Bloody River Blues

Bloody River Blues by Jeffery Deaver

Several years ago, I worked as a liaison between the book publishers and various retailers.  One of the perks (pretty much the only perk) is that we could get free paperback books anytime we wanted.  Even though that’s now been almost eight years ago, my garage is still lined with unread yarns - just waiting to be consumed some day.  When I came across, and then read a Jeffery Deaver book titled The Stone Monkey, I was hooked.  Upon completion, I quickly ventured outside to the sultry holder of the cars to see if there were any other works by this author that might await me.  Alas, there were only a sad few.  I then learned the author had about twenty-five pieces of work, so my next visit was Ebay.  To may a long story a bit longer, I came across a listing of about fifteen of the author’s works for $25.  A steal!

So, with a new collection of books by a new author, it was time to do some reading.  As I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs on the subject, I’m always compelled, if possible, to read multiple offerings of an author in order of release.  Although that might come across to some as a bit obsessive-compulsive (it is), it’s also rewarding because, in many cases, authors will end up telling a linear group of stories from one book to the next, and although not necessary, it can be beneficial to start from the start.

Written around the late 1980’s (under a pseudonym William Jefferies), the story takes place in a hard-hit (fictional?) town called Maddox, Missouri.  The only thing looking up for this town, is when a Hollywood company shows up to use the town as a backdrop for its story.  Our protagonist is John Pellam, who is the location scout for this particular film.  Although the film is already in production, the film’s director is one of those eccentric types who keeps changing his script as he is filming, so Pellam needs to stick around the sleepy town for awhile.  Not that this should bother him.  He works free lance, after all, so as long as the money keeps coming in....

Well, in this particular dreary municipality, a second rate murder is about to go down.  Pellam just happens to be walking through downtown buying a case of beer, and although he doesn’t really see anything happen, he’s the closest thing the cops have to a witness.  So now, the cops are looking for him, the FBI is looking for him, the bad guys are looking for him, the muscle behind the bad guys are looking for him, and so on and so on.

Now, I’ve never been accosted by a police officer when they were inquiring about a crime, but could someone please tell me why when this happens in the movies or books that the guy being solicited for information always has to act so smart-mouthed and belligerent?  I can’t help but thinking that if our friend John Pellam would have maybe just cooperated with the authorities a bit better, he could have avoided an awful lot of drama.  Maybe he might not like cops, but does it hurt to be as helpful as possible when an attempt is made to solve a murder?  So, yes, in a way, the police in this story almost become just as bad as the murderous thugs.  Well, I guess you need to tell a decent story.

Then, there’s this mysterious, great looking blonde who happens to show up out of the blue and starts getting very chummy with Pellam.  You have to ask (and Pellam should as well), why would such a hotty be even remotely interested in a washed up free lance movie location scout?  Alarm bells go off.  For the reader, anyway.  So through the complex labyrinth, things eventually sort themselves out, and everybody is free to live another day and make another movie.

I found this book to be “o.k.”, but definitely not much more than that.  A lot of it, sadly, seems to be in the abysmal town where our story takes place.  At one point near the beginning, the author devotes quite a lengthy part of a chapter describing just how bad off this place is and, well, let’s just say it doesn’t even make you want to visit it as a reader.  Plus, it really doesn’t help when the majority of the characters aren’t even from this place, so there’s not much of an attachment from the key parties involved.  It made a decent story with some good plot twists, and most of the characters were somewhat interesting.  Hind sight being twenty-twenty, it’s comforting to know that this author does get a lot better with time.

NOTE: After completing this book, I found out that the author has, in fact, written a “series” of books around this character as well.  They’re referred to as “The Location Scout” mysteries.  Not sure if that’s good or bad yet....

Lincoln: A Team of Rivals

Lincoln: A Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

First thing’s first: This is not, contrary to what many people believe, the companion piece to the Steven Spielberg movie that came out not too long ago.  Spielberg gives acknowledgements to the author, Doris Kearns Goodwin, in the movie’s credits, and the cover of the some of the book releases is a shot of Lincoln from the movie, but the similarities, strangely, end there.  I’m thinking Spielberg was probably so heavily influenced by this wonderful work, that he felt he needed to recognize Goodwin for the inspiration.  If you haven’t seen the film, it really isn’t a retrospective of the 16th president, but only focuses on the politics behind the Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery that was pushed through in the final days of the Civil War.  This book touches on this particular event, but only slightly.  In fact, if your mind ever wanders while reading a book, you’re likely to miss that event entirely.

Neither is this book a detailed biography of Abraham Lincoln.  As the title implies, this book mainly focuses on several members of Lincoln’s cabinet that were, at one point or another, rivals with one and other for the presidential office during the primaries of 1860, and how Lincoln was a brilliant leader who put all egos aside, mended the differences, and successfully lead the country through arguably the worst point of our nation’s history.  It’s no mistake that this man is often regarded as the greatest president ever of the United States.

