Against All Odds

 It was about a year ago that I read and reviewed my first Richard Danzig novel, The Collectors. It was the third in a series of novels about Chance Cormac, a Brooklyn attorney. Against All Odds is the fourth book in the series and I thought it was a better read than the prior one. There were three main story lines in this novel. One had to do with Chance’s choice to confront a very dangerous woman who was the head of a corrupt triad group based in Hong Kong. It was a story that was a sequel to The Collectors, and once again, it showed Chance’s willingness to put his life at risk in order to help his friends and to right a wrong.

The second storyline had to do with the ICE arrest of Dr. Lyla Abda. She was born in Syria where she overcame the most difficult circumstances at home in her country and win scholarships to a university. Her successful scholarship next won her admission to a medical school in London. After medical school, she began working on various projects to feed impoverished and malnourished refugees in various locations in the world. She ended up writing a paper about malnourishment that was published in a medical journal. She was then invited to do research on that subject at Yale. Based on the misinterpretation of that research paper, in the US, she was charged as being a terrorist. When she was ordered to be released from custody, the government shipped her off to a notorious prison in El Salvadore. Chance took on that case which ended up leading to him getting shot in the chest while delivering a public challenge to the ICE operation. He barely survived. You’ll have to read the book to learn about the resolution of this matter.

The third story line was the continuation of Chance’s troubled personal life. He had a relationship with Sally that he was very certain would lead to marriage. As a younger woman, Sally had a daughter via IVF from a sperm donor. The pregnancy resulted in the birth of Melody who turned out to be a bright and talented student and athlete. Chance loved both Sally and Melody. When Melody was in high school, they investigated who the sperm donor might have been and learned that it was a man named James, a pro tennis player who had briefly played on the pro circuit, but who had retired to become a tennis teacher. He then became Melody’s coach, and she loved the attention of both men. James became a part of the family, and Chance felt quite threatened by is love for the two women. But James had a serious and eventually fatal diagnosis of cancer, and Sally decided that the father of her child deserved to have a true family experience with what a short life he had left, and she agreed to marry him. Chance was incredibly wounded by the experience, and he exited himself from the family although his live for Sally and Melody was unchanged. As James’ disease progressed to its fatal conclusion, Melody became severely depressed and withdrawn from school and her tennis activities. The resolution of those problems was most touching and brought this novel to an end.

I enjoyed the author’s three stories, and I look forward to see what will happen with Chance’s personal life, as well as learning what important social issues he chooses to write about.

Buy this book.

The Collectors

The Collectors by Richard A. Danzig is the third book in the third book in the Chance Cormac legal thriller series. However, it’s the first Danzig book to be reviewed in this blog. This is a good crime novel with one exception, but it’s a story that’s worth filling your entertainment time. There are a three main story lines with some excellent subplots.

 

Chance, an attorney whose practice is in Brooklyn, is hired to investigate whether a multimillion dollar painting that was purchased through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, could be a forgery. The Met is the largest museum in the U.S., which is located in Central Park, and it’s security systems are clearly state of the art, and no such theft had ever occurred in the long history of this museum. But quickly, it becomes apparent that Chance’s new client is not fully cooperating with the investigation for reasons that are not clear. At the same time the reader is learning about Chance and this new case, we learn that the man who had been working for him as an investigator, Damian, had given up such work to move to a new life in Costa Rica where he eventually teamed up with two old buddies, all former Navy SEALS. It was Troy who owned the surf shop, where he employed JR and Damian. They were all burned out on the high stress of their former jobs and were just looking to have a good life in paradise without much more to worry about than the size of the waves each morning.

 

It was during his morning run on the beach that Damian found a body of a man who had obviously been shot and killed. He called JR to help him deal with the matter and they promptly called the local policeman to report it. However, it turned out that Sergeant Rios was corrupt, and he decided to frame Damian and JR for the murder. Rather than take them to the local jail, he sent them to a remote prison that was only for convicted felons. It was a prison that was actually run by a corrupt warden and was controlled by dangerous gangs. Despite their training and SEALS, Damian and JR were helpless to deal with the gangs. Damian was beaten within an inch of his life and JR was beaten to death. Of course, Chance was contacted to help rescue Damian.

 

Danzig introduced a third story line of a man who had grown up in Costa Rican poverty. His parents owned and lived in a bodega in San Jose. They were honest and hardworking people and their son, Alejandro Renata was devoted to them. He was also a gifted student who won scholarships to college in San Jose, and then a scholarship to Johns Hopkins for medical school. Renata excelled at his efforts and quickly made his way into the world of organ transplants. His successes and research brought him tremendous wealth. He worked hard and loved his life, but he also fiercely protected his own territory of transplant research, much as his father had protected his bodega in San Jose. When his aging father needed a heart transplant, Renata used his worldwide influence to find a suitable heart from a donor in Argentina. However, the plan fell through and led to his father’s death. Renata was enraged and rather than continue in his lucrative work in London, he moved to Costa Rica where he built his own elite hospital that specialized in treating elite and wealthy people who needed transplants. As a result, he became more wealthy than ever.

 

It was Danzig’s pulling the seemingly diverse stories together that was the plot of this book. It was entertaining, and I very much liked his development of the characters. Chance’s personal life was compelling, and his hiring of a new investigator, Wendell Holmes brought a new fascinating man to the drama. I thought the only weak part of the story was the transition of Dr. Renata from being a internationally renowned surgeon into a sociopath who was engaged in black market dealings to get the organs he need his super rich patients. I think this book falls into my class of airplane novels, something that would successfully distract me while taking a cross-country air flight. I can see picking up one of his earlier novels for just such a trip.