Freedom of the Mask by Robert McCammon

From the author at the top of my power rotation. This is #6 in his Matthew Corbett series. Remember now, this series takes place in the early 1700s

At the end of River of Souls, Matthew Corbett was living way back in the swamps of South Carolina outside of Charles Town. He lives with a bit of a deranged woman who has mistaken Matthew for her husband. Various fights and battles have left Matthew with a less than stellar memory. He is being pursued by a Prussian count named Dahlgren who knows that the head of a massive English criminal network, the infamous Professor Fell, will reward him richly by delivering Matthew.

He kidnaps Matthew and books passage on a less than sea-worthy ship that barely survives a massive storm. During the storm, Matthew’s memory returns, realizes he is in a bad situation, and manages to escape Dahlgren’s clutches that results in Dahlgren’s death. The other passengers are appalled and turn Matthew over to authorities when they land in England. This places Matthew in the English criminal justice system where he spends excessive time in jails and prisons of increasing disparity.

Matthew’s mentor back in New York City, Hudson Greathouse, travels to South Carolina in search of Matthew. Finally learning Matthew is in transit to England, returns to New York to prepare for his own Atlantic crossing. The girl Matthew broke up with, to protect her from becoming a pawn in the Corbett vs. Fell battle, forces her way into Greathouse’s plans by joining his trip.

London streets are controlled by gangs who deal in White Velvet (gin infused with an addictive substance, supplied by Professor Fell’s personal chemist). But the gangs fear a masked vigilante named Albion who kills key members of the gangs in an attempt to break up their grip on the populace.

Fell knows Matthew is in England and executes a plan that will bring Matthew to him. But Fell has people within his own empire trying to topple Fell and take over.

That has been a pitiful attempt at presenting McCammon’s complex story. NYC . . .SC . . . surviving a hurricane . . . jail . . . prison . . . the court system . . . vigilantes . . . gangs . . . Mother Deare . . . drugs . . . week long transits by carriage . . . a fortified town . . . a naval bombardment . . . drugged compatriots . . . climbing in bed with the devil to save loved ones . . . dental ‘work’ . . . murder . . . mass murder . . . pistol/rifle/knife/sword play . . .

McCammon writes big stories and this is no exception, coming in at just under 600 pages. But as with every single book of his, length in never an issue. Upon reaching the last page, I still wanted more, but will have to wait a while to continue following Matthew’s travails.

If this stimulates anyone to consider this series, I strongly suggest starting at the beginning with Speaks the Nightbird. Matthew’s journey is so convoluted, detailed, and eloquently presented that it would be a mistake to jump anywhere else.

Available May 2016

Mine by Robert McCammon

Early 1970’s. Symbionese Liberation Army. Weather Underground. Storm Front. Domestic terror groups are at war against ‘the man’. Bombs, murder, arson are their tools in an attempt to keep up the movement. The eight core members of the Storm Front are cornered in a NJ apartment building. The resulting firefight leaves four dead and numerous cops and FBI either dead or on medical disability. Lord Jack, Mary Terror (pregnant with Jack’s child), DeDe, and John escape and go to ground in separate directions. “Nobody cared much about the Movement anymore. It was a dry and dusty thing, like the air in the graves or Hendrix and Joplin and God.” Her God - Jim Morrison.

Late 80’s. Mary Terrell has been a fugitive, living mostly in squalor doing menial jobs. “The clock of the Age of Aquarius had turned, hippies and yippies had become preppies and yuppies. The Chicago 7 were old men. The Black Panthers’ had turned gray. The Grateful Dead were the darlings of MTV.” Mary’s working in a Burger King near Atlanta. She still mourns the death of the Storm Front and the movement . . . and her lost child. Years of drugs and no doubt some PTSD have taken their toll on Mary. She lives a fantasy in her shabby apartment with a doll. Make that dolls. When the baby cries on, Mary tips over the edge of sanity to teach her child a lesson, usually with fire, a knife, or the burner on the stove. She has a closet full of mutilated dolls.

On a foray for supplies, her paranoia forces her to duck behind a copy of Rolling Stone magazine (now just another tool of 'the mindfuck state'). She sees a personal ad calling for true believers to meet at the weeping lady on February 18 at 2pm. That was Lord Jack’s name for the Statue of Liberty. He’s calling on the remaining Strom Front to meet, to take up the fight again.

But the last time she saw Lord Jack, she was carrying his baby. He’ll want to know. Mary’s diseased mind works out a plan. Find the right hospital, case it out, dress like a nurse who is really “a six-foot time bomb ticking steadily toward explosion” and steal a newborn, a baby she “’can call mine,’ to give to Jack for them to raise and resurrect a new Storm Front.

