Breaking Point by C.J. Box

Breaking Point is C.J. Box’s latest work featuring Joe Pickett, a game warden in Saddlestring, Wyoming.  Joe is a straight arrow.  He lives in a black and white world with a strong sense of right and wrong.  In his work he follows regulations to the letter of the law.  Yet he recognizes government bureaucracies and their political appointees do not always act fairly or in the best interest of the people.  It is here that Joe is conflicted and it’s only a matter of time until he reaches his own breaking point.

Two EPA agents are sent from the Denver office to Saddlestring on a mysterious mission and are subsequently found dead in a shallow grave, killed by gunshot wounds.  Evidence points to Butch Roberson, a local construction company owner as the prime suspect.  The agents were killed on his property and it is discovered that Roberson and his wife were involved in a convoluted dispute with the EPA over the site of the Roberson’s future retirement home.  Even though the property was located in high lands, the EPA declared it a wetlands and was threatening exorbitant fines if construction of the home continued.

Joe and Butch knew each other through their daughters’ friendship.  In fact, Joe had encountered Butch while on patrol in the Wyoming wilderness the day after the murders but before the bodies were discovered.  The local sheriff found the crime scene and proceeded to investigate but soon a wave of federal and state agencies arrived in force.  EPA regional director, Juan Julio Batista shows up to take charge with the FBI in tow.  Governor Rulon shows up to protect Wyoming citizens from the Federal government.  Helicopters and drones are employed to find the fugitive.  Joe is recruited to lead the feds on horseback into the wilderness where he last saw Roberson.

But something didn’t seem right to Joe.  Why was the EPA Regional Director leading a murder investigation and manhunt?  Why was Batista so zealous to kill the fugitive without a trial?  Could Butch be innocent?  Joe asked his wife Marybeth to research Batista.  Marybeth, a librarian with computer access to some little known databases, uncovers a dark side in Batista’s background.  Meanwhile, Batista sends a drone after Roberson and manages to set the wilderness on fire while Butch escaped down the other side of the mountain.  Joe resigns from his job and sets out after Butch as a private citizen into dangerous terrain with a forest fire on his heels.

In Breaking Point Box illustrates how conflict between common citizens and government can escalate out of control.  Heavy handed actions by political appointees can ruin the lives of ordinary people.  Joe Pickett is caught in the middle.  In his work Joe’s strong sense of law and order drives him to dispense the most severe punishment authorized.  Yet when law enforcement crosses the line of his own brand of justice, he pushes back…without regard for personal consequences.  That is why we love Joe Pickett.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid – A Memoir by Bill Bryson

This delightful memoir comes highly recommended by MRB friend Charlie Stella. I’ve learned that if Stella likes it, the book is probably pretty darn good. No exception here.

Bryson is a talented author widely known for his most notable book, A Walk in the Woods, that recounts his laughable efforts at being a through hiker of the Appalachian Trail. ‘Thunderbolt Kid’ is a wonderfully nostalgic look at growing up in the middle . . . in the middle of the country (Des Moines), in the middle of the century (1950s), and born in the middle of the baby boom (1950).

There is no plot per se. Each chapter has a unique theme that each could be considered a short story. Bryson tells us about his family (and his wonderfully ditzy mother), home, neighbors, town landmarks (parks, schools, theaters, stores), the Iowa landscape, farming, dull loser brothers, the neighborhood dork/geek/wizard/girl magnet/future AA member, and lord only knows how many more. Take your pick.

And don't forget to stop in the grocery store with the Kid Corral (a fenced off corner filled with comic books), or the drug store to sneak peaks at girlie magazines, or stealing beer, or faking IDs, or the war zone of middle school, the girls, kid's matinees at the movie theater, blacks on the other side of town, local bully-ers and bully-ees, big brothers, clueless parents, cops, and store owners. How the hell does he remember all this stuff?

