Strange Flesh by Michael Olson

Ugh. This review will be, for me, as much of a struggle as the book.

This guy works for a NYC computer security firm tracking people and data that are trying to remain hidden. Twin Harvard silver spoon trust fund types hire the firm, the guy in particular cuz they all went to Hahvahd together, to find their half-brother (or was it step brother). Said brother is a virtual artist/gamer. Best way to find a virtual gamer is to join the game. The guy joins the game thru a virtual artist's studio (they are trying to perfect the holy grail of virtual reality - just think of the only non-retail genre on the internet actually making any money - to track down the brother. The game is based on some book about the Marquis de Sade and to move through the game the user has to post videos of progressive depravity. 

Like I said, a real struggle. There were probably 4 or 5 times I could have put this down, from the ridiculous plot to the overly technical virtual lingo and technology to the disgustingly obscene scenes in the game or the gorilla videoing necessary to advance in the game. To me, it was like trying to avoid looking at a train wreck, but you just can't. And the ending left me entirely cold. Reader reviews on Goodreads were mostly loved it/hated it. 

Part of the reason I kept going was that I was waiting for my name to come to the top of the wait list at the library; put it down and I had nothing to read. Am I glad I didn't pay for this thing. Thankfully, Alex Berenson's latest arrived last night.

East Coast Don

An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer

The crown jewel of my late troika.

The Tourist, The Nearest Exit, and now An American Spy; the final chapter in the Milo Weaver saga . . . we think.

As you may or may not recall, a Tourist is a CIA killer, called to go in, do a job, and get out. Milo Weaver was one such Tourist, but was getting reluctant about his call and longed to get out to be with his family back in NYC. In The Nearest Exit, the Chinese director of one of the myriad of China's security directorates, Xin Zhu, took out his revenge against the Office of Tourism (the CIA was part and parcel responsible for his son's death in Sudan) with a clever and intricate plot to wipe the Tourists and was quite successful, killing 33 of the 40 Tourists. That book ended with Milo being gut shot by a Moldavian who blamed Milo for his daughter's death. This book picks up in 2008 just after Milo's convalescence.

The Office of Tourism has been closed. Allan Drummond, Milo's former director and now friendly neighbor in NYC, was summarily dismissed for his failures. And Allan is close to going off the deep end. Xin Zhu, the mastermind behind the plot to destroy the Office has his own troubles deep in China's secret committees of back room power. His plan had not received approval, but he went ahead with it anyway and Xin has to answer for his insubordination. Drummond becomes estranged from his wife, takes a circuitous route to London where he disappears. Drummond's erratic behavior worries Milo and he gets to looking to see what he might have missed that might lead to Drummond's whereabouts. Everyone assumes it's blind rage to get back at Xin Zhu.

Lest you think this will be a fairly linear plot of Drummond tracking Xin with Milo close behind, not know if he should let Drummond succeed or try and stop him, remember who we are dealing with. Steinhauer quite possibly sits at the top of the espionage mountain where his rarified air lets him layer a complex multinational plot of deceit, manipulation, confusion, intrigue, murder, and cover-ups where no one really knows what or how much the other knows and everyone tries to sift out that critical bit of clarity from the mounds of supposition, implication, and guesses that are the lifeblood of intelligence gathering.

There are a lot of players in this game - shadowy CIA bosses, senators, DC power brokers, a young Chinese Mata Hari, all manner of Chinese bureaucrats wanting power while covering their asses for past indiscretions, moles on both sides, the German intelligence network, Milo's family, a Chinese domestic terror network, Hammond's wife, Milo's father (a Russian and former KGB type now running an ultra-secret band of his own agents from within the UN), Milo's stepsister, those 4 surviving tourists. Everyone has a stake is whether Hammond is successful or not and what Milo will do when he catches up with Hammond.

Steinhauer takes the unusually creative tact by stringing the reader along with chapters covering the same territory as seen by all those various players. With each chapter, a new wrinkle is unveiled to help us see the what, where, why, and how the hell's of this complex story that ties up most of the loose ends from the previous two books in such a way that the reader, while having to piece together so many plot points, still leaves satisfied at the end because by all indications, we are not done with Milo and Drummond.

I've said it before. While I enjoy the rollicking, rampaging, kick-ass plots of Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and others in the political thriller genre, I'm going to have to read a lot of espionage authors to find anyone who deserves to even be in the foothills of the mountain ruled over by Steinhauer. Be warned. Complexity is the predecessor to confusion which ultimately leads to some measure of enlightenment. And all this requires some work out of the reader so be prepared for a dizzying ride though what is far more likely the reality of nation-state espionage.

East Coast Don