The baby she steals belongs to Laura Clayborne. Affluent, nice house, cars, clothers, job. Even gets to review books for the Atlanta Constitution, like her current task, Burn This Book, by a hippie who has stayed loyal to his beliefs. Laura really has everything she needs, except a faithful husband who’s been in an affair for the last 4 months of her pregnancy. Screw Doug. She has her baby, David. that she ‘can call mine.’  But just like that, this big nurse snatches David.

The police, FBI, and national media are all over the kidnapping. They track back to Mary’s apartment and find the tortured dolls, and 3 dead bodies. National news. Mary Terror has resurfaced and the entire country is seeing Mary Terror’s face everywhere, including by one of the FBI agents she thought she’d killed back at the firefight.  Over the next week, she works her way to Jersey, to the Statue of Liberty.

What she finds in not Lord Jack. DeDe and John show up. And for different reasons.

Laura remembers the author of Burn This Book mentioned having met one of the surviving Storm Front, DeDe. So she and her stitches hauls up to Chattanooga to find out where DeDe might be. From these 3 directions – Mary/DeDe/John, Laura, and the disfigured FBI agent – all converge at DeDe’s small home outside Ann Arbor.

Jack’s alive. Living in northern California, near the old safe house where the Storm Front was born so long ago. Mary and the baby, Drummer, are tracked by Laura and DeDe (who wants to help save the baby, the hell with Mary, she’s nuts), and the FBI agent. Less a chase and more a journey to get to a known destination hopefully before Mary arrives.

I read this 1990 copyright a couple years after it was just published. I had picked up McCammon’s ‘Gone South’ on a lark and was intrigued. The library had ‘Mine’, so I picked it up. Couldn’t have been any more different from Gone South. A wacked out 60’s radical, a kidnapping, a silver spoon girl, and a cross-country chase. And throw in a high body count. A few months ago, the Kindle store had this for free (kudos to being on McCammon’s mailing list via his website) so I jumped at it.

While I remembered the gist of the story, I had forgotten just how far gone Mary Terror was. Or the single-minded obsession of Laura. Or Mary’s viciousness when her mind flipped.

In the late 90’s, director/writer Frank Darabont (screenplay and director for Shawshank, and The Green Mile) wrote a screenplay for Mine, but to date, no studio has picked it up. Which is crazy because we get hammered about the lack of leading roles for women. Ok, so it’s violent. But this is a book with women in all lead and supporting roles. What more do they want? I don’t get it.

I wouldn’t call this book of redemption ‘entertaining’ because of its dark subject matter. But, like all of McCammon’s books, it is highly readable and grabs you by the throat daring you to put it down. McCammon doesn't sit at the top of my power rotation for nothing. 

So, the Storm Front is dead. Today, it lives on as the pre and post game radio show for the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL. What has life come to? 

ECD

The River of Souls by Robert McCammon

Part 5 in the Matthew Corbett series.

For the uninitiated, Matthew Corbett is a 'problem solver' in the pre-Revolutionary America, in the early 18th century. Matthew's story begins in the 1690s when, as a teenager, he was an aid to a traveling magistrate sent to determine whether a woman being held in the jail of a coastal North Carolina town was a witch (Speaks the Nightbird). He then migrates to New York and begins to work learning the trade of a problem solver. An early assignment has the agency investigating the murder of a prominent doctor and other businessman when he discovers a link to an amnesiac patient in a Pennsylvania asylum (The Queen of Bedlam). Next up, the Herrald Agency is tasked with escorting a mass murderer from where is being held to a ship for transport to London (Mr. Slaughter). The man pulling the evil strings in the background, Professor Fell, yanks Matthew out of New York to a Caribbean island for an epic confrontation (The Providence Rider).

Matthew's love life is in a quandary. His mentor, Hudson Greathouse, suggests an easy assignment out of town would be good for him. Reluctantly, Matthew agrees and boards a ship headed south for Charles Town, SC where he is to escort a lovely to the society ball. Seems the girl is so beautiful that the local guys are afraid to ask her out. At the ball, the beastly gorilla of a man, Magnus Muldoon, challenges Matthew to a duel for the honor of the lovely Pandora Prisskitt.

The highly entertaining duel leaves both standing, but Matthew thinks he needs to learn more about this "monstrous mountain" and ventures off to find this violent recluse. On his way, he comes across the Kincannon plantation and their sweet daughter Sarah. While trying to help/befriend Magnus, the warning bell from the plantation rings and both rush to see how they might help only to find that Sarah has been brutally stabbed behind the barn. The slave Abram, his father and brother have fled firmly convincing all of Abram's guilt. They grab a boat and head up the Ashley River to where it becomes known locally as the River of Souls because people who go up, don't generally return.