For people of a certain age, this helps recall fond memories of when all really was good with America (at least until the Soviets launched Sputnik). For younger people, it lets them in on a secret. It really wasn’t all that bad ‘back when I was a boy’ and sadly, that we aren’t likely to ever experience a time like that again.

If the stats of Blogspot are accurate, this post marks the 500^th review here at MRB. They say the first 500 are the hardest. We shall see about the next 500.

East Coast Don

The Bedlam Detective by Stephen Gallagher

1912 London. Sebastian Becker is a former Pinkerton detective in Philadelphia. But hard times forced he, wife Elizabeth, and son Robert to return to Elizabeth’s home in England. They had to sell much of her jewelry for the Atlantic passage and now live in a bit of a low rent district of London. They chose this specific area to be close to Dr. John Langdon Down who was developing a treatment plan for children with mental issues like that afflicting their teenaged son.

Sebastian’s experience as a detective helped in land a job in the basement of the notorious Bethlehem Hospital; where those deemed insane are sentenced. He serves as the investigator to the Masters of Lunacy, a crown appointment. Sebastian investigates people who are thought to be mentally incapable of managing their affairs, report to his boss who then decides if the person should remain independent or be institutionalized. In some cases, huge fortunes can hang in the balance. As an investigator of the might-be-insane, the locals refer to him as the bedlam detective.

His current assignment takes him to a small coastal village of Arnmouth to see about the condition of a semi-legendary industrialist Sir Owain Lancaster. Once fabulously wealthy, he was working on a way to aim massive howitzers using star navigation. To test his method, Sir Owain thought it necessary to journey to the Amazon. He spent wildly on extravagant materials to lessen the burden on his wife and son and tame the jungle so they wouldn’t have to endure any discomfort.

While on this expedition, his son took ill, then his wife, and in his grief, Sir Owain thought that unspeakable jungle monsters were killing off the native porters and eventually his family. Only he and his botanist survived. On his return to England, Sir Owain’s presentation to the Royal Society was ridiculed, forcing him to sell his remaining holdings in London and retreat to his seaside villa in Arnmouth. Here he lives in seclusion with his personal physician and driver/cook. His lost fortune caused him to dismiss the estate’s caretakers so the property is in rapid decline.  His extended family frets over their inheritance, thus Sebastian’s investigation.

Upon Sebastian’s arrival, the bodies of two young girls are discovered near Sir Owain’s property. The only local detective accepts Sebastian’s offer of help in the investigation. To some, it’s obvious that the mad Sir Owain is the killer. The case brings to light an earlier assault 15 years earlier, but this time the two girls survived. And there were other disappearances between the two crimes.

Sebastian interviews the two survivors, their families, Sir Owain and his doctor, everyone he can find looking for a connection between the old and new crimes with Sir Owain. Gallagher, in the formal, stiff upper lip cadence of life in pre WWI England, expertly took me through Arnmouth and London, presenting Becker’s challenges with his family, life, and job. Hardly a ‘page turner’ I found the pace quite leisurely and enjoyable. While I doubt Gallagher is a candidate for my power rotation, he certainly is a worthy option when I find a gap in my reading opportunities.

East Coast Don

Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith

This was my next novel about Russia, but I never finished it. I just could not get excited about the characters even though the set up was pretty good. In this murder intrigue, Special Investigator Arkady Renko is sent to solve the murder of Rudy Rosen, an underworld figure. As is typical of such books, Arkady has a dark past, having previously worked in Moscow as a Special Investigator, only to get demoted and shipped way out of town. All he had done was participate in the murder of a prosecutor, apparently one who deserved it. So, his tenure back in Moscow is dependent on him being a good boy, but his ethics keep him from toeing the line, especially when his orders seem to prevent him from solving the crime. Of course, his boss is not a good guy, just a Communist party guy. Arkday’s dad was a famous man under Stalin, his “favorite general,” which meant that he had killed lots of people at the direction of Stalin. Despite his father’s numerous medals and his subsequent fame in the country, Arkady was embarrassed by all that his father had done. It was said of his father, “General Renko never surrendered; he wouldn’t have surrendered if he’d had nothing but dead to command.” Arkady was divorced, and he was in lust with a woman that had fled to Munich and was working for a radio station that beamed basic news information and propaganda to Russian citizens. Even giving what I thought were potentially interesting characters, this was a very slowly developing book. I ended up not really caring about them or where this plot was going, so at 2/3 of the way through, I quit reading. It’s disappointing because I was getting some of the geography and current lifestyle info that I was hoping for, and he’s written several books. Too bad. I can’t give this one my recommendation.

