Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

Stephen King has written so many books in the last 40 years - many of them classics - that it can be easy to forget just how gifted the man is when telling a story.  Any time you read something by him that is merely “good”, it’s very easy to get a bit disgruntled since he’s put out so many great works, and comparisons are inevitable.  Mr. Mercedes is one of those “good” books that really  just isn’t that great.  It tells a very linear, realistic story - no ghosts, no goblins, nothing of the supernatural.  It’s just a very basic story with basic (although somewhat disturbing) people.  It’s not one that fans will be able to recall in detail, say 25 years after they’ve read it.

Bill Hodges is a retired police officer who isn’t adjusting well to the retired life.  A divorced man who lives alone, Hodges spends most of his day watching idiotic day time television programs because, well, what else is there to do?  He’s also in possession of a revolver that he finds himself flirting with the idea of putting the barrel in his mouth.  One of his biggest regrets is that, when he was active, he and his partner never found the “Mercedes” killer.  Some years back, some deranged lunatic stole a Mercedes and plowed it into a group of people in line at a job fair.  Several were killed and wounded.

We then meet “Mr. Mercedes”, real name Brady Hartsfield.  He’s, what appears to be, an average run of the mill guy working two menial jobs.  He lives with his alcoholic mother and the two share a bit of a bizarre incestuous relationship.  Yep, it’s really no surprise that this guy is somewhat off his rocker.  It seems as though Brady knows his crime is haunting the old, retired police guy, and he can’t resist tormenting him through letters and online chatrooms.  Plus, Brady isn’t done terrorizing the community, and already has his next attack planned.  Since he can’t resist taunting Bill, it seems as though clues are beginning to surface, and the cat and mouse game begins.

So there you have it.  This is a very predictable story.  95% of the book is told through the eyes of Bill or Brady, and King does his due diligence in ensuring the reader knows the thoughts, the struggles, and the motivations of his two main characters.  Again, this is a strength of Stephen King.

What doesn’t work so well, and this has been the Achilles Heel for Stephen King with many of his books, is when we read two characters having a simple conversation.  Bill Hodges interacts with a few different “good guys” during his mission, and the dialog presented here is somewhat silly and unbelievable.  Fortunately, King took the time to wash his literary mouth out with soap before he started writing this novel, so it isn’t chocked full with unnecessary crude language.  Even though there are definitely some stomach churning moments within these pages, it’s pretty low key for Stephen King, and readers like myself can rejoice in this small victory.

As Bill and his “team” work to uncover the identity of the Mercedes killer and try to put a stop to his next caper, it, again, gets a bit silly.  The characters seem to be highly unbelievable, and their interactions with each other seem very forced.  Again, tho story was just too predictable.

I refuse to judge this book against many of the King classics in the canon.  Even though it was ho-hum compared to most of his work, it was still an overall good story.  As I write this, however, I’m hearing that King is about to resurrect this team of do-gooders for yet another novel, and I have to confess that I’m not exactly waiting with baited breath.  One story with these characters is enough.  Who knows, though, maybe King will surprise me on the second go round.  It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

The Sixth Man

The Sixth Man - by David Baldacci

David Baldacci started off being one of my favorite authors.  Then, I read a few books by him that were sort of so-so, and a couple that I thought were flat out awful.  So this guy is definitely “hit or miss” for me these days.  Fortunately, this book was a hit.  A big hit.  Quite possibly my favorite Baldacci book I’ve read so far (I’m reading them all, more or less, in sequential order.)

This is a “King and Maxwell” book.  Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are a team of private investigators.  They’re both former Secret Service agents who “slipped”, so to speak, in the line of duty at different times years ago.  Their similar pasts allow them the bond to work well as a (mostly) platonic team.  This book finds them traveling to the state of Maine to meet an attorney who is currently defending an alleged murderer.  They find their attorney (a friend of King’s), but unfortunately, they find him dead, so it’s time to begin an investigation.  For reasons unknown at the time, they’re getting a lot of obstruction from the FBI.  Why?  Who exactly is this murderer, and why did the attorney friend want to meet with them?

We then meet the alleged killer who is currently serving time in a maximum security federal facility.  He’s a bit of an odd man who refuses to even communicate or acknowledge King and Maxwell when they meet.  Well, we then discover some secrets about this guy, named Edgar Roy.  It seems Roy used to work for the Federal Government.  He’s one of individuals who has an abnormal gift of a photographic memory.  It’s such an intense gift that the government employs him to stare at a huge wall of television monitors all day long that are broadcasting clandestine satellite broadcasts of terrorist organizations (what seems) non stop.  Edgar is so proficient, that he’s able to assimilate, digest, and decipher all of this information as soon as it’s pouring through his brain.  You would think the government would want to protect such an individual.  Even if he did commit the horrendous crime that he’s being accused, you wouldn’t be surprised if the government looked the other way, so to speak.

So there are a lot of unanswered questions, and King and Maxwell really have their work cut out for them.  Fortunately, Baldacci paces this book very well.  We meet just the right amount of characters, have just the right amount of sub plots going on, and have just the right amount of suspense throughout the story.  Baldacci usually breaks down his books into very short chapters.  They rarely last no more than five or six pages.  This is good since you never feel overwhelmed and always have a nice stopping place right around the corner.  He also somehow manages to make most of these endings to the chapters a bit of a cliffhanger.  So even though you CAN stop, you rarely want to put the book down.