A ragtag group of ruffians, drunk on the possibility of reward money, head up river after the three terrified slaves (this is where I could go into some of the challenges the slaves and posse encounter, but that would just destroy your fun).

OK. I admit it. McCammon sits at the very top of my power rotation. Part of what I enjoy is McCammon's command of descriptive prose. In my review of McCammon's OUTSTANDING Boy's Life (you really do need to read that one) I offered what I thought were some memorable lines. I'll do it again here:

- consider the old slave Granny Pegg who was "as slim as a shadow."
- one of the posse chasing the fleeing slaves "had a sharp-nosed, gaunt face as forbidding as three miles of bad road."
- the town in the swamps of the River where even, "God kept His distance from this accursed place."
- a young girl, who mistakes Matthew for her dead husband, describes her mom as one who "liked her drink strong and her men wild. A few years ago she got full of one and ran off with the other."
- when a wild fire threatens everyone in its path, "the sky above remained as dark as a witch's dream."
- after days in the wilderness, Matthew's "shoulders sagged and even the stubble on his face felt heavy."
- and finally, the River itself, "leads on and on, but it don't take you nowhere. . . you just get more lost." But when you are on the river, "where do you go, when there ain't nowhere?"

In most continuing series I have read (e.g., Jack Reacher), you can jump in most anywhere and you could do that also with the Corbett series, but for maximum reading fun, I'd suggest starting with Speaks the Nightbird and go in order. Be warned, Nightbird is quite a long tale and the next 3 are marginally shorter. River of Souls is, by comparison, almost a novella by McCammon's usual standards. But beware. These are violent stories with a high body count with vivid portrayals of the next victim's unfortunate demise, but please don't let that keep you from choosing this series. This,  and most of McCammon's work, really is worth it - give him a chance.

available at Amazon.com

East Coast Don

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon

MRB friend Charlie Stella says he makes it a point to regularly go back and reread Eddie Coyle, the book that started him on his path as a writer. Honestly, I could never see the point of reading a book I've already read. Think I might have been a touch premature in that conclusion. I read Boy's Life (copyright 1991) back in the mid 90s after having read one or two other books by McCammon. It wasn't a NYTimes best seller for nothing. 

It's March 1964 in Zephyr, a small town in southern Alabama. Cory Mackenson is 12yo with a close core of 3 or 4 buddies. Cory's dad Tom delivers milk and is taking Cory on his route. Off route 10, they drive by Saxon Lake, considered bottomless by the locals. A car speeds out from a side drive, crossing their path on its inalterable path to the lake. Tom dives in to see a sight that will haunt him for the next year. The driver is naked and dead. Strangled with a piano wire so tightly that the driver's head is dang near separated from its body. And the driver is handcuffed to the steering wheel. Strange tattoo on his shoulder and the guy is unrecognizable. An investigation by the sheriff finds no one missing. The lake is bottomless, so there is no body. The investigation stalls, but Tom has recurring nightmares that the deceased wants him to join him at the bottom of Saxon Lake.

That's the story arc that serves as the unifying thread throughout the book. The other story line is a year in a Cory's life. Four sections - 1/season, sort of. Then multiple chapters per section, 1/month, sort of. Each chapter is almost a standalone short story - like Easter Sunday, the loss of a bike, the boy's first camping trip, Biggin Blaylock and his sons, bullies Gordo and Gotha Branlin, Old Moses, the redheaded, nose picking Demon, the annual carnival . . .

. . . and most importantly, The Lady. Zephyr was no different than countless southern towns in that it was two towns, the other being Bruton, the colored side of town. The town matriarch is the century-old Lady and most of the whites are scared of her. The river floods in the spring and both towns mobilize to hold back the water. Cory and his mom help an old black resident and a young boy. Later, the Lady wants to meet Cory and his mom to show her appreciation - and surprisingly asks about his dad and his nightmares. Turns out the dead man is reaching out and Tom and The Lady are receiving (or intercepting) the victim's call. She wants to talk to Tom, but he is scared and refuses to meet her. Then there is Lucifer and an escaped carnival monster.

OK, Tom eventually meets the Lady. The county bad guys meet their match. The crime gets solved. That's not the point. McCammon calls this book a fictography - fiction with lots of autobiographical accounts. Which are real and which sprouted up from McCammom's fertile imagination? I don't care. It's all in the storytelling and this is storytelling at it's undeniable best and what makes McCammon one of my favorite authors.

