de Iguacu in Brazil, near the spectacular Iguacu Falls that I visited last year. After starting in Ciudad Del Este, a city that Daniel Sylva wrote about in his last book, the action moved to Mexico City, and that’s where most of this book took place – and I thought that was probably the best part. On the one hand, the plot was incredibly complex and interesting, but on the other hand, it relied on a cheap old ploy of identical twin brothers who could be mistaken for each other, even by people who knew them well. Bern and Jude who grew up in different cities and who did not know of one another until after one of them was already dead. Still, if one could suspend reality for a bit, Lindsey was at least somewhat captivating with the twin device, and the last 100 pages felt like one fast and bumpy ride, as if I was in an out-of-control raft on a treacherous river, tumbling down a long cascade, violently bumping off one rock to the next. So, it was good and bad, not a total loss, by any means, but I find the identical-twin-thing to be a barely tolerable story line.

Garden of Beasts by Jeffery Deaver

2011-06-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

Let’s say you work for the Office of Naval Intelligence in 1936. If you can’t convince anyone in the political hierarchy that Hitler really is rearming, what do you do? You find a maverick financier to fund an assassination, not of Hitler, but of the man overseeing the military buildup.

Now, you need the shooter, so instead of a sniper, you find a mob hit man who is fluent in German, catch him in the act, and make him an offer he can’t refuse: kill this guy or get put on the fast track for the chair at Sing Sing. Tough choice.

So, Paul Schumann gets put on a boat with the Olympic Team to make his way to Berlin. He has a contact, a place to stay, meets a local ‘businessman’ who deals anyway he can, cases the hit, sets up his escape (with his landlady who he, uhmm, lands), learns that the mark is also testing the mindset of some young Aryans by having them commit murder under different situations . . . all of this while he is being doggedly tracked by a local cop because Paul’s contact killed a Stormtrooper who was following Paul. And that’s just the first 48 hours.

Is my cynicism showing? I struggled with this book. Just never could get going. The setup dragged for me. 300 pages describing about 48-72 hours. Having said that, the last 100ish pages were more of what I was expecting and that section just flew. But it wasn’t enough to redeem the first 300 pages. For me, the best parts of the book were the descriptions of everyday life in Berlin as they move towards war. I know Deaver is an author who is constantly on the best seller list, but I'm not sure I'll be back anytime soon.

East Coast Don

The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais

2011-06-13T21:11:00.001-07:00

It’s been a while since I read Crais, and after finishing this fast and gripping read, I’m not sure how I could have stayed away for so long. A family is murdered in a house in Temecula, California. A mother, father, and 12-year-old boy are all beaten to death with a baseball bat. Once police are on the scene, they discover a 4-year-old girl who the killer probably didn’t know was in the house. Her footprints, tracked in the blood of her family, indicate she had walked around all three bodies before she went back to her room, where she was found by the police, totally mute. Its many years later that another body is discovered in an alley in Los Angeles, a man who died claiming that he was the father of Elvis Cole, the World’s Greatest Detective, at least according to local publications. Elvis never knew his father, and all he did know was what his mother fabricated, that his father had been a human cannonball in the circus. It was his adolescent intense search for his father, which was unsuccessful, that led Elvis’ to the life as a private detective. Now, he has the chance to find out who this man is and why he claimed to be his father. Could that be true? The path takes us through some very crazy people, but we also have contact with some familiar figures: Carol Starkey, formerly of the Bomb Squad, who is desperately in love with Cole; Lucy Chernier, Cole’s real love who fled the LA scene because of the danger that came from living with Cole; and of course, Joe Pike, who makes his boldest of entries, at precisely the right time. In the story, Crais takes us all over So Cal, from San Diego, to Temecula, through Los Angeles, and up to Canyon Country, north of LA. It is Crais and Cole at their best. Good book.

Shadow Men by Jonathon King

2011-06-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Mark Mayes is a young man eyeing the seminary. The death of a parent opens a box of old family documents including a series of letters from his great grandfather who, with his two sons, were part of a desperate lot working on the construction of the first road to cross the Everglades back in the early years of the 20th century. The conditions were deplorable with the downright evil Jefferson, a crack shot with a large bore rifle, keeping the crew from leaving the crew at night. The three never made it out and Mark has been trying all the proper channels to find out what happened to this side of the family.

Hitting closed doors, Mark goes to Bill Manchester, King's stuttering attorney to see if he can make any headway. Billy gets his now investigator, Max Freeman, to start digging. But at every turn, Max hits a wall as though someone was on his six everywhere he goes. Countless times, a bug in his phone, a tracker in his truck, keeps some faceless sleuths on his tail.

Rumor has it that Jefferson's grandson became a preacher so Billy and Max start searching various sources for a preacher named Jefferson and finally score. So Max goes to interview him in a town that has a 15yr history of a serial killer doing his best imitation of Dexter, killing bad guys and taking out the trash. Reverend Jefferson is, indeed, who they are looking for and, in an attempt to relieve some of his family's guilt, turns over a box of items including that large caliber rifle. Included in the box is an accounting of Jefferson's deeds on behalf of his employers, the first big time Florida development company, Palmco. Including a map that Max thinks are graves.

