The Cabal by David Hagberg

In Hagberg's previous outing, The Expediter, an unseen force was behind the potentially catastrophic NKorea-China war. In The Cabel, Hagberg brings us and Kirk McGarvey face-to-face with the shadow group that makes the Corleone family look like refugees from Romper Room.

A Washington Post investigative reporter has uncovered information that an influential and ultra right wing group, The Friday Club, has been acting as a shadow government attempting to strengthen America's international position despite all attempts by the new ruling party in Washington to lesson the international position of the US. The reporter reaches out to a college buddy, Todd Van Buren who runs the infamous training 'Farm' for the CIA. Todd is married to CIA agent Liz who just happens to be Kirk McGarvey's daughter. After the meeting, Todd is gunned down south of Fredricksburg, VA on his way back to the farm and the reporter and family are murdered in their suburban DC townhouse that night.

McGarvey and wife are trying to live the quiet life of the recently retired on the Gulf Coast of Florida, but the loss of Todd brings them both to DC for the coming funeral. As one of the most decorated, successful, and efficient (meaning he kills quickly and effortlessly without remorse) operatives in the CIA's history, he rose to be the DCI for a time before getting out. The new 'progressive' President doesn't like McGarvey or his kind and based on the outcome of the adventure in The Expediter, has the AG investigate McGarvey for treason. McGarvey is being questioned when it's time for the funeral.

The assassins place an IED to kill McGarvey, but it goes off 1 car too soon. The outcome of that attempt sets McGarvey off on a trail of revenge and blind hatred starting with the security company hired by The Friday Club, Administrative Solutions. Knowing, without hard evidence, that Admin was behind the killings, McGarvey jets around and gets under the skin of the Admin founder and CEO. While virtually everyone has been told that they don't know what they are messing with in McGarvey, they go ahead and try to kill him a number of times, but as they really can't believe just how good McGarvey is, they continue to lose employees.

The final confrontation with the ridiculously right wing head of The Friday Club ends with McGarvey being arrested for treason, but all that has come out means that someone has to take out the trash.

As stated before, the McGarvey series by Hagberg is one terrific roller coaster ride. Hagberg brings all his political/techno thrillers along at the pace of a runaway train, never letting the plot slow down for the reader to catch a breath. This is what Tom Clancy used to be, but got caught up in excess research verbiage that resulted in bloated story lines and countless speaking parts. This is a bare bones thriller. McGarvey could have been the DCI for Clancy's Jack Ryan when he ended up as president. Or McGarvey could have been Mitch Rapp's teacher on the Farm, and he definitely has more moxie up his sleeve than Jack Bauer ever had. Don't plan on reading this 5-10 pages at a time. Once you start, better free up some time as there aren't logical stopping points until the last page . . . where of course, the first clue to the next book pops up. And, after all is said and done and the treason charges have been dropped, the President offers McGarvey his old DCI job back, to which he tells the President to stick his offer where the sun don't shine. Nice . . . vintage McGarvery . . . vintage Hagberg.

East Coast Don

The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer

As I recall, when we last left Milo Weaver at the conclusion of The Tourist, he was pulled as a CIA Tourist (the dirtiest part of the messy US intelligence network) deemed no longer dependable and under investigation for financial misconduct. Cleared and essentially broke, he has to go back into the field and prove himself to his bosses.

The Nearest Exit opens with a conspiracy nut and mostly failed American journalist living in Budapest receiving a letter from the deceased former head of the blackest of the black CIA projects, the Office of Tourism, telling him a grand tale and to trust only Milo Weaver. Within 24hr of receiving the letter, Henry Gray has been assaulted and tossed over a balcony only to survive, ending up in a coma. When he recovers, he ditches the hospital and goes into hiding. Seems the Office of Tourism was behind the assassination of a Muslim cleric in Sudan (an underlying plot point in The Tourist) that resulted in massive rioting and innocent deaths on a wide scale.

