S is for Silence

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton

The easiest way to describe this book is that it’s an excellent book with a rotten ending.  That’s a bit like saying a guy is awfully handsome, yet he has an ugly face.  So a bit of explanation is necessary. (No spoilers ahead.  I promise).

Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone is at it again.  Our favorite 30-something, twice divorced P.I. is asked by a woman to research her mother’s disappearance.  Her mother actually disappeared 34 years ago when the daughter was still a child.  So this is not necessarily going to be an easy task.  Fortunately, there are lot of people around this small town that remember the events of 1953 quite well (present day in Grafton’s books are the mid to late 1980s), so Kinsey begins to slowly put some small, fragmented pieces together.

What makes this a book a breath of fresh air compared to the past Kinsey Milhone adventures, is that the entire tale is not told in first person by the character of Kinsey.  About 25% of this book takes us back to 1953, and we see a lot of the characters interact with one another that helps the reader have a clearer understanding of what exactly is going on in the story.  This works very effectively, and one hopes that Grafton would incorporate such a tactic in future novels (it also shows she’s not limited to “one kind” of prose).

Our missing woman is Violet Sullivan.  She’s essentially the town slut.  Violet and her lover Foley had to get married when she gets pregnant at 15.  By the time 1953 has arrived, it’s about seven years later, so the child, Daisy, is too young to understand much, other than her parents fight a lot.  Talk about a perilous relationship.  Foley beats Violet up quite frequently, yet we wonder – does he beat her up because she sleeps with everyone in town?  Or does she sleep with everyone in town because her husband beats her up?  Even though she walks around town with plenty of bruises and black eyes, this woman clearly appears to have the upper hand in this tumultuous relationship.  She would make the Greek goddess Aphrodite sit up and take notes.  So a lot of men take a tumble with her, yet they also fall for her.  And fall hard.  So when Violet disappears, no one is really surprised, regardless of whether foul play is involved or not.

So now I’ll jump to the ending without revealing anything (as promised).  When the mystery is finally solved, Grafton does a decent job of telling us the who and the how, but she doesn’t tell us the why.  I was so frustrated at the end of this book, that I rapidly flipped through the last few pages thinking “there has to be a missing chapter here”.  I’ve never been so frustrated at the end of a book before.  I was so frustrated, that I did a Google search to see if there was any enlightenment out there in the virtual world.  Not surprising, it seems there were many gripes similar to mine.  I came across one reader who actually detailed what she thought was the “why,” yet confessed that she had to read the entire book over again.  She then went on to say something like “I don’t want read a book this hard to figure out the ending”.  Excellent sentiments.

Even though you can go back and put the pieces of the puzzle together yourself, Grafton could have very easily added a quick paragraph or two at the end simply summarizing what  we found out earlier in the book, and why Kinsey came to the right conclusion.  Sadly, that’s missing.

Whenever Kinsey is trying to solve a mystery, she uses 3X5 notecards to notate all of her findings, so she can easily later reference them.  It almost seems that, as the reader, I probably should have done the same thing.  Not a good thing.

Oh Ms. Grafton, you were so close!

The Facts of Death

The Facts of Death by Raymond Benson

Whenever I read a great book by a new author, I feel I’ve read a great book.  Whenever I read another great book by the same author, I feel I’ve read a great book by a great author.  Such is the case with Raymond Benson’s second “official” James Bond book which came out around 1998.  Benson took over from John Gardner, who had the arduous task of taking over from the original author Ian Fleming.  Most thought Fleming’s books were outstanding, yet Gardner’s were received in a much more lukewarm fashion.  By the time Gardner was writing the books (he started in the early 1980s), nobody really cared about the literary James Bond anymore, it was all about the movies. (On a slightly unrelated note, none of Gardner’s books were ever made into movies, yet most of Fleming’s were).

Raymond Benson, however has always been a major fan of the books, and it was his intention to resurrect, so to speak, the James Bond of the books.  Well, even though his works never made any best seller lists anywhere, it is of my opinion, that he is doing a wonderful job so far.

When I read Benson’s first effort, I expected him to mimic Ian Fleming’s style.  Something I wasn’t sure would work.  Even though Fleming was very popular, styles change and tastes change, and I’m not sure today’s literary crowd would consume one of these books with the same level of enthusiasm as one might have 60 years ago.  Fortunately, it doesn’t seem that Benson is copying Fleming to any great extent, he simply writes a great novel.