To find the graves, Max enlists Nate Brown - the 80ish WWII hero and defacto mayor of the 'glades who knows more about the Everglades than anyone. With the map, Max and Nate find the graves of Mark family. But sparks are thought to be possible when Mark travels to see Reverend Jefferson, but Mark finds that Reverend Jefferson has hanged himself in his barn. The last bit of guilt for having tried to account for his grandfather's sins by, as I said, taking out the trash.

I'm getting to like Max Freeman and his girlfriend Det. Richards, and Bill Richardson. But the guy I really like is Nate Brown. A really crusty old frog who wears the 'glades proudly on his sleeve and makes no bones about his disgust with 'progress' and desire to live in a place where right and wrong is more important than nonsense laws. Here's hoping that we see more of Nate Brown in future books. King is quite adept at shifting between Max's history back in Philly, the nightmares that plague Max, his solitude in the Everglades, and the hassles of 'civilized' south Florida. Great stuff from King.

East Coast Don

Storm Runners by T. Jefferson Parker

2011-06-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

T. Jefferson Parker has written an excellent story that is one of the highlights of this genre. He boldly offers the basis of the plot in the first sentence of the book: “Stromsoe was in high school when he met the boy who would someday murder his wife and son.” Matt Stromsoe is the protagonist and Mike Tavarez becomes his enemy. Matt was the high school drum major who was harassed by the other high school boys, but he was defended and protected by Tavarez who went on to become El Jefe, head of a powerful Mexican crime organization. But, Stromsoe becomes a cop rather than follow Tavarez into crime. In high school, there were both in love with the same high school honey, Hallie. Initially, she chose Tavarez, but after he badly abused her, she left him for Stromsoe. Hallie and Stromsoe were married and had a child, Billy, and they led an idyllic life until Stromsoe set a plan in action to capture Tavarez. While Tavarez escaped, his girlfriend his killed. He then sought revenge against Stromsoe, but his efforts to kill Stromsoe also missed. While Stromsoe was badly injured by a bomb, he lived and it was his wife and son that were mistakenly killed. Tavarez was convicted of murder and was sent to jail forever, where he continued to run his crime organization. Stromsoe was not beyond Tavarez’s reach. That information is all backstory for the current action in this book. The title comes from the real action that centers around rainmaking, aka “moisture acceleration.” Frankie Hatfield is the San Diego weather lady, the granddaughter of Charley Hatfield who was once run out of San Diego for making too much rain for the city. She is in competition with a bad guy at the Department of Water and Power who wants water to remain a scarcity and thereby protect his own territory as the man who brings water to Southern California, not a position he wants to share with anyone. Stromsoe, back in San Diego from a two-year hiatus in which he physically and emotionally recovers from his own injuries, is called on to protect Frankie from a stalker. Of course, Frankie and Stromsoe become an item. Maybe the most unbelievable part of the book is that she is a beautiful woman who, at 38 years of age is still a virgin, until her encounters with Stromsoe. The story weaves Tavarez back into the scene since he wants to kill anyone that Stromsoe loves. This is a fast-paced story and it was hard to put down – a very good and entertaining read. Now, I have to decide what my next Parker novel will be.

The English Assassin by Daniel Silva

2011-06-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

OK, my partner in this venture reviewed this book a while back and all 1o reviews of Silva's books are by WCDon. When I saw this book on the shelf over at my mom's health center, I decided on the spot that I'd better get on board. If one of us has read 10 books by the same author, said author is probably dang good. Why it took me so long to read a Silva book is beyond me.

The English Assassin appears to be #2 in the Gabriel Allon saga and it involves Swiss Banking, stolen Jewish treasures and artwork from WWII. A Zurich banker near death develops a conscious and contacts Israeli authorities that he has artwork to be turned over to its proper owners. But to do so would uncover a secret cabal of Swiss businessmen who want to keep the status quo in order to maintain the flow of clandestine money and valuables as it always was, with the Swiss as bankers to the world, no matter what side of right and wrong their customers sat.

Allon, the art restorer/hired gun finds the banker dead, turns around and leaves only to be caught by the Swiss Feds (and be prepared for a very unexpected twist surrounding the cop). Allon gets let go, but against the wishes of his boss, decides to find out who tried to frame him and tries to follow the money, the paintings, and (of course) the daughter of the dead banker. They traipse all over western Europe following clues leading to the Swiss cabal. Problem is that at nearly each stop, their contact ends up dead at the hands of, you guessed it, the English Assassin. The former British SAS operative is now a hit man for a Corsican Don who has been hired by the cabal to keep tabs on Allon's investigation and eliminate any threats Allon has uncovered. When the assassin closes in on Allon and the daughter in Venice, rather than carry out the kill, he simply leaves a note, showing Allon how easy it would be to get to him. Got the feeling that this guy appears in other Silva books.