We see what Cory loses over the year; a bike, a dog, a teacher, his dad's job . . . to say we see Cory lose his innocence would be trite. We also see what he gains; the Lady's respect, his classmate's respect following a memorable outburst, and he learns to "Get Around Round Round I Get Around" courtesy of The Beach Boys and didn't everyone have a Grandpa Jaybird? Upon seeing a dream girl, Cory realizes that "If I would've had a tail, I would've wagged it."

And some lines that stuck with me . . .
"Sheer terror has no voice."
or something being "as slow as a toothache"
or "I think I could hear my hair growing."
"If my father was watching a baseball game, he would be agreeable to flossing his teeth with barbed wire."
"She was as thin as a shadow and just as dark." (regarding The Lady)
"one sorry thing about being a kid is that grown-ups listen to you with half an ear" (don't even tell me you didn't feel the same thing as a kid)
or learning of something that "opened up a space in my mind that I'd never known needed light."
a summer day so hot "that if a dog went running, its shadow dropped down to rest."
wondering, "if black people occupied the same heaven as white people, what was the point of eating in different cafes?"
after a playground brawl, the resulting set of stitches looked like they were sewn in "by a cross-eyed medical student with a severe case of hiccups."

and a few lines that sort of summarize things: "It's crazy the things a boy can imagine" because, as a teacher  told Cory, "No one ever grows up" and then Cory realizing that he "wasn't as grown-up today as I thought I was yesterday."

As a grown-up, Cory, now a published writer, comes back to Zephyr with his wife and daughter and sees a vision of his dad on the front porch of his boyhood home asking, "I did all right, didn't I?"

Yeah. Robert McCammon, you sure did all right. You've helped all of us who have grown far too old remember what made being a child so terrifying and wonderful and hating with all our being that we have - make that had to - grow up.

Mr. Stella? I think I'm going to follow your lead and venture back to Zephyr again when I'm feeling far too old and in need of a refresher course on life as we once knew it.

East Coast Don

The Hunter From The Woods by Robert McCammon

My favorite (pre-Matthew Corbett) books by Robert McCammon are Mine (Hollywood bemoans the lack of stories with strong female leads. They must be blind. This one is the ticket), Boy's Life (absolutely outstanding story of a year in the life of a 12yo boy in rural Alabama. If you read nothing else, read this) and The Wolf's Hour that tells of Mikhail Gallantinov's upbringing by wolves in the Russian forest (after the Russian revolution took his parents) and then his life as Michael Gallatin, British OSS agent during WWII.  According to McCammon's website, Gallatin is one of his favorite characters. This book is a collection of short stories about various stages in Gallatin's life.

So, I goofed right off the bat. I read one review that said the stories were uneven and for some reason, I took that to mean the Gallatin stories were good, but the others were not about Gallatin and thus were  less enthralling. So, assuming that the short stories were not tightly connected, I flipped from chapter to chapter to see which ones were opened with Gallatin and read those first. Then I went back to the first story and learned quickly that all the stories were about Gallantinov/Gallatin. Oh, well. The stories are presented chronologic and there are occasional references to earlier escapades, but each really is a standalone story, so no harm no foul. I'll just relate the overall topic of each.  Any deeper might spoil a fun ride.

1. The Great White Way: Teenage Michael is working as a stable hand for a traveling Russian circus and helps out the wife of the circus strongman/wrestler.

2. The Man From London: British Colonel in what is to become the OSS hears of the amazing teenager living, under the protection of the local cop and the citizenry, in a depressed area of Russia. Colonel finds the boy and tries to recruit him to be a part of a new order; to become a man of the world. Colonel sees Michael's secret. It's true. This kid is special. He has a gift.

3. Sea Chase: Michael's been trained and is ready for an assignment. He is to accompany a German weapons expert (and family) on a freighter voyage from Poland to England and make sure they arrive safely. Thing is, the Nazi's don't want their expert to leave and put a warship on the chase.

4. The Wolf and The Eagle: Michael in on assignment in North Africa and being transported by airplane and fighter escorts when German Luftwaffe attack. Numerous planes are shot down over the desert. Two survivors are Gallatin (The Wolf) and German ace Rolfe Gantt (The Eagle). They forge an uneasy partnership to survive the desert on foot.

5. The Room At The Bottom Of The Stairs: There is a group of German's working against Hitler from the inside. Call themselves the Inner Ring. But someone is taking them out one by one. Michael is tasked with keeping a eye on Franziska Luxe, a photographer who is suspected of supplying information about the Inner Ring to the Germans and Michael has to verify her role.

6. Death of A Hunter: It's the 1950's. Michael is becoming an old man, pushed out of the OSS by a new wave of operatives. He is scarred by wars and battles, living his life out in rural Wales with his memories, important trinkets from his past, curiosity about a lost son. He wonders about just how a hunter dies; probably as the hunted. Question is not are the hunters coming, but does he have one last hunt left in him?