His books are not very lengthy, yet seemed packed with adventure.  Adventure is not an easy thing to write about with conviction.  Oh, sure, it looks great on the movie screen when 007 drives a boat under water, or is thrown out a plane without a parachute, but it’s very difficult to maintain the same level of excitement on a printed page when describing such situations.  So Benson knows his limitations, yet still manages to make these stories far from ho-hum.

The plot takes place largely in Greece and, like his first work, incorporates a lot of real life current tension within the plot.  There’s a big focus on the Greece-Turkey animosity, and it’s used as a backdrop for the story.  There’s been a rash of mysterious illnesses around the world – an infectious virus that is hard to detect is killing any human being that comes in contact with another human being who is already infected.  Think of something like Ebola.  Well, fortunately the disease is somewhat slow moving, allowing Bond time to go to Greece, investigate, have several sexual encounters, drive a few Q-developed special vehicles, and even visit a sperm bank in Austin, Texas (Benson’s hometown – he wanted to get it in one of his books).  Benson gives us just enough detail to where we feel we have a solid understanding of the environment without miring us in the weeds of too much detail.  

One curious thing about this particular book, is that Benson seems to be trying to uncover the “real” Bond.  Sure, we all know he’s handsome, swarthy, swashbuckling, and good with his fists, but there’s a lot of hurt and emptiness in this man’s life as well.  Bond himself seems to be the most vulnerable after one of his many sexual encounters (emphasis on “many”).  I’m not really sure this is completely necessary, but these diversions never take away from the action for very long, so it’s a very minor detail.

Raymond Benson is no Ian Fleming – but I don’t mean that is an insult nor a compliment.  He simply does a great job bringing 007 back to the books in a very exciting fashion.

Stone Cold

Stone Cold by David Baldacci

One of Baldacci’s “Camel Club” books.  From what I can tell based on this author’s work, he has a couple of recurring people in several of his books – one being the “King and Maxwell” characters, and the other being the band of four eclectic, somewhat bizarre individuals that call themselves The Camel Club.  Oliver Stone (not his real name) is their leader.  They live in Washington D.C. and spend many long days and nights uncovering conspiracy theories and undermining secret government plots.  It seems as though Oliver Stone at one point actually worked for the CIA, and was superb in what he did (killings, clandestine activity, etc.), but one day, he decided he wanted out.  Well, this type of CIA job isn’t one that you just walk away from, so the powers that be decide to kill him.  Oh, our rotten government!  Only he doesn’t die – yet everyone in the know thinks he is.  Oliver Stone is born.

The Camel Club is not the type of “club” that serious people would pay attention.  They’re kind of a ratty, disheveled bunch that would appear more at home holding up “Spare Change?” signs at a traffic intersection as opposed to duping the U.S. Government.  There’s sort of an unofficial fifth member of this club named Annabelle Conroy.  I think she may have been introduced in the second Camel Club book (The Collectors – I haven’t read it yet).  She’s a con artist and has just conned a member of the mob who owns a casino in Atlantic City out of 40 million dollars.  This guy makes John Gotti look like an altar boy.  So he’s after her, and she turns to the Camel Club for help.

Ironically, this isn’t really even the main plot to the story.  There’s this other narrative going on involving a thirty-ish ex-Navy Seal named Harry Finn.  Finn has one of those really cool jobs – he works for Homeland Security and tests the nation’s safety mechanisms (example – he gets to break through airport security, stowaway on a major airliner, and plant a “fake” bomb on the plane).  Finn is also a big family man.  He has a beautiful wife, 3 beautiful kids, and Baldacci never lets us forget this.  This is so you know he’s one of the “good” guys.  Even though he starts getting involved in some shady shenanigans, you have to therefore keep “rooting” for him.

So all of these different, unrelated narratives end up meeting about ¾ of the way through the book.  At this point, we now seem to figure out what all of the background to all these stories is, and we piece things together.  Although, to be honest, I thought the con artist and the Vegas bad boy was a bit thrown in and not really related to anything in general.  It’s almost as if Baldacci tried to make that part a “self-standing” novel, yet couldn’t flesh it out, so he throws it in this story as a sub plot.