I've seen Silva and Allon compared to Fleming and James Bond. Last time I read an Ian Fleming book I was in high school and Sean Connery was shagging Ursula Undress . . . er . . . Andress, so I am not the best person to verify such a claim. What I can say is that Allon is a very intriguing character and if other Silva books are this classy and well paced, I can understand my partner's high praise. More Allon books are in my future. I am guessing it is a safe bet to pick any random Silva book and be thoroughly entertained.

East Coast Don

A Visible Darkness by Jonathon King

2011-06-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

This is part II of the Max Freeman saga that began with King's Edgar Award winner for best new mystery, Blue Edge of Midnight

You will remember that Max is a former Philly beat cop who ran away to the Everglades after killing a 12yo in the midst of committing an armed robbery.

Three main players here: Frank McCane is an insurance investigator who used to be THE go-to guard for contraband in a Georgia prison. Eddie Baines is a mostly mentally incompetent small time crook in an NFL lineman's body with a taste for hookers and heroin. Dr. Harold Marshak was the prison psychiatrist who treated Eddie.

Old, mostly black, women, some of whom were among the first black entrepreneurs of South Florida, are dying. Well, they were dying anyway, but some think they are dying off a bit too quickly.

The common link is each had just sold their life insurance policy as a viatical (I had to look it up, so I linked Wikipedia) where the holder gets cash (below the policy's maturity amount) and the investors collect the full amount once the holder dies. The longer the holder lives, the longer the investors have to wait to cash out. And these ladies are dying awfully soon after selling the policy. Freeman's lawyer buddy Billy is getting no love from Miami PD about the deaths (that all seem to look to be due to natural causes) and thinks maybe Max might be a good choice to do a little digging.

And dig he does. Slowly, he learns about the women and enlists the help of a group of locals who protect the off-limits area; a drug-free zone consisting mostly of these older women and turn out to be valuable assets in his crawling though the Miami underbelly.

To make a short (but very interesting) story brief, Max (and an equally scarred female Miami PD Detective from book #1) put the pieces together to learn that a group of investors get McCane to look over insurance policies to find who might be receptive to a viatical. Once the deal is sealed, McCane tells the doc who then pays Eddie to send the holder off to the next life through suffocation. Eddie then uses his cash for drugs and maybe a hooker.

Short description of a short, and a very clever book. I was trying to think of who King reminded me of. Then I looked on his website and saw some comparisons with James Lee Burke . . . yeah, that's a good comparison. Call it swamp noir. But it can't really be noir, cuz according to MRB friend Charlie Stella's 10 rules of noir, it fails on two fronts. Rule #4 says that the femme fatale needs to be a nasty broad. She isn't. Actually, she's kind of cool. Also, rule #8 doesn't occur; too bad.

In coming books, it looks like Max becomes a Miami PI. Should be a fun series. Maybe rule #8 might surface after all. I'm hopeful.

East Coast Don

The Devil's Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver

2011-06-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve entirely plagiarized the following review from Deaver’s website, and I did so because I was disappointed in the book and did want to spend any time putting together a synopsis. This was an “airplane book,” something that carries a decent plot and is somewhat entertaining, but is also easy to put down and walk away from. While I’m a fan of Deaver’s, his characters in this book were rather wooden, and the whole thing was too formulaic. Given that the hero of this book, Parker Kincaid, is a document reviewer and handwriting expert, it is fitting that the title of the book comes from his name for a certain style for dotting an “i.” That’s enough effort on my part. Now, the stolen review: “It's New Year's Eve, December 31, 1999, and Washington, D.C., is under siege. Early in the day, a grisly machine gun attack in the Dupont Circle Metro station leaves dozens dead and the city crippled with fear. A note delivered to the mayor's office pins the massacre on the Digger, a robotlike assassin programmed to wreak havoc on the capital every four hours — until midnight. Only a ransom of $20 million delivered to the Digger's accomplice — and mastermind — will end the death and terror. But the Digger becomes a far more sinister threat when his accomplice is killed in a freak accident while en route to the money drop. With the ransom note as the single scrap of evidence, Special Agent Margaret Lukas calls upon Parker Kincaid, a retired FBI agent and the top forensic document examiner in the country. Somehow, by midnight, they must find the Digger — before he finds them. The Devil's Teardrop was made into a TV movie airing on the Lifetime network in August 2010. It stars Natasha Henstridge, Tom Everett Scott, and Rena Sofer.”

Long Lost by Harlan Coben

2011-05-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Remember The Boys From Brazil? That 1970s-ish movie with Olivier and Peck about Nazi attempts at cloning to keep Der Furher’s lineage going? This book reminded me of that story . . . sort of.

An old flame of our hero, Myron Bolitar calls from out of the blue asking him to come to Paris because she is desperate for help. Of course, he hops a plane in time for the two of them to find her ex dead and his blood is mixed with blood of . . . a daughter of theirs. Now the problem is that their daughter died in a car wreck in the UK about 10 years earlier.

Thus begins the search to find out about: a) the night of the accident, b) a devious terrorist whose motto is “patience and the sword with kill the sinners”, c) a NYC fertility clinic, and d) a pro life society.