Gallatin has a very unique trait. At will, he can transform into a wolf; handy trick to have when the Gestapo have you tied up naked and are torturing you and your girlfriend. You can transform and turn a torture squad of the Master Race into the Marx brothers (McCammon's line, not mine. I'm not that creative). The torture description will     a b s o l u t e l y   curl your hair. As will most other descriptions of the wolf's responses to his enemies. Our hero fights to keep his lycanthrope alter ego contained as it's almost always snarling just below the surface, itching to get out and into the game.

Like I've said before in each McCammon review - ECD is a McCammon fan. And to come back to further tales of a favorite character is comforting, even if the character has a tendency to rip out the bad guy's throat, leave entrails in the mud, and rivers of blood flowing. A wild ride. McCammon's done right by bringing Gallatin back. Sadly, I'm betting it's the last we see of The Wolf.

East Coast Don

The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon

Want full disclosure? scroll down to Mystery Walk.

Installment IV about Matthew Corbett, Problem Solver for the Herrald Agency of New York City, 1703 shortly after the conclusion of the Tyranthus Slaughter affair.

Matthew has been keeping the details of the Slaughter affair mostly to himself; the horrors are still very fresh in his memory. And remember, Professor Fell put a contract out on Matthew at the end of Mr. Slaughter cuz Matthew has foiled more than one of Fell's plans . But he's trying to come out of his funk by enjoying dances at Sally Almond's place and the attention of young Berry Grigsby.

Two Manhattan businesses are blown up and Matthew Corbett's name is scribbled on the walls. It's an invitation. By way of Sirki, Professor Fell's personal liason and executioner, Matthew is being summoned by Fell; Matthew is resourceful and has garnered Fell's admiration despite having bested Fell in the Slaughter affair. Fell, as head of a burgeoning crime syndicate, is sure he has a traitor amongst his chief lieutenants and who better to solve his little problem than a proven problem solver?

Some none too gentle arm twisting encourages Matthew to join Sirki on the ocean-going Nightflyer destined for warmer climes, and who thinks Matthew needs some help than sweet Berry and Zed, the fearsome African Ga warrior freed at the end of Mr. Slaughter. A 3-week voyage takes them to Pendulum, the private island domain of Professor Fell where a meeting of Fell's chief deputies is to take place.

Fell is an enigmatic crime boss who hides his identity under some creative and bizarre disguises. He makes Matthew a pretty good offer that he better not refuse: Find the traitor and be handsomely rewarded and returned safely to Manhattan. Fail, and the implication is that Matthew and his friends will never leave the island alive. To gain access, Matthew is given an alias and a history so that he can move amongst the deputies who represent weapons, finance, extortion, forgery, poisons, and murder. Add to this an Indian woman named Fancy whom Matthew thinks is connected to the Iroquois that died saving Matthew during the Slaughter affair making her another soul for Matthew to save in his own plot to find the traitor, destroy Fell's plans and his lair, and escape back to Manhattan with Berry, Zed, and Fancy.

I saw one review refer to Matthew as sort of a colonial James Bond and I thought that was a pretty apt analogy. Drop the hero in the middle of an impossible task in an exotic location against a megalomanic who wants to unleash an apocalyptic weapon at considerable profit. While the plot may look like something Bond might conquer, it's McCammon's presentation that is the real star here. His elegant and articulate prose takes us to an unfamiliar time and place to present a difficult challenge that gets solved with extreme prejudice, and without compromise or leaps of faith. Matthew Corbett is an engaging character with much to admire, but we do find fault with as he struggles with his own temptations and demons, much of which are Fell's doing, As stated, this is the 4th Corbett book. While it might help to read these in order, one really could pick these up in any order as enough links to past adventures (mostly to Mr. Slaughter) are presented. Enough clues are scattered about to make Corbett fans eager for the next installment.

With each new McCammon book, I am continually amazed at the author's skill and creativity. For me, this was an exquisite construction and recreation of crime, mystery, and adventure in colonial America. Man, am I ever glad I picked up Gone South from the library way back in 1992.

Mystery Walk by Robert McCammon

Where full disclosure is warranted, I will . . . McCammon is one of my top 2 or 3 favorite authors and I am unlikely to find fault with anything he produces.

A couple weeks ago, McCammon’s website noted that Mystery Walk (copyright 1983) for the Kindle was on sale for something like $2 through Amazon. Having won a silent auction of beach supplies, including a Kindle, I decided this might be a good title for my first experience at using an eReader.