Abuse of Power by Michael Savage

I think Amazon promoted this author based on previous searches on their site.

Jack Hatfield was a conservative talk show host on GNT, the major cable news network. The mainstream media went after him and his show by branding him as a bigoted racist for his views on Muslim extremists. He’s stayed in the game by working as a freelance producer with Max (Maxine) his favored videographer.

Jack’s on a routine ride-along with the SF police when they get a call about a carjacking that went south with the car crashing within a block of the heist. The carjacker has been whisked away by the cops awfully fast. The original driver has disappeared.

The area has been evacuated because the random carjacking grabbed a car carrying a bomb big enough to take out a couple city blocks. And the driver was ID’d as being from the middle east. When the bomb squad approaches, the driver, now on the top floor of a nearby building, hits send on his cell phone and detonates the bomb killing the squad’s chief.

The FBI comes in and after a day or two, announces a domestic group from northern California is behind the bombing. The kid carjacker dies of an OD the next day and Jack’s favorite hacker digs up a connection to a London-based Iman so Jack figures that he needs to go to London to further the investigation.

The story takes Jack to Israel to London to Paris as he narrows his focus to an under the radar but very well funded group called the Hand of Allah. Putting pieces of the puzzle together, Jack figures out the target and races back to SF to try and stop what could make 9/11 look like a practice run.

When I went looking for a .jpg of the cover, I quickly learned why the author’s name seemed familiar. He does a syndicated radio show that is 3^rd in listenership (to Limbaugh and someone else). I tend to stay away from books written by pundits and have read nothing by Hannity, Beck, Levin, or anyone of that ilk. I think had I known this ahead of time, I might have passed because I think they put too much of themselves and their biases into the story. In this book, the shadowy group pulling the strings is a Bilderberg-type of power brokers who slip any connections with the plot, but each manage to start to fall one way or another. All because of crusading former conservative talk show host. I wasn’t impressed.

East Coast Don

Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan

One of my rare departures from crime and thriller novels.

(As usual, a note on full disclosure. I flunked my first stats class. As a transfer student in the pre-computerized registration days, I just needed hours to be eligible for varsity athletics. About the only course that fit my schedule was a course called Social Statistics taught by a barely fluent international faculty member. I had no idea what stats were, got lost by midterms and stopped going. A bit older and wiser and now in grad school, stats just clicked (kudos to a GREAT teacher of introductory stats) and I aced my way through multiple stats courses. Taught stats most every semester when working in a university.)

Dr. Wheelan is a professor of public policy and economics at Dartmouth and previously wrote Naked Economics. This book takes a peek behind the curtain of how statistics can be used and misused. He points out that the old line, “lies, damn lies, and statistics” should probably be “lies, damn lies, and bad data” because it’s not the statistics that mislead people. Statistics are just a tool. If something’s confusing, it’s more likely the fault of the data, usually because of bad sampling.

For about 12 weeks this winter, my wife hosted a Bible study for women at the house, which meant I was kicked out and spent the bulk of my evenings at Barnes and Noble. This book was displayed on a table on the route to the little boy’s room. The engaging part of this book is Dr. Wheelan’s presentation; think one part John Corey (Nelson DeMille) or Elvis Cole (Robert Crais) and one part Darrell Huff (author of the now infamous (to statisticians at least) How to Lie With Statistics, ©1954, of which I have an original).