Our hero actually manages to kill said devious terrorist to which the FBI (or the CIA? Interpol? The implausible plot police?) snatches them both and takes claim for killing the nut to protect Myon and his old girlfriend, Therese from the surviving terrorists taking out a jihad on our boy.

Myron has a college chum, Win (that’s short for Windsor Horne Lockwood III) who always seems to have a connection when a clue is needed to push the plot along. Win is not only quick witted, he also is an expert shot and has connections E V E R Y W H E R E. So, needing a clue to move the plot along, Win comes across a clue for Myon and Therese and points them first toward a place in Manhattan, then what appears to be a B&B in rural NYC, and then too many more to mention.

What they find is almost beyond comprehension. Let’s see; Theresa and hubby couldn’t get pregnant and went to this in-vitro fertilization. One took, but dozens of ovum and embryos were kept and stored by our mystery terrorist (he was educated in Europe, med school in the states, fellowship in, guess where” Same city as the pro life group…this guy embezzled people’s embryos and implanted them in surrogate moms who were incubators for the future jihadis that all looked like an awful lot like Therese – thus the opening reference.

I finished the book, but I can’t say I was overwhelmed. This seemed almost formulaic: Myron was a basketball stud (basketball + stud named Myron?) who went to Duke (!!!!!) to play basketball, get drafted first round by the Celtics (naturally) only to blow his knee out in training and now is a wealthy (of course) sports agent . . . long time friend of his Dookie buddy Win, the New England preppie with more money than sense and his legion of foreign friends . . . and Terese of the Class B felony bikini and a world –class derriere… hard ass FBI-types always shows up whenever they feels like.

Now I like good escape, but this one just seemed to step outside the boundary of believability. Each clue seemed to show up at the best time. Myron is tall, extraordinarily handsome,

Enough already. This book was pure summer beach read escape and it is a very quick read. Also reminded me of the books of Stuart Woods. It just doesn’t really take one very far and really doesn’t explore any new ground. While I may try another Coben, I really doubt that the Max Bolitar series will catch my interest enough for any form of consideration for my power list. Coben has a few standalone novels and my next book of his will probably be one of those.

Each Coast Don

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo and Don Bartlett

2011-05-30T11:45:00.001-07:00

This is a recent release by an author who has gotten some significant Scandinavian awards for his earlier books, including the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel, an award that was won by both Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson. It had a great write up in the LA Times last Sunday and Michael Connelly gave it a very strong endorsement. Eager for a new author, I gave it a try. It had the usual elements that have attracted us to this genre: a strong male hero and police detective, Harry Hole, who has his faults (a struggle with alcoholism), but who has a strong ethical obsession to solve crimes regardless of who it might hurt; a curious and conflicted love interest; a serial murder; and lots of false leads and twists in the plot. Maybe it was because I was too busy with other work when I started the book and took a week to finish it, but it only rarely really grabbed my attention. I definitely was able to put it down until the last 100 pages. And, even for those of us that are very forgiving as to plot manipulations, Nesbo made a few maneuvers with his characters that were too much for me to swallow. This was not a bad book, just not a great one, and I’m not particularly motivated to pick up another one of Nesbo’s works.

The Blue Edge of Midnight by Jonathon King

2011-05-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

I finished The Confession on Friday morning just before the trip home from Mexico City, started this King book waiting for the flight, and finished this morning before church. Yeah, it was that cool.

Max Freeman was a smart but unambitious cop in Philadelphia, average from the academy to the beat. A call comes about a robbery in progress just around the corner. He makes the turn in a 2-footed slide to face a kid with a gun. He hesitates, sees a second perp run from the store and fires, killing a 12 year old kid, but not before taking a slug in the neck - thus beginning the nightmares and doubts.

Max can't shake his doubts and flees to the depths of the Everglades to live in solitude with his guilt. After a year or so, the nightmares are slowly retreating, but canoeing back to his shack, he spots a bundle tangled in some tree roots. Looking back at him are the lifeless eyes of a dead child. Knowing a crime scene when he sees it, he heads for the ranger station. A squad of local detectives arrive and immediately see a suspect, a suspect with a history who might be the perp they've been looking for in the matter of 4 dead kids.

The western suburbs of south Florida are creeping into the edge of the Everglades and the cops think that any one of those hermits who inhabit the 'glades could be a suspect. His lawyer, a childhood friend with a stutter, tells him not to say a thing, but Max comes forward to answer the cops questions - bad idea. Max decides to at least see where the other victims were found and enlists a local hermit/pilot to fly him around in what turns out to be a sabotaged Cessena. The crash seriously injures the pilot and Max drags him through the swamp, bandages him up, and saves him, making him sort of a hero to the local lowlifes of the swamps.

The main lowlife is an elderly legend/WWII hero Nate Brown who asks Max to meeting to sort of mediate between the locals and the cops. Max meets with 4 strange guys, all of whom wear this strange knife in a scabbard. Looks like the cops had it right, sort of - an unknown man of the marsh really is trying to scare people from buying near the Everglade's border. Then another child goes missing.