One minor drawback to some of the other King and Maxwell books is that the author dives a bit too much into their psyche and backgrounds.  Baldacci has been known to stray from his main story so we can learn about some weird skeletons that these two have lurking in their closets.  There’s none of that here.  In fact, there’s rarely anything that happens that doesn’t pertain to the actual story (without giving away any spoilers, the LAST King and Maxwell book had quite a rememberable ending, and it could have really taken this story on a detour.  Fortunately, it doesn’t).  I highly recommend this one.

The Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood - by David McCullough

I’ve read two biographies by David McCullough that I enjoyed immensely.  I’ve read one book by David McCullough about an “event” (the building of the Panama Canal) that was o.k., but was weighted down by too much fact and detail.  Fortunately, this book succeeds in areas where the Panama Canal book was a bit lacking.  The main asset that this book has is that it’s fairly short.  It’s only 304 pages long - very short by David McCullough standards.  He could have easily extended this book to twice its size, but he restrains himself.  Or so it seems.  That’s a good thing in this instance.

The Johnstown Flood is one of those true stories of history where it takes a tragedy to occur before the masses truly respect nature and mankind’s limits.  In short, a man made lake is built on a highly elevated area - mainly as a recreational spot for the very rich.  Down in the valley, there are several small communities, including Johnstown, that are home to a few thousand people.  Everyone believes these communities are safe, of course.  After all, the mammoth lake does have a man made dam that will hold together.  In the 50 years or so during the lake’s existence, there are those who warn of impending doom, and that the darn thing simply isn’t strong enough, but nobody seems to want to listen.

This book is very nicely divided into sections that manage to tell a very good story about an event that happens, basically, in a matter of minutes.  First, we read about the town before the tragedy, the surrounding communities, and many of the people that inhabit this quiet community.  We then shift gears and read about the wealthy patrons that develop a recreational private resort - the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.  A dam is constructed around the nearby Lake Conemaugh, and paradise is recreated for the privileged few.

Then one night it rains. And rains.  And pours.  The questionable structured dam gives way, and the communities down in the valley are flooded in a matter of minutes.  The book actually does a very good job recreating this brief, yet horrific incident.  You have to wonder how reliable many of the accounts are, but regardless, the author tells a good recap.

Then, for me, the best part of the book is the aftermath.  Being that this is the nineteenth century, word of the disaster travels slower than what modern man is used to, but at the time, this was the tragedy of all time, and the good Samaritans come from all corners, donating money, supplies, adoption, and anything else possible.  It really warms the heart to read of such philanthropy.  Of course, there’s also many factions of the yellow press that arrive, and in eagerness to sell papers, there are many exaggerated, preposterous stories that circulate after the event. Much of these stories describe the incident as much worse than what actually happened (even though the tragedy was devastating in and of itself).

So a very well balanced book.  Heartbreaking?  Sure.  As I’ve said, though, it’s a sad aspect of human nature that people don’t learn harsh lessons until after such events happen.  It’s always incredibly encouraging, however, to read about people rising to the occasion and helping their fellow neighbor, and a book like this really does give one faith in humanity.

Corsair

Corsair by Clive Cussler and Jack DuBrul

I really, really wanted to like this book.  So far, Clive Cussler has only managed to disappoint me with his “Oregon Files” series, which this one falls under.  He “co-authored” one of these that I’ve read with DuBrul, and the other with a guy named Craig Dirgo.  I put “co-authored” in parenthesis because a large part of me believes that Cussler had very little to do with any of these books.  I think the Cussler name is stuck on to generate more book sales.  Probably an accountant’s move.  Well, it works in terms of sales, but not in terms of quality.  At least not for this reviewer.

The actual setting for this story isn’t too bad.  We start off with a prologue to the story, in true Cussler fashion, of a time centuries ago.  I believe the late 1700s.  I won’t go into details, but if you’ve read anything by Cussler, you know the drill.  Then, we flash forward to present day Libya. Archeologists are searching for some artifacts described in the prologue, while at the same time, the U.S. Secretary of State is traveling to Libya for some sort of peace conference.  Sadly, her plane crashes killing her and everyone on board.  Or so it seems.

Enter Juan Cabrillo, captain of the Oregon ship.  His team of mercenaries get involved in both of these situations, that somehow get tied together between the pages of the story.  There’s a lot of clandestine modern day terrorists that the Oregon crew must unveil and expose. Of course, all of this must be done under the radar because of who they are.

All of this has the makings of a great story.  The main problem here is that the author (who I really think is DuBrul, not Cussler) really can’t seem  to make it very interesting.  There’s a lot of action in this book, but very little adventure.  It’s very easy to simply skim through the multitude of chapters that describe a particular battle between the good guys and the bad guys and not feel that you’re missing anything.  It takes the author about three chapters to describe one, drawn out action sequence.  Although the descriptions are good and well written, there really isn’t anything at all that would make one remember the heroics or imagination of a Dirk Pitt, a Kurt Austin, or an Isaac Bell.  Sometimes you wish the author would take the 50 pages that he devotes to each action scene in the book and replace it with two or three sentences.  He could simply say: “The good guys and the bad guys got into a fight at the prison camp.  The good guys won”.  This would hold my interest a lot better then the endless descriptions of guns, jeeps, bizarre combat vehicles, and boxcars that tend to fly off cliffs into the sea.  I just never cared.

Juan Cabrillo and his crew (there’s about 10 or 12 “regulars” on the Oregon) really don’t add anything to the story either.  Yes, they all have unique jobs and personalities, but they’re all really too mundane to provide you with any real interest.  This book reads like a low budget action film that has lots of explosions etc., but very little story.  One wishes that Cussler would get a bit more involved in the Oregon Files books, and tweak these stories a bit.  They really do have some potential.