My only other complaint about the book (and this seems to be prevalent in most of this author’s work) is that the characters seem to quickly find answers to questions that seem as though, in real life, would require a lot more digging.  Every time someone needs a bit of “important information”, it just so happens that the next stranger they run into can tell them exactly what they need and more.  There’s also a couple of scenes where the good guys seem to get out of unpleasant scenes very easily.  (Note to bad guys everywhere – if you kidnap someone and are driving them somewhere, you may want to at least handcuff them, or tie their hands behind their back).

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I would recommend, however, reading the first two Camel Club books before tackling this one.  You never feel “lost”, but some of the linear backgrounds of the characters can be a bit bewildering if this is the first time you meet the characters.  I also enjoyed the fact that the chapters in the book (99 total) are very brief – about four pages on average, so the book moves quickly as well.  Strangely, this is exactly what some other readers complained about when they reviewed this book.

Oh well, you can’t please everybody.

When Will There Be Good News?

When Will There Be Good News?  by Kate Atkinson

Several years ago when I worked in the entertainment industry, I learned never to trust one of those tag lines that you see on the cover of a book.  I’m referring to something like:

“An awesome read!  I couldn’t put it down!” - John Grisham

Usually you see this on books by authors who aren’t household names.  I discovered that 99% of these were fake.  I had authors tell me themselves that they never read these books that were hyped with their name splattered over the front cover.  It was all a publishing ploy to sell more books.

Well, this book was a bit different.  This author (who has only been widely known in some circles for only the last couple of years) was highly touted by none other than Stephen King.  King has even gone out of his way in several interviews to praise this author and much of her work.  After reading this, my first book by her, I’m not surprised that Stephen King holds her in such high regard.  She is amazing.  Her prose is very similar to King’s.  She has a way of hooking the reader in - regardless of the topic, and proceeds to be very clever and witty, and manages to emulate an occasional guffaw from the reader even the overall atmosphere of the book might be a bit gloomy.

In this case, it’s a lot more than a “bit” gloomy.  This book is very gloomy (hence the title).  Yet most of the ugliness has happened in these characters’ past as opposed to the present situation as we’re reading about them.  This book focuses on four key individuals living somewhere in Scotland.  Their lives may have crossed each others’ path in a small way, but as a reader, you’re unaware of this until well into the book.  At first, it seems as though you’re reading four different stories rolled into one novel.

These people in these different stories have had pretty rough experiences during their lives.  I couldn’t keep up with all of the bad stuff that happened to these pour souls - from kidnapping to cancer, deadbeat dads to delinquent kids.  It’s all here.  Yet Atkinson somehow keeps the mood lighter than one would expect and, more importantly, interesting enough to where you really can’t wait to find out what happens yet.

It’s a bit unnecessary to describe the actual plot of this book.  Yes, we do eventually find out there is actually a plot, but it’s not the story in and of itself that’s done so well, but rather the dialog and the intricacies of the characters and how they all interact with one another (think of a Robert Altman movie such as “Nashville” or “Gosford Park”).   I wouldn’t mind reading another book that features many of these same people featured in this book(I think one of them actually does appear in several pieces by the author), but she simply does a magnificent job at telling a tale, that I’m betting I would easily enjoy more, if not all of her works.

Although, as I mentioned, her style is very similar to Stephen Kings’, keep in mind that I’m referring to style of her actual prose.  There are some things that King does that many (including me) find hard to stomach some time.  Things such as his “disgusting” factor, and his belief that every person on the entire planet uses about 200 four-letter words in every five minute conversation.   So, fortunately, things such as that are not present within these pages.

Happiness is discovering an awesome new author.  Thank you, Ms. Atkinson, for your brilliant book.

The Coffin Dancer

The Coffin Dancer by Jeffrey Deaver

The Coffin Dancer is the sixth book by Jeffrey Deaver that I’ve reviewed within the last year.  Regardless of how much I’ve liked each book, I find myself saying a couple of the same things about each one:  1) he does his homework when preparing for a book, and 2) he knows how to make a spectacular ending.  I can say the exact same thing about this one, one of the best of his that I’ve read so far.