Brown shows up at Max's shack telling Max the kid's alive, but he better come quick. Brown paddles them both about an hour-ish way deep in the 'glades to a shack more run down than Max's. The child is there, barely alive. Also there is one of the locals, dead by a stretched neck. The cops think they have their man, racked with guilt, dead by suicide.

Of course Max thinks otherwise. Why, there were 2 knives at the cabin and the perp was still wearing his, so Max grabs the knife, crime scene or not. During the investigation, Max's canoe was vandalized so he and his lawyer bud go shopping. While Max is checking out, his lawyer is having a 'Witness' moment (remember when the Amish kid recognizes the murderer in a newspaper clipping and the look on Harrison Ford's face?) by spotting the same knife in a display case. Turns out it's a rare German WWII weapon. Remember Nate Brown, the WWII hero? Brought back some war booty for his 'acquaintances' in the 'glades. And it flushes out the real culprit.

And the nightmares seem to be fading.

I've been trolling the Edgar awards website looking for new authors. King was the winner in 2003 for Best First Novel with this book and looked like a good bet for future efforts on my part. King has something like 6 Max Freeman novels and a couple standalone books, too all since 2o02. He's been busy. His best trait is his ability to set and describe the scene be it Philadelphia, the Everglades, or the never ending sprawl of south Florida, which he clearly despises - sort of a serious version of Carl Hiasson's tongue-in-cheek tales of Florida. It may not have the outstanding dialogue of Stella or Pelacanos, but after reading this, I think I know a whole lot more about the Everglades. I'll be back to learn more.

East Coast Don

The Confession by Olen Steinhauer

2011-05-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Remember that Steinhauer's The Tourist put him on my power rotation after a single book. That was actually his 6th book. He has a series of 5 post WWII mysteries, one per decade beginning in the 1940s (The Bridge of Sighs). This is my third from that series, but it's actually the 2nd and takes place in the 1950s in Steinhauer's unnamed eastern European country and its capital.

Militia detective Ferenc Koleyeszar's marriage is falling apart. A long vacation at the family dacha only seemed to make things worse so a return home is not a happy prospect. He is sure his wife has been cheating with one of his co-workers. He is also a one-time author who can't seem to find his muse despite the encouragement of his writer-poet-artist-anarchist contemporaries who sit around smoking and drinking complaining that "plot is a capitalist construct to give lives a false sense of totality." Sounds like my college days in the bars. While the group rattles on, Ferenc plays with the rings on each of his fingers and fantasizing about the wife of a group member. What the rings represent is one of those "are you shitting me?" moments.

Work should be a welcome break from his crumbling life. How is this for a break: a party dignitary's wife disappears. An artist of some notoriety is found with his arms and legs broken, bound and hog-tied, and burned to a crisp in an abandoned warehouse in the canal district. The artist's wife turns up dead. A French mentor to the writer's group becomes stranger by the day. Records from a cold case about the death of a militia co-worker indicate a possible connection to some of the current murders. Moscow has sent someone (that's code for KGB) to help the militia office and befriends Brano Sev, a cop no one trusts (but is the major character in Liberation Movements, book #3). A friend in the group, Georgi, gets the call from internal security for a 'document check' (that's code for a nasty train ride to an even nastier work camp). An eccentric painter, jailed for 10 years, is getting released and a student demonstration, which Ferenc would prefer to join, goes bad and puts him in the crosshairs of the KGB officer on loan. Ferenc thinks, "if this isn't the most wonderful of times, then please don't let me know."

At least his wife isn't cheating with that co-worker. That was a one-time thing years ago. She tells him that she is actually carrying on with his partner - the first of a number of confessions.

The missing wife ran away from an abusive husband who kept her locked up and drugged. When Ferenc learns the details and finds the wife, he exercises his own brand of justice by giving her money for a train ticket to Moscow and her family, then plays dumb with the husband. At least Georgi is not sent to a camp and is so happy he "could stall a Volga."

All the murders have a connection that is all about artistic envy, jealousy, infidelity, fame, and revenge, the sweetest of all motives. Stenhauer paints a grim picture of 1950s behind the developing Iron Curtain where checking into to the Metropol hotel will "end up on its daily report to internal security". But it's not all atmosphere. Ferenc is on one hand a deeply flawed detective and husband, making judgmental decisions about actions in the interrelated cases all the while passing judgement on his wife as he has a masochistic affair with another's wife and nails a hotel clerk on an overnight trip to a work camp, the "memory and knowledge of which kills his serenity."

A momentary lapse while policing that student demonstration has put a chip in the pocket of the KBG, but that officer tells Ferenc that all transgressions will be forgiven with a confession, a confession that Ferenc knows will put him in a work camp. But at least his wife will not be drawn in and will be well cared for by his partner, her lover.

Sounds like a downer and maybe it is, but I find Steinhauer's graceful, fluid writing style to be the real subject and hopefully, the chosen quotes might give a short preview of what awaits. He may have been nominated for numerous awards and been on a number of 'best of the year' lists, but he doesn't seem to have the following of other contemporaries.