Mystery Walk follows two markedly different boys over about 10 years, mostly in rural northern Alabama in the 1960s.  Billy Creekmore is the son of a local resident of Hawthorne and his wife, a Choctaw Indian. Ramona comes from a lineage of healers whose special gift is to absorb the pain of people who died suddenly so that their spirit can transition to the next world. The spirit of a person who is unprepared for death lingers on earth in search of help. When a disturbed vet kills his family and himself, the town shuns the street of the death house. All the bodies were found except the son. One afternoon, young Billy is walking home from school and is strangely drawn to the house, then into the kill rooms, and finally to the basement where he sees a revenant trying to crawl out from under a pile of coal. Billy stays a second and then dashes out, terrified after seeing what he thought was his friend.

From this first experience with the dead, and the fear that surrounds the town, Billy and his mom head off to see his grandmother for his first introduction in his unique gifts and learn more about what he will face – his Mystery Walk.

JJ Falconer runs perhaps the most successful evangelical crusade in the south. When young Wayne was about 8 or so, a car critically mangled his dog. Little Wayne ran out and scooped up his dog, hugging it close and praying for God to help his dog. Within minutes, the dog’s injuries are lessening and the dog begins to recover. Witnessing this miracle, JJ realizes Little Wayne Falconer has the healing gift and starts to promote him as part of his crusade.

At a tent revival near Hawthorne, the paths of Billy and Wayne cross for the first time. Billy sees the black mist around a couple of locals even after being told by Little Wayne that they had been healed; the black mist indicates imminent death. Ramona has seen the mist too and shouts out that by telling people to stop with their meds, that the crusade was promoting murder. Needless to say, Ramona is now a pariah amongst the Hawthorn locals who live for the Crusade.

JJ is convinced that Ramona and her son are evil doing Satan’s work and does everything he can to keep Little Wayne safe. Billy is just trying to figure himself out.

From here, the story follows Wayne and Billy (Billy mostly) throughout their teen years. Wayne is healing and Billy is helping spirits of the suddenly dead move on. But each sees a similar dream of an eagle in mortal combat with a snake of fire. And Billy encounters the mysterious shape changer tempting him as he wanders his personal wilderness.

JJ dies and Wayne is guilt-ridden that he was unable to heal his father. Wayne is now in charge of a multimillion dollar enterprise, and no where mature enough to be the head. In his nightmares, JJ comes to Wayne, telling him that the Indian bitch and her son must burn in the fires of hell for Wayne to be free.

Wayne catches the eye of a Palm Springs-based financier who makes Howie Mandel’s germophobia behavior look like a mild tic. The obese Jabba the Hut wannabe becomes Wayne’s defacto father-Svengali figure, keeping him drugged and confined to be a personal healer to the mogul. To win Wayne’s devotion, and sort of fulfill the wishes of JJ’s ghost, our corporate raider tasks his people to (1) take over the crusade and (2) get rid of Wayne’s tormentors.

This classic battle of good vs. evil expertly combines Indian mysticism with religion and images of the devil vs. spirit of all that breathes. It also explores nature vs. nurture in the paths taken, and thrust upon, Billy and Wayne as each takes their own version of a Mystery Walk. Not the typical good guys vs. the bad guys, life is black and white in a gray world, pile up the bodies and don’t look back kind of fare so typical of MRB. While some of our favs have a real knack for clever, witty, dialogue amongst the characters (e.g., Stella, Higgins, Bruen, Crais, Connelly, Pelecanos, et al.), McCammon’s eloquent prose presents a lyrical image that unfolds akin to looking at a detailed, but not overpowering painting or photograph. Because of the genre of his earlier works (supernatural thrillers), he was unfairly compared to Stephen King, but never acquired King’s mass-market appeal. With all the fascination with vampires and the undead today, one would think folks would discover They Thirst, Swan Song, or maybe Stinger or The Wolf’s Hour. For me, McCammon presents skillful writing and escape at its best at every opportunity. And it only gets better in his Matthew Corbett series set in the early 1700’s New York, where I currently explore via my Kindle.

East Coast Don

The Five by Robert McCammon

You see it on the back of any music CD (in about size 2 font):

Nomad - vocals, guitar

Ariel - vocals, guitar

Terry - keyboards

Berke - drums

Mike - bass

George - road manager

The band. Five musicians with a logical name. On tour starting in Texas, then westward to San Diego, ELay, and finishing back in Austin. Playing their music on the fringes of the music biz.