I was prepared for a plot twist near the end this time, so I meticulously kept my antennae up – trying to figure out just how he would try to dupe me this time.   Like a magician that knows the crowd is watching his hands, however, Deaver managed to wow me big time yet again.  I admit it – I was fooled.  This was an incredibly fun, wild ride.

This is one of the Lincoln Rhyme novels.  Lincoln is a quadriplegic criminologist who doesn’t have the luxury of visiting crime scenes because of his condition.  He uses his “partner” Amelia Sachs to do the leg work for him.  Speaking of legs, Amelia is one hotty-totty.  Every guy on the force lusts after her, yet she only has eyes for Lincoln.  The two manage to advance their relationship somewhat in this, the second, adventure.  Not too much, since there’s not much a quadriplegic can do in terms of physical intimacy – especially someone like Lincoln who’s awfully grouchy all the time.

There’s another killer on the loose in this story.  This one, the “Coffin Dancer” (because he has just such a tattoo on his body), is hired to eliminate some potential dangerous witnesses to a murder case.  This is one smart psychopath.  But they usually all are in these books.  Lincoln, however, is just as smart, so the progression of the plot is essentially a battle of wits between the good guy and the bad guy.

If anyone out there reading this is ever considering becoming a hard-core criminal, you may want to read one of these books before you embark on such a profession.  Based on this book, it’s impossible to get away with any crime.  If Lincoln finds, for example, a speck of fabric on a corpse, he’s able to find out where the fabric came from, when it was bought, who sold it to the killer, and where and how the killer will strike next.  All in a remarkably short amount of time.  A bit farfetched I suppose, but that’s what makes these stories as good as they are.

I was also impressed not only with the “twisted” ending, but by the fact that this book seemed to contain three different heart-pounding climaxes within the last few chapters of the book.  One would be enough, but just when we feel things should be winding down, Deaver ups the ante for a few more wild rides.

This one would make an excellent movie.  With all the dreck that Hollywood produces, why not  make something good?  Like this one?

Polar Shift

Polar Shift by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos

I confess that sometimes I’ll read what other reviewers have to say about a particular book before I write my own.  When I looked at some of the reviews on Amazon.com for this one, I came across one that hits the nail pretty well when describing Clive Cussler.  The reviewer stated (and I’m paraphrasing here) that Cussler’s books are a bit like eating at a Burger King restaurant.  No matter where you go in the country, if you stop at a Burger King to eat, you know exactly what’s on the menu, what you want to eat, and how it’s going to taste.  It’s never phenomenal, never different and always predictable.  You know exactly what you’re going to get.  This, of course, is why if you like Burger King, so you keep going to the restaurant whenever you get the urge.

This is one of the “NUMA Files” books, which essentially means our hero is Kurt Austin instead of the familiar Dirk Pitt.  Not that this matters one iota to the average reader.  To most, both of these guys are exactly the same except in hair color.  Kurt and his band of familiar regulars are trying to find out why and how mysterious whirlpools have been appearing across the oceans.  These things are pretty huge and pretty serious.  How serious?  Well, one manages to swallow up an entire freighter, killing the entire crew.  Is this a natural phenomenon?  Or is it man made?  Regardless, can these things be stopped?

Ironically, Kurt and his cronies seem to always be in the right place at the right time (i.e. wrong place at the wrong time) when these disasters appear, which seem to be odd coincidences, but do make for some good thrilling rescue scenes.  If you’ve read a Cussler, the rest of the plot isn’t really necessary to describe here.

I confess that when I’m really hungry, I enjoy Burger King a lot.  I can say the same thing about most of Cussler’s work.  Although I have a hard time differentiating these books – especially over time, this one seemed to be par for the course if not a little better than most.  Yes, things did get a bit hoaky near the end.  We really didn’t need that scene where our old friend Dirk puts in an obligatory appearance (filled with a lot of classic cars – go figure), and there’s one scene where a complex code is “broken” rather easily.

Still, I knew what I was getting into, so I therefore really enjoyed the ride.  These books aren’t for everyone, and maybe you enjoy them but suffer a bit from Cussler overkill (he writes a lot of books with many different co-authors).  If you’re a casual fan and pick this one up, I think you’ll enjoy it overall.  

Regardless of whether you prefer onion rings or French fries.