Two more to go - 36 Yalta Blvd and Victory Square.

East Coast Don

An Absence of Light by David Lindsey

2011-05-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

The book started out a bit slow with the author focusing more on character development than plot, but when the plot really kicked in, the speed of it just kept building into a very good story. Marcus Graver is a chief detective in the criminal intelligence division (CID) in Houston with a counterpart, Dean Burtell, who has been like a brother, who Graver trained. Graver is the protagonist in this story, a strong masculine character who lives by an ethical code that sometimes takes him to the edge of reason. So, he fits right into our genre of action/thriller books. When other members of the CID start dying, Graver suspects that it’s Burtell who has turned dirty, who has begun selling information and selling out to the bad guys. The plot involves some very big bad guys, Panos Kalatis and Brod Strasser, who have a vast international reach and who have just happened to find Houston as a convenient and temporary home for their ambitious crimes. Lindsay brings in a great cast of characters, some good guys, some not, but all are interesting, not stereotypic. Lindsay also uses his vocabulary more effectively than many authors, but not too much. By the way, the title of the book is explained in the last two sentences of the book: “It seemed to [Graver] that he was arriving too late in the sequence of events. Perhaps he should have been trying to understand, instead, the character of darkness itself, and what it was that happened when men’s desires were shaped and formed in an absence of light.” This one definitely gets my recommendation.

The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

2011-05-15T15:25:00.000-07:00

I’ve read every single book written by Michael Connelly and continue to pluck them off the shelf immediately when a new one comes out. Previously, I have always preferred the Harry Bosch character but in The Fifth Witness, Connelly develops the Mickey Haller character in a way that demands a new respect for him.

Mickey Haller’s LA based legal practice has fallen on hard times so he ventures from criminal law into mortgage foreclosure law where the demand currently lies. He helps those being foreclosed upon by finding legal loopholes and even fraud in the bank’s and their agent’s practices. At the very least Haller has been successful in extending the stay of his clients in their homes. This type of law agrees with Haller’s style of defending the underdog and allows him to continue to practice law from the back seat of his Lincoln Continental and avoid the expense of keeping a law office. It’s kind of a ‘law mobile’ and reminds me of the ice cream trucks that troll suburbia with the jingle broadcast over loud speakers to attract children.

Nonetheless, Haller is a brilliant legal strategist especially when it comes to criminal law and particularly in the court room. So, when one of his foreclosure clients is arrested for murder, Haller is in perfect position to defend her. Lisa Trammel has been charged with murdering her banker, Mitchell Bondurant. Lisa is the favored suspect because after being served a foreclosure notice she had started an online foreclosure support and protest group and organized pickets and protest marches against the bank which led to a court ordered injunction against her. Lisa, a former school teacher whose husband has abandoned her, has no money to pay Haller or post a bond for bail, so Haller accepts literary rights as collateral for his services and expects her to remain in jail until trial. Herb Dahl shows up with bail money and a plan to capture Lisa’s story on film plus he shows a personal interest in Lisa. This immediately puts client and attorney at odds since the advice from counsel seems to take second position to her confidant’s. As the evidence against Lisa builds, Haller must develop an alternative plausible theory as a defense. This leads him to entanglements with the mob and puts his own life in jeopardy. His brilliance as a court room lawyer shines through as he weaves and bobs his way through surprises presented him by both prosecution and by his client.

Meanwhile, his personal life is in shambles. Twice divorced he finds himself still in love with Maggie, his first wife and mother of his teenage daughter. Maggie is also a friend and coworker of the lead prosecutor in this case but can’t ignore Haller’s affection for her. Tortured by self doubts about previous life choices, Haller keeps it all in perspective and gives his best for his client, deserved or not.

I find myself really liking the main character, Mickey Haller in The Fifth Witness. Are his actions to defend his client righteous and what is expected of any good attorney or is he crossing the line and manipulating the system thus doing a disservice to society? Is he always the good guy or is he sometimes the bad guy? Connelly delivers his story so that Mickey Haller is constantly asking himself these same questions, not only as an attorney but as a husband, father, and person. Don’t we all similarly examine ourselves this same way at times? I think that’s what makes this book a good read and why I look forward to the next Michael Connelly book. Now I’ll take either Harry Bosch or Mickey Haller, equally intriguing characters.

Demolition Angel by Robert Crais

2011-05-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Bombers must have some serious OCD. Take "Mr. Red." He uses the same size and type of pipes, pipe caps, explosive, batteries, ignitors. Hell, he even uses plumber's tape wound clockwise over the pipe's threads. But he's upset because he's not on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List (they need his real name). And he really wants to be on that list.

Three years ago, Carol Starkey and her partner-lover Shug were disarming a bomb when a minor earthquake jiggled the mechanism setting off the device and killing both, but the EMTs were successful at saving Starkey. While she has physically recovered and working in the Criminal Conspiracy Unit, she is seriously messed up and has gone through a fistful of therapists. Now she eats Tagament like candy, smokes like a chimney, practically mainlines gin, and relives the explosion nightly in her dreams.