But it looks like they are breaking up. George has been asked to go into business back home in Chicago in his cousin's audio supply and setup shop. Terry wants to go home to Oklahoma and repair vintage keyboard equipment. The rest? They just want to rock. Nomad wants to kill this waitress (Hi, my name is Laura and I'll be your server) because she's asking too many lame brained questions about the band, telling them that her daughter is terrific on her guitar. Yeah, right. Who cares? We're outta here. Pile in the Scumbucket, their van, and drive to the next gig in Amarillo? Waco? George'll get us there in time for this lame interview by a car salesman (GoGo) to use on this weekend movie show on cable he sponsors. GoGo's advice? Know your role. Bite me. Back in the Scumbucket. PO'ed Nomad suggests they all write a song, one last ditty as a group. Some take it more seriously than others. Nomad's the least committed.

Rolling across the desert, something sets Nomad off and he jumps out and wanders down a dirt path that ends up leading to what appears to be a blackberry farm. The pickers are gathering for lunch and get fresh cold water from what appears to be a young teenaged girl. Each worker seems genuinely touched after a few words or a hug from this girl. She says to Mike, "Welcome." and he thinks she really means it; not some meaningless tossed off phrase. "Welcome."

Some no name Texas dirt town is home to Jeremy Pett, ex-marine, ex-father and ex-husband (courtesy of a runaway truck), no mission, no purpose, carrying the guilt of a mission in Iraq. He was a sniper; good one, too. His target one day was described in detail to him and his spotter (whom he'd save later during a no-win shootout, earning him a silver star). The target was transporting IED supplies. See him. Kill him. Bring back a piece of clothing as proof. He was told everything except one minor detail. The target was maybe 12 years old. Back home, suffocated by guilt and preparing his suicide, he hears this loser rock musician on TV damning the Iraq war and the baby killers wearing the colors of the USA. That punk has no clue. But Sgt. Pett now has a mission. Atone for that kid by killing that jerk wad musician. Goes by what? Nomad? He's dead, that's what he is.

Sweetwater, TX. Mike is gunned down at a gas station by a long range shot. Yeah, they have a tour to finish. Near Tucson, George is shot twice and lands up in the ICU. The FBI is called in and travels with them (his monikor? Tru). Now they are national news. At the Stone Church festival, they are introduced as "The band that won't die". CD's, t-shirts, iTunes. all selling like mad. Whack jobs are coming out of the woodwork itching to pull a trigger.

They make the turn to come back east. Terry has made contact with a reclusive keyboardist from the 70's and wants to stop in and see this guy in his box canyon shack/studio/keyboard heaven. FBI guy is nervous, wants to get moving. They are too exposed, but Terry pleas for some more time. Nomad flips (again) and goes outside followed by the fibbie. One shot hits Tru in the elbow. Next shot mortally wounds Terry. The voices in Sgt. Pett's head say "kill the hippie girl" (Ariel), but when cornered, Ariel willingly reaches out to Pett asking him to take her, but spare her friends.

The last show of "The Band that won't die" in Austin is free to anyone wearing the band's t-shirt. The final song is the one Nomad said they should all have a hand in. One performance, no CD, no encore. One time.

I've said it before. McCammon is one of my very favorite authors and I've read them all (except 2 early books). Stephen King said this is McCammon's best ever and who am I to quibble with Stephen King. I wanted to post a few quotes, but when I finished the book and looked back, I must've folded down the corners of probably 50 pages. Your loss. This incredible book about loss and shared and individual sacrifice is beyond compare. Pick it up and be prepared to be mesmerized by McCammon's eloquent and artistic prose. God, this guy is good. Thank goodness I won't have to wait long for his next as The Providence Rider (part 4 in his Matthew Corbett series set in the early 1700's) is due for release in the spring.

"So welcome to the world, and everything that's in it.

It'd be a poor world, described in just four minutes.

You got to get out there

and see what's in it

don't let life make you crazy.

I wish you safe travel . . . courage . . . you can find it.

Try and try, grow and thrive

Because no one here gets out alive"

At that last show, hearing that last song live, is a young girl, suffering with anorexia after her father's death. Touched by the song, she picks up her guitar the next morning for the first time since her father died, eats breakfast and reminds her mom to wear her "Hi, I'm Laura and I'll be your server" badge to work.

East Coast Don

Mr. Slaughter by Robert McCammon

New York, 1702. This is the continuing tale of Matthew Corbett. In part 1 (Speaks the Nightbird), Matthew was a magistrate's apprentice in coastal North Carolina where he was helping investigate a woman charged with witchcraft. Part 2 (The Queen of Bedlam), Matthew has joined the New York office of the London-based Herrald Agency of problem-solvers and a key clue in his investigation of a street killer in NYC takes him to an asylum on the road to Philadelphia. In the background is the mysterious Professor Fell pulling strings. In part 3, Matthew and his mentor, Hudson Greathouse, have been hired for what should be a simple prisoner transfer, from that same asylum to the New York docks where the prisoner, Tyranthus Slaughter, is to be taken back to England to stand trial as a serial killer.