Milo is doing small jobs back as a Tourist which he does grudgingly, but balks when he is ordered to abduct, kill and dispose of a 15 year old Moldavian girl living with her parents in Germany. The moral ambiguity required to be a Tourist is lost on Milo who is the rare operative with a wife and step daughter, despite that their marriage is a bit strained. He forms a plan to abduct the girl, but keep her safe until he decides how to proceed. Unfortunately, the plans of a Tourist do not routinely go as planned.

Milo has also been ordered to vet a Ukrainian seeking asylum who claims to know of a mole within the Department of Tourism supposedly being run by the Chinese who lost a hold on oil in Sudan after the assassination and resulting riots. If true, the Office of Tourism will be shut down and a vindictive Senator will gladly slam the door shut for good.

Enter an experienced, obese, Riesling-chugging, Snickers-addicted mid level German intelligence operative named Erika. With some dogged investigation, she identifies Milo as the abductor, captures him (under the radar) and using some creative interview techniques finds out enough about the abduction to believe Milo and actually help him out a bit.

The story twists and turns through an almost dizzying array of plots as Milo tries to determine if the mole does indeed exist and why did that 15yo girl end up dead on the side of the road in France. As he thinks he has figured out, Milo quits in disgust and heads to NYC to repair his marriage when during a counseling session, a random word by his wife sends him back to the Office of Tourism, now having reordered some clues leading to different interpretations tying the mole hunt to the death of the girl.

While the Chicago Sun Times says Charlie Stella is "the best crime novelist you are not reading," Stephen King says Steinhauer's The Tourist is "the best spy novel that wasn't written by LeCarre." The Nearest Exit is richly plotted, intricately staged, and elegantly composed and paced. The intertwined plots are complex and confusing, best read in long sittings rather than a few pages at a time. While Steinhauer summarizes plot points from The Tourist, it might be best to read Tourist first to get a real feel for not only the moral damage Milo has suffered, but also the multilayer plotting that is reminiscent of early LeCarre.

A most interesting character is really not even portrayed; the Chinese spy-master pulling strings all over the world. Just why is he after the Office of Tourism? As Steinhauer deftly ties up loose ends, we are hit multiple times with a haymaker that does little to help neatly end the story with every bit of dirt swept out the door - a Steinhauer trait.

As I recall, people go after another government for ideology, greed, or passion. Add revenge to that list . . . and I defy the reader to see just where revenge enters here. That it's so hard to find is a tribute to Steinhauer's skills as a storyteller of complex, layered spy thrillers. Part 3 of the Milo Weaver trilogy will be on my must read list the day it is released.

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

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I’m a fan of Daniel Silva, and his most recent book, just released a few days ago, does not diminish my appreciation of his writings and the ongoing character development of Gabriel Allon, his mentor, Ari Shamron, and Allon’s wife, Chiara. For me, just writing “Daniel Silva” should be a enough of a book recommendation, and revealing any more is unnecessary. But, I’ll cough up a few more details. This story starts out with a recently discovered Rembrandt that has come into the hands of the art dealer and friend of Israeli intelligence services, Julian Isherwood. Before taking it to the public, the painting needed to be restored, but Allon was unavailable, so Isherwood hired Christopher Liddell to do the work. However, before he could complete the restoration, the painting is stolen, Liddell is murdered, and more damage is done to the artwork. Isherwood then convinces Allon to find the painting, and that leads to the latest international intrigue involving characters from the U.S., England, Germany, Israel, Iran, and especially Switzerland, where most of the action takes place. Notable is Zoe Reed, a famous British journalist, who is having an affair with the international financier and generous contributor to important world causes, “Saint” Martin Landesmann. It’s sad that I waited nearly a year for the next installment of this series, and now after a couple days, I’m back waiting for the next one. If you haven’t already gotten involved with this series, even though each book stands on its own, I recommend starting at the beginning and enjoying unfolding history of these characters.