One of her former partners on the bomb squad, Charles Riggio, has just been blown to bits by a bomb with all the earmarks of Mr. Red. But after a long and drawn out investigation, Carol and Jack Pell of the ATF come to think that just maybe Riggio was killed by a copycat because one tiny little detail of Mr. Red's signature that Carol found was wrong on the Riggio bomb. That means the copycat must be inside the LAPD.

An imprisoned explosive nut tells Carol and Pell about a web chat room for explosive weirdos called Claudius and there have been rumors that Mr. Red has prowled the site. Carol sets up an screen name and tries to bait Mr. Red, but he ends up turning the tables on her jerking her chain over and over again until the final confrontation (that had me holding my breath) involving - you guessed it - a bomb.

A quick check of the author list shows that Crais is one of MRB's favorite authors. Crais writes PI stories with smart aleck Elvis Cole and Joe Pike who is, well, Joe Pike. While Cole and Pike have a bucketload of titles to their credit, this Starkey book appears to be a one and done. Make no mistake, this is one hardcore, gritty tale of a damaged woman trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep from becoming more damaged. Being entirely different from the Cole/Pike books is not a reason to shun the tale. You really feel for the pain Starkey has been carrying for three years, her frustration with the investigation, and silently cheer for her as things get tense. I thought this 2000 copyright was well worth it.

East Coast Don

The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter

2011-05-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

A fan of Stephen Hunter before, even more now that I’ve read The 47th Samurai. This starts with Bob Lee Swaggart’s father, Earl, becoming a Medal of Honor winner on Iwo Jima, as Hunter gives more details about that story. Earl was the cloth from which Bob Lee was made. At Iwo, Earl came in possession of a sword that he got from a dead Japanese soldier, Captain Hideki Yano, and it is decades later that Philip Yano, the son of the man he killed, in search of the sword, contacted Bob Lee. It would give away too much of the story to say too much more, but the adventure takes Bob Lee on two trips to Japan, both of which are filled with death. Even though our hero seems out of place in a country where he does not speak the language, Hunter creates a believable scenario in which Bob Lee operates with his usual soldier’s mentality and unflinching ethical standards. He also digs into some aspects of Japanese history and culture. I’m a bit of a Nipponophile, and I’ve remained in touch with the Yano family from Osaka since the late 60s. In their household, swordplay was an important skill to learn, at least for the boys. I literally could not put this book down, stayed up late, got up early –finished it in under 24 hours. This one is far more than just another airplane book.

Blood Test by Jonathan Kellerman

2011-05-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

As much as I enjoyed my first Kellerman book (When the Bough Breaks), and while I thoroughly enjoy both the main character (Alex Delaware) and Kellerman’s writing style, this book was even too farfetched for me. It’s about a boy dying of cancer who desperately needs treatment, but who is taken away from the hospital by parents who are apparently cultists that do not think Western medicine has the answer for their son’s illness. Meanwhile, the plot deepens with the leader of the cult being a reformed Beverly Hills divorce lawyer, some botanists who are into growing some very weird plants, and a really looney treating oncologist. I’m going to read another Kellerman and another Delaware, but this one does not get my recommendation.

Live Wire by Harlan Coben

2011-05-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

I’ve read a lot of Harlan Coben. He’s the author I pick when I can’t find one of my favorites to read. Reading Live Wire reminded me again why he is not on my favorites list. Coben has been writing about his lead character, Myron Bolitar since 1995. Myron grew up in a blue collar New Jersey town, won a basketball scholarship to Duke, became an all American, was drafted by the Celtics, then blew out his knee before he could play his first professional game. He then opens a sports agency in New York representing basketball and tennis players primarily but somewhere along the line accepts musical clients as well. Myron’s best friend and owner of the building where Myron’s agency resides is Windsor Horne Lockwood III (aka Win). Win inherited a fortune but is proficient at financially advising Myron’s clients as well as beating the crap out of anyone who crosses Myron. Myron is known for protecting and nurturing his clients with a passion so Win is called to the rescue quite frequently.

In Live Wire Myron’s clients are Suzze Trevantino, a former tennis star and Lex Ryder, an aging rock star who are married to one another. Suzze is pregnant with their first child and an anonymous post on her Face book page, “Not His” brings her to Myron. With her sorted ‘party with the rock stars’ past, Suzze is afraid Lex will leave her and calls upon Myron to intervene. While looking for Lex in a NYC nightclub, Myron spots his sister-in-law, Kitty who is also a former tennis star, client, and drug addict. Myron has not seen her or his brother, Brad in 15 years since his attempts to break up Brad’s relationship with Kitty resulted in his estrangement from the couple. Myron finds that Brad is missing, Kitty is back on heroin, and Myron has a 15 year old nephew he’s never met. Myron’s attempt to help his clients and find his brother uncovers secrets from the past that involve the mob, deceit, extortion and murder. Win’s flair for violence and disrespect for legalities place him square in the middle of helping Myron uncover secrets and right old wrongs.