The book breaks no statistical ground. What it does do, exceptionally well, is scrape off the glamour (or crust, you choose) about how stats are used to twist or disguise a topic to meet some agenda. His examples are drawn liberally from economics (national productivity, wealth), education (rating schools and teachers), and sports (who’s the best QB). He also throws gasoline on the fire that is the US News and World Report rankings of colleges/universities and doctors/hospitals showing how the results can be manipulated. Not to mention the habits of those most grievous of liars – make that manipulators of the truth – politicians.

Actually thought one of the best chapters was on something most find simple and quasi-dull – descriptive stats (mean, median, standard deviation, standard error) by using as his example the health trajectory of Jay Gould, the late evolutionary biologist. Dr. Gould was diagnosed in 1982 with mesothelioma where he learned the diagnosis had a median eight-month survival; half live less than eight months, half live longer. Thus ensued a discussion about data distributions, skewness, and responders vs. non-responders to treatment.  

Were I still teaching stats in college, this book would form part of my trilogy of resources: the textbook, Huff’s How to Lie, and Wheelan’s book. The examples are so ridiculously clear, presented with a wink and nod that no one who makes the effort will regret. This wouldn't be a primary text for a class, but it would be the ideal source of real world examples of the wise use of statistics. Yeah, it's that good. 

BTW. Dr. Gould eventually succumb to an unrelated cancer . . . in 2002, 20 years after being told he probably had eight months to live.

East Coast Don

Mad River by John Sandford

#6 in the Virgil Flowers thread.

Jimmy Sharp. Becky Walsh. Tom McCall. Modern day Bonnie and Clyde and that third guy. A prominent doctor's wife goes to her high school reunion splashing around a killer diamond necklace. Jimmy, Becky, and Tom are dead broke and decide to burgle the lady's home for the jewelry. Jimmy goes right in through an unlocked window, but it goes bad and he kills Agatha O'Leary when she freaks. In the process of escaping, Jimmy kills a guy for his car and they are now on the run. In the process, they kill Jimmy's dad, Becky's parents, a cop during a Credit Union robbery, and commit a number of other random acts of senseless violence. 

Virgil, an investigator for Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (and works for Lucas Davenport-the lead character in Sandford's Prey series), heads for rural southwestern Minnesota where he has to work with Bare County's Sheriff Duke, a Boss Hog kind of cop with a stranglehold on law enforcement on his corner of the prairie. Virgil wants to take the three alive, but Sheriff Duke would just as soon blow them away in retaliation for the murder spree across his beloved county. He and Virgil operate under an uneasy alliance. 

The county cops, with help from neighboring counties and the National Guard, are all trying to track Jimmy, Becky, and Tom to keep them from killing again and possibly getting away. The problem is geometry. A=2(pi)r means that if they've gone 40 miles, the good guys have nearly 250 square miles to search.

Only puzzling thing is that window. How did Jimmy know that particular window would be open? Was the necklace the real target?

Virgil criss crosses the SW corner and the state trying to get some slight edge on the three.

Sandford is one of the most consistent authors out there, offering nearly equal time for Flowers and the 3-on-a-spree. His Prey series is up to 24 books and you don't get that amount of books out there if you aren't any good. I have read only 1 Prey novel and didn't want to like it too much so I wouldn't feel obligated to read the entire series. But, I have read the Kidd series and I think this is my 3rd Virgil Flowers book. This was real easy to get into and before I knew it, I had read 100 pages. The presentation is deliciously readable. Flowers has just enough small town, folksy familiarity with the region that I couldn't help but see a little of Elmore Leonard's Raylen Givens (of the FX TV show 'Justified') as he questions locals who pretend to be bikers 'in a hygenic Minnesota sort of manner.' I know West Coast Don was sort of cool to his venture in an earlier Virgil Flowers novel, but I found this one easily sucked me in right until the the last line. For me, a satisfying escape.

East Coast Don