Initially, the book begins by focusing on Abraham Lincoln’s candidacy for President in the 1860 election.  His rivals for the Republican nomination are all future members of his cabinet; New York’s Henry Seward, Ohio’s Salmon Chase, and Missouri’s Edward Bates.  The author spends the bulk of the first quarter of this volume detailing all of these characters - not just Lincoln.  We are provided with a detailed overview of their lives, their families, their ambitions and their political comings and goings in lengthy detail.  This was a minor distraction for me, as I felt at times I was reading four separate biographies, and it was a bit hard to keep my focus.  Because of the nature of the relationship between these four individuals throughout Lincoln’s presidency, however, such an in depth background was, in fact, necessary.

Interestingly, of these four characters, Lincoln was the dark horse candidate.  Surprisingly, what propels him to the top is his calm, non-aggressive nature.  Unlike just about any other political candidate (in history?), Lincoln masters what Jesus Christ told us about retaliation - simply turn the other cheek.  He never gets sucked in to name calling, mud slinging, or character assassination, so unlike his political rivals, he can’t possibly put a political foot in his mouth.  After the other candidates embarrass themselves out of being front runners, the humble, gangly Illinois lawyer manages to win the nomination, and then eventually, to everyone’s surprise, the election of President of the United States.

Of course, any book that details Lincoln’s presidency will deal heavily with slavery, the threat of secession, and the inevitable bloody Civil War.  All of that is covered in detail here, yet even if you are very familiar with the people, places and events during this tumultuous time, you never feel as though you are bored from “hearing it all over again”.  Goodwin has the incredible ability to tell a detailed, yet very interesting story (I’ve never read any of her other pieces yet, but I’ve seen her on many television documentaries).  Also, these events are all told through the eyes and heart of Abraham Lincoln himself.

Again, the man was a political genius.  Humble throughout his entire life, he manages to always come out ahead of his rivals by simply being a calm, respectful steward of his office.  There are a lot of political back-stabbing amongst the cabinet, the generals, the senators, and the other movers and shakers, yet Lincoln always knows what buttons to push on all of these individuals to never alienate or humiliate them.  As his presidency progresses, some of the characters shift in and out of focus.  Bates, who becomes Lincoln’s Attorney General, basically falls out of the picture, but other key cabinet members, such as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton are featured more prolifically.  

So with all of the major events taking place during the four years of Lincoln’s presidency,  the main theme here is the president’s character, and his ability to lead his cabinet - a cabinet that didn’t always see eye to eye, and could be quite disrespectful towards their Commander in Chief at times.  Upon conclusion of reading this satisfying work, you can’t help but thank God in heaven that we had arguably the best president in the history of our country during the time when we desperately needed one the most.

Death is Forever

Death is Forever by John Gardner

The last time I reviewed one of the John Gardner/James Bond books, I notated that I needed to take a break from the series.  Truth be told, these books aren’t really meant to be literary classics, nor or they meant to rival anything on a current best seller list.  For about 15 years, author John Gardner seemed to methodically churn out a story based on the most popular spy in popular culture ever - 007.  Although most argue his books are good, they will also argue that this author is no match for the superhero’s “father”,  the late great Ian Fleming.  But Fleming had now been dead for almost 30 years when this story was written, and I’ve always maintained that if Fleming were still alive, his style of writing that made him one of the greats a half a century ago, simply wouldn’t hold the same appeal for modern audiences.

But plod along John Gardner does, and this particular piece of work is one of his better ones.  I purposely made myself slow down a bit, and made sure that I read the story in digestible chunks as to not rush through, and for this I’m glad.  Some of Gardner’s books have been a bit too outlandish with colorful villains and cavernous mansions etc.  Whereas that may be acceptable for some of the films, the books tend to be more favorable with a more straight-forward, linear plot.  I also imagine that it became a bit harder for spy writers once the cold war was officially over in the early to mid-nineties.  Many of the sources for traditional bad guys were no longer from acrimonious countries.  Who could be the big bad villains now that the Russians and East Germans were all of the sudden good guys?

Well, the villain is an ex-East German baddie - named Wolfgang Weisen, or “The Poison Dwarf”.  Even though we’re all now on the same side, the dwarf wants revenge and so members of an elite, good guy, clandestine service called “The Cabal” start being picked off one by one.  James Bond is called in and.....well, you know the rest.

About the only thing I didn’t care for was the Bond Girl.  Her name is Eazy (short for Elizabeth), and the problem is that Bond Girls are either highly disposable (meaning they’re there at the end with our hero in some climactic love scene and then gone forever), or James Bond literally falls in love with his lady - which means she has to somehow die (think Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service or Vesper in Casino Royale).  This one, Gardner wants it to be the latter (i.e. we’ll kill her off because Bond is falling for her), but there is absolutely no chemistry between the two that would differentiate her from many of Bond’s flights of fancy.  When we’re “told” that Bond is starting to have strong feelings for her, but not allowed to actually see nor feel anything developing between the two, we almost know for sure about the tragedy that will unfold.