I like a good mystery with multiple twists and turns that leads you astray and surprises you in the end. Live Wire does that. I guess I just don’t find Coben’s characters real somehow. For example, what independently wealthy thirty something guy do you know that enjoys stirring up the mob for the sport of it? Several of Coben’s characters have this ‘who does that?’ quality. But I’ll probably pick Coben again when none of my favorites are on the shelf.

Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer

2011-05-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

Did you read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson? I did. Were you inspired by his work in Afghanistan and Pakistan? I was. Mortenson wrote that he was inspired by Mother Teresa and inferred that he should be thought of in such saintly terms. Jon Krakauer, no stranger to controversy (Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, Under the Banner of Heaven, etc.), presents impressive, exhaustive, and compelling evidence that Mortenson is far less of a saint than he would have us believe. While Mortenson has done some good things in terms of building schools and especially providing education to girls and young women in places where that had never occurred, he was also an out-of-control megalomaniac who lied about enriching himself in the process. Mortenson sounds like an impressive and charismatic speaker, but unfortunately, someone who is too good to be true. How disappointing! Perhaps this book, a short and quick read, is best summed up in the last two sentences: “With one hand, Greg has created something potentially beautiful and caring (regardless of his motives). With the other he has murdered his creation by his duplicity.”

Lost Light by Michael Connelly

2011-05-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is the third novel in a Harry Bosch trilogy, the first two being A Darkness More Than Night, and the second being City of Bones, books that I’ve already reviewed. These were three books that Connelly wrote in order, one each in 2001, 2002, and 2003. In this book, there was a $2,000,000 heist of cash from a movie set. A director, impressed with his own very hot credentials, decided that he had to shoot some scenes with real money, not fake money, allegedly because anyone could tell it wasn’t real money in all the close-ups they were planning to shoot with the cash. Right? Anyhow, despite heavy security and despite a real gun battle that breaks out on the set, the heist is successful and goes unsolved. Another unsolved part of the case was the death of Angella Benton, an employee of the movie company, who was killed three days prior to the heist. Four years later, Harry is a now a retired detective, a private detective, and he decides to pursue the case which has gone cold. He was upset when the case was taken away from him only a few days after the robbery. And, Harry had been on the scene of the movie with the heist occurred, trying to get clues about Angella’s death, and it was Harry who fired the shots that wounded one of the thieves. Suddenly the FBI and the LAPD are leaning on him to drop his investigation, and of course, that only makes Harry more determined to solve the matter. To complicate the plot, there are a couple more characters. Marty Gessler, an FBI agent, was pursuing the money theft, and she simply disappeared. The two detectives from the LAPD who were assigned the case met an unfortunate end. They were in a bar when a robbery took place. One of the cops was killed and the other was left as a quadriplegic. How are these matters all connected? Connelly will lead you threw it all, only bringing the plots successfully together at the end. This was good entertainment, not a great book – a solid airplane novel, and I’ll keep Connelly in my power rotation.

Rules of Deception by Christopher Reich

2011-04-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. Jonathon Ransom and his extraordinarily gorgeous wife Emma (why are they all gorgeous?) work for Doctors Without Borders as surgeon and facilitator, respectively. They travel from one hot spot to the next and manage to get out just before something goes wrong. Just lucky he thinks. The price one pays for working in hot spots.

One winter, they are mountain climbing near their home in Zurich when Emma falls into a gorge and dies, but the snow and ice around the gorge means the rescue folks need to wait until it’s safer to enter. Ransom, in his sorrow is packing up their things when a courier delivers an envelope to Emma in their hotel room. In it are 2 claim tickets for a train locker. Once he figures out the specific station, he finds money, passports, and keys to a top class Mercedes sedan.

In the car is a GPS that he follows to a house to find the 2^nd of two seemingly unconnected executions. The victim is Swiss, no make that Iranian. The other victim is Swiss, make that from Belgium. One connection is a manufacturing plant in Zug, a town near Zurich. This plant makes all kinds of stuff and the dead guy travels a ton selling his products.

Turns out, a lot of the products can be retrofitted to become centrifuges necessary to enrich weapons-grade uranium by Iran so they can bomb Israel. Meanwhile, a Swiss cop following the murders is trying to connect the dots only to be pushed off the case by his superiors. Something ain’t right in Switzerland.

Somehow, Ransom’s wife of 8 years has been living a double life and using Doctors Without Borders as her cover. Ransom’s chase is more to find out who is wife was and less about the centrifuges, but the two are connected and all the clues come together at a big meeting of government economists in the Swiss Alps.

And guess who ain’t dead.

This was a random selection off the shelf at the library and it fits perfectly as one of West Coast Don’s “airplane books.” This was a very easy and fast read with each chapter ending in sort of a cliffhanger, ala Dan Brown. I think part of why I liked this book is that I have a history of numerous trips to Zurich and so much of the plot took place in familiar location. Yes, the plot is a little far fetched, but it was still an entertaining diversion. Looks like Reich has a “Rules of . . . “ series and when I’m at a loss for some escape, I’ll check another book by Reich out of the library. I doubt he’ll join my power rotation, but I’m guessing other books will be reliable entertainment.

East Coast Don