(full disclosure here: I am a committed fan of Robert McCammon. Having read most all of his titles, I can honestly say there were only 2 out of the 15 that I have read that were not absolutely top drawer, first rate thrillers. I was enthralled by Nightbird and was riveted by Bedlam, so it was highly probable that I would find Slaughter to be damn near perfection. So there.)

Two bits of backstory first. 1. Over a breakfast of delicious, spicy sausages from Philadelphia, Greathouse tells Matthew that he wants to free Zed, a powerful African warrior now a slave working for the local coroner, but he doesn't have the money. 2. Matthew, still stung by some failures during "Bedlam" goes back to an abandoned shell of a house and uncovers a large sum of money, which he agonizes over whether to keep it and raise his standard of living or tell Greathouse and use it to buy Zed's freedom.

Slaughter is evil in the flesh, so evil that Matthew wonders how God could allow such a man to exist. He is accused of multiple murders in England and the Colonies. Once Greathouse and Matthew take possession and start the trip back to New York, Slaughter (make that Mr. Slaughter as he wishes to be addressed not as a commoner) makes them an offer that tempts both Greathouse and Matthew. In his former life as a highwayman, Slaughter stashed away a large sum of money and offers it in exchange for his freedom. Greathouse sees it as a way to buy Zed's freedom, but Matthew is more cautious as he still has not told his partner about the money he'd found earlier. It's a decision that plays on Matthew's guilt throughout the book as he is absolutely convinced that all that followed was because of his own selfishness.

Along the detour deep into the Pennsylvania woods, they take refuge in a dying town with the survivors of a fever that killed the town: the aging pastor, an orphaned boy and his dog. As they travel on, Mr. Slaughter continues to play with Greathouse's mind and when they finally come to the treasure, it is booby trapped, critically injuring Greathouse, stranding the two in a well, and Mr. Slaughter escapes. With the aid of some local Seneca Indians, the two are rescued, but only Matthew is able to strike out in pursuit. The first thing to confront Matthew is the vicious murder of the paster and the dog, leaving the 12yo boy devastated.

The tale keeps Matthew chasing down Mr. Slaughter from one butchered family to the next. With the aid of a young Indian who has frightening nightmares because he has seen the future, they close in on Mr. Slaughter only to be turned back time and again by this master killer. At almost each confrontation, a mysterious shadow seems to surface, saving Matthew to fight again (and have mercy, are these fights graphically displayed by McCammon).

Upon reaching Philadelphia, Matthew tracks a few clues through a local inventor to a home for the aged to a brothel to a cemetery that places Mr. Slaughter in the company of the woman who makes those wonderful sausages. Mr. Slaughter is given an assignment by Professor Fell (!) to kill Matthew's former magistrate-mentor in North Carolina. So now, Matthew much get there first to catch the killer and protect his friend.

In the end, Matthew discovers that his name is on the list of accounts that this Professor Fell wants settled. Seems Mr. Slaughter is not just a soulless killer, he is also a killer for hire and has been doing this Professor Fell's biding for years.

Guessing that our next taste of Matthew Corbett's world will be a direct attempt at uncovering the identify of this Professor Fell.

For me, reading fiction is an escape into the creative mind of the author. As a writer of non-fiction, I am always impressed by creativity and imagination of the writers I find entertaining. But I find McCammon's work to be literary works of art. His writing style is the embodiment of an 'achievement' in modern literature and it is beyond my understanding why his work doesn't get more widespread praise and readership. He was unfairly compared to Stephen King as his early work were supernatural thrillers, but as he ventured away from that, he and his publisher parted was as each had different opinions about McCammon's direction. So he sort of retired for a while, but had continued to work on this historical narrative simmering in his mind and this trilogy is the result.

The Corbett series is not to be undertaken lightly as these are lengthly stories, rich in period detail with dozens of important characters and settings leading to righteous rewards for the reader. Despite the length of each, I never gave the density, depth, and length of story telling a second thought as each page brought out new and surprising twists to the story. 500? 600? 700 pages? Who cares, just keep 'em coming.

McCammon may be an acquired taste for some, but once I acquired the taste, I found the stories to be addicting to point of neglecting what others might think are more important responsibilities. It is probably a good thing that McCammon writes such rich stories requiring massive research and preparation. If these came out yearly like books by Child, Higgins Clark, Woods, Patterson, and others, I think my wife might have some issues.

Available on Kindle.

For those thinking McCammon might be worth a try, but worry about the commitment required for the Corbett series, consider Boy's Life, Mine, Gone South, or even The Wolf's Hour as these are a bit more accessible (despite being R rated for violence and gore).

East Coast Don