Overall, though, this one was pretty good.  I have two more John Gardners to go before I can start on the Raymond Benson Bond novels (I already have them, and they’re constantly staring at me from the bookshelf - almost imploring me to hurry up and finish the Gardner books so I can pick them up).  As tempting as the newer Benson novels are, I will still do everything in my power to not rush through the last two Gardner books, and try to enjoy them.  I’m hoping they resemble this one.

The Stone Monkey

The Stone Monkey by Jeffery Deaver

I have read at least one Jeffery Deaver novel in my lifetime, so I was a little bit familiar with his style of writing and his characters.  When I picked this one up in my garage (where we store our massive collection of books), I was unsure if I had read this one before.  This is one of the downsides of reading as frequently as I do - not only can I not remember many of the stories within the books I’ve read,  I can’t even recall which books by an author that I have read.  Reading the summary on the back of the book, sadly, doesn’t help much either.  

Anyway, when I started (again?) on this story, the beginning seemed a bit familiar, but I decided I would plod along since the majority of the story seemed unfamiliar enough to keep my interest.  When I finished this book, I still couldn’t remember if I had read it before, but I was glad I picked it up and read it.  I simply loved this story.

This is one of Deaver’s many books that revolve around a pair of his famed protagonists Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs.  Since I haven’t read the majority of Deaver’s releases, I’m not sure how Rhyme and Sachs arrived at their current set of  circumstances.  Essentially, he is a quadriplegic “criminalist” that was injured in the line of duty.  The only thing that can really function on his body is his brilliant brain and his ability to communicate from his pod where he works and lives.  Sachs is the stereotypical female cop in all of these books.  Beautiful, resilient, long flowing auburn hair, etc. etc.  Apparently these two had somewhat of a relationship before Rhyme’s accident, yet they are still together even though, for obvious reasons, their relationship is somewhat limited.  He is also a bit of a grouch, but under the circumstances, who wouldn’t be?  So whenever there is a big crime to solve, Amelia essentially goes out and does the physical work, and Rhyme does the thinking and talking through her earpiece, and the two of them are quite the pair.

In this particular book, the story opens with a ship filled with illegal Chinese immigrants heading to New York, along with their “Snakehead” leader, who is referred to as “The Ghost”.  The Ghost is definitely a shady character who is never up to any good and has a nasty background, but if you’re trying to flee Communist China, you need a sponsor, and beggars can’t be choosers.  In this story, though, the immigrants are about to be betrayed. The Ghost is trying to cut all ties to much of his past, so while the ship has not quite arrived at the shore, he blows up the ship and makes a getaway on a portable raft and eliminates all of the potential witnesses.  Or so he thinks.  It turns out, much of the cargo of illegals survives, so the Ghost must now track them down one by one and kill them.  Not an easy thing to do since everyone on board are illegals.  They come ashore close to Chinatown in New York City, so a couple of the families from the ship have at least some sort of destination in mind.  It’s just going to be difficult for all to get where they need to go.

So the Ghost starts to leave a trail of dead bodies as he’s trying to eliminate everyone that was on board, and he heads to Chinatown himself to finish what he has started.  So now Rhyme and Sachs (along with a host of supporting players) are called in to figure out who, what, and why is behind all of this.  This is one of the book’s major strengths as the Lincoln Rhyme character really knows his stuff, and manages to put together a puzzle of clues that will eventually help the team nab their perpetrator.  One of Jeffery Deaver’s helpful nuances is that, at the end of every few chapters, he includes a “virtual chalkboard” of all the clues that Lincoln Rhyme and company have uncovered.  This way, the reader doesn’t have to memorize all of incidents that have occurred in the story to help follow all of the progress that our heroes have made.  When we get lost in the complex labyrinth, we can simply flip to the “chalkboards” in the book and be reminded of everything Rhyme and company have uncovered.  Helpful if you don’t happen to have a photographic memory.

One of the things about this book that I really enjoyed were the many plot twists and turns that always kept me guessing.  It seems like every time you read another dozen pages, one of the good guys turns out to really be a bad guy or vice-versa.  I was fooled many times about many of the character’s motives.  This, in my judgement, is what good writing should be.  The story simply grips you and you don’t want to let it go.  I found the conclusion to be very satisfying, if somewhat a bit unbelievable.  I enjoyed this book so much that I wanted to quickly read more work from this author.  I then found out that we had about four more of his novels in our collection out in the garage, yet he has actually written about thirty pieces of work.  So, me being me, I went on E-Bay and found a collection of about 15 of his books for about $25.  My wife can only roll her eyes.

So look for more reviews on this author’s work from me in the near future!