The Fairfax Incident

The Fairfax Incident is my fourth novel by Terrence McCauley, so you know I’m a fan, but this one was a departure from his prior work. It’s a historical murder mystery that takes place in 1933 New York City. Charlie Doherty was a disgraced detective who had previously been a bag guy for the very corrupt Chief of Police Andrew Carmichael. But, Doherty was rescued by Mr. Harriman Van Dorn, a wealthy and well-connected-to-Washington guy. Van Dorn created a life for Doherty in a fancy NYC pad, and he was asked to purse an investigation of the apparent suicide of Walter Fairfax at the behest of Fairfax’s wife who know her husband would never have killed himself. She said, “Not that he wasn’t a coward, mind you, but Walter Fairfax was most certainly a cowardly man. He simply wasn’t considerate enough to kill himself. For had he been a considerate man, he would have done us the favor of ending his won life long ago, freeing the children and me from decades of mediocrity and mendacity.” What a great line, and it’s typical of McCauley’s writing.

The story takes the reader through a tour of depression-era New York, the mafia influences that gripped the city, as well as the corrupt police department. This is an excellent and well-told murder mystery and the historical angle is spell-binding. The plot development was great and I did not see the final twist coming until the very end. McCauley’s character development was perfect. Good stuff – it gets my enthusiastic recommendation.

A Conspiracy of Ravens

The third book in Terrence McCauley’s international espionage trilogy was titled, A Conspiracy of Ravens. The first two books, Sympathy for the Devil and A Murder of Crows have been previously reviewed in this blog. The reader finally learns that the name of the other network, the evil network which is working to eliminate the University, is the Vanguard. The Vanguard is a non-government agency whose purpose seems to be only to enrich itself and is willing to use whatever brutality is necessary to achieve that. They were being staffed by ex-Russian and ex-Chinese intelligence officers, and their resources were far greater than those available to the University. For the first time, the University agreed to partner with the CIA in order to assault the Vanguard. There continues to be conflict between the loyalties for Tali, Hicks’ pregnant lover and Israeli spy. McCauley did give Tali a great line when, in reference to the ugly hotel in Berlin where she was staying. She quoted some old movie: “Ugly buildings, politicians, and whores all become respectable if they’re around long enough.” While she never thought of herself as a prostitute, she wondered if would survive the danger she was about to face. Roger Cobb, the psychopath who was working for the good guys, was the author’s second protagonist – woven tightly into the story line.

Hick’s problems, of which he thought as his Carousel of Concern now included Tali and the baby, the Vanguard and it’s director Tessmer, Demerest of the CIA, “every intelligence agency in Washingon’s alphaget soup,” the future of the University, and more. McCauley writes about a big international conspiracy about which most humans would never know about. The action shifted all around the world, finally ending in China, near the Mongolian border. If a fantasy about international espionage is your genre, then this is a must read.

A Murder of Crows

A Murder of Crows is the second book in Terrence McCauley’s trilogy of international espionage. The first, Sympathy for the Devil, has already been reviewed in this blog. This books starts just after a bio-attack had occurred in New York, but protagonist James Hicks caught the terrorist responsible, know as The Moroccan. Hicks contained the damage, but he also realized that the scientists who created the viral strain had done too good a job. It burned through the immune systems of those infected much too fast, so they died before the could become effective carriers. Hicks knew that error could be fixed. Because he had captured the Moroccan, Bajjah, who the CIA and DIA definitely wanted to question, they were now after Hicks, as was the Mossad. The DIA pursuant of Hicks was Mark Stephens. But Hicks and The Moroccan were not the biggest prizes. That was Jabbar, the most wanted man alive. Hicks also had Jabbar to worry about

There are other characters. Hicks’ lover was a Massad Spy, Tali Saddon, but her loyalties were divided between Hicks and the Massad. At a critical moment near the end of the book, Tali revealed to Hicks that she was pregnant with his child. In this book, the Dean announced his sudden and unexpected retirement from running the University. He was suffering from incurable metastatic cancer, and he chose Hicks as his replacement. Hicks got a short lecture on his new duties, but the Dean was dead within 24 hours of announcing Hicks as his replacement. In reference to the overwhelming set of problems with which he was confronted, McCauley referred to Hick’s “Carousel of Concern”: the University, Tali and the baby, Charles Demerest (head of Clandestine Services for the CIA); Stephens and the DIA, the Mossad, Jabbbar, and more. This is an action-packed and fast-paced novel and one must wonder whether Hicks is really up to the multiple tasks that he faces as the new Dean. After book two, there was no way not to jump into the third novel, the conclusion of McCauley’s trilogy.

Sympathy for the Devil

Sympathy for the Devil is the first book of a trilogy by Terrence McCauley. I was given a chance to just read the third book, but choose to work my way through the trilogy to see how McCauley handled the plot and character development. This is a trilogy of international espionage and the protagonist is James Hicks, or at least that’s his “professional name” and not the one he was given at birth. Hicks was the head of the New York office for an off-the-books clandestine service known as the University. His boss is the Dean, and the University’s agents are known as faculty members. The edge that the University has over the FBI, CIA (known to those in the trade as The Barnyard), NSA, DIA, etc., is it’s OMNI system, the Optimized Mechanical and Network Integration System, which was one of the most advanced computer networks in the world. OMNI was able to tap into the systems of all Western intelligence agencies, but the University’s existence was unknown to all but a few. 

At least in this first book, there were not many characters that I could like or identify with. Hicks was a single guy and brutal in his own right. He had authority issues but was impressed with the Dean who could tolerate his independent ways. Hicks was astute at manipulating bad guys to provide money to run his New York organization. He was having an affair with Tali Saddon, an operative for the Israeli Military Intelligence, but Tali’s loyalties were divided between Hicks and Israel. One of the most interesting characters was the psychopathic and brilliant Roger Cobb, a sexual deviant who was also the chief interrogator for the University. At least he was working on behalf of the good guys.

Mostly, Sympathy for the Devil was an introduction book – an introduction to the main characters and the organizations. It was at the end of this first book that Hicks figured out there had to be another network that had never been discovered. The Dean ordered him to find those people, learned everything about them that he could, and then kill them all. One must read on to follow the action. I think if this was the only McCauley book that I saw, and it was meant to be a stand-alone novel, I would not have continued with the author, but having read the next two books, I can tell you it gets a whole lot better.