West Coast Don

The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver

Daniel Raymond Pell was a serial killer in the manner of Charles Manson. On 9/13/99, he was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of manslaughter. In Carmel, California, he killed William Croyton, his wife and two of their three children, but he missed little Theresa who was upstairs, asleep in her bed. She became known to the press as “The Sleeping Doll.” Pell also killed James Newberg, one of his “family” who helped commit the crimes. The family included Newberg and three women. Imprisoned in a high security place in California, which sounds like Folsum Prison, Pell is accused of being responsible for an unsolved murder, so he is moved to a less secure place in order to be interviewed about this other murder. This is where his nemesis enters the scene, Kathryn Dance, an interviewer extraordinaire who matches wits with the very intelligent Pell. He had nothing to do with this other murder and the whole thing was a ploy for him to be able to escape, which he does. The book is about the contest between Pell at-large, and Dance, trying to recapture him. There is very good psychological study of the three women in the family who have already served out their prison terms and tried to move on with their lives, but they have not been in touch with each other since their convictions. Deaver brings in some other interesting characters. This was a good book, clever, and as I’m beginning to appreciate about Deaver, there are some very good unanticipated twists toward the end.
West Coast Don

Foreign Influence by Brad Thor

A super secret Chinese installing in Mongolia is hit. Who did it? Just what was the installation? How did anyone find out about it?

Scot Harvath, ex-Seal, former go-to guy in the war against terrorism to the previous adminstration has been cast aside by the new kinder and gentler POTUS. He bides his time up in Maine with Tracy, a former operative who understands Scot's need to stay in the game and protect America. One thing gets in their way - he wants kids, she doesn't and that places their relationship in jeopardy. And that love of children and the seething hatred for anyone who would put children in harm's way burns in Harvath's patriotic flame. Gasoline has been thrown on this flame when Harvath's team rescues a group of kidnapped Iraqi children, getting them all alive, except for one child who dies in his arms.

Harvath is recruited to join the shadowy Carlton Group. A group whose motto is Find, Fix, Finish. No rules, just get the job done. The Carlton Group is funded out of a non-existent DoD budget line.

A busload of American college kids doing a semester abroad in Rome is blown up. The clues suggest The Troll, a secretive source for state secrets to the highest bidder that Harvath has a love-hate relationship with. His orders from The Old Man of the Carlton Group (aka 'Peaches' to the Brits) are to find The Troll and eliminate him.

But The Troll is being set up. He reaches out to Harvath to help him find who is behind the bombing and an attempt on his own life. The chase takes Harvath and The Troll from Basque Country in Spain to Geneva where some enhanced interrogation by Harvath uncovers information about a 9/11 scale attack set to happen soon.

In Chicago, a girl is run down by a taxi and is clinging to life. Her parents aren't happy with the CPD investigation and gets a cop/lawyer/Marine to use his own time to find the driver. He and a smart mouth cop who works in transportation track miniscule cues and uncover a mosque that doubles as an armory that appears to be preparing for something big.

Harvath learns (remember, enhanced interrogation) that London and Amsterdam are the targets. With the help of Scotland Yard and MI6, they (barely) manage to avert disaster in London and jump over to Amsterdam where they zero in on the terror cell's leader, and after extracting significant information (ahem, enhanced interrogation) manage to capture 5 of 6 suicide bombers who were planning a hit on the red light district. The 6th on managed to detonate.

Part of the information Harvath extracted is about further bombings to take place in Chicago. Harvath hops a Gulfstream and his team heads for the local cell's headquarters. They encounter the 2 cops investigating the hit and run (now prisoners of the terrorists) and take out most of the cell in a shootout in the basement of a furniture store.

They piece together the remaining information they have a realize that hotels on the Magnificent Mile are not the targets, but the commuter train stations are. So the team fans out to the stations. In a horrific shootout, the attacks are stopped. But there is still intel out there suggesting potential targets in LA and NYC.

I had this on a 1-week checkout from the library and had to read it quickly. No problem there. Thor has a real talent for keeping eyes on the page and the pages turning. There is hardly a single scene that drags. And if you have a problem reading graphic descriptions of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' that probably make Abu Ghraib or Gitmo sound like summer camp, you might be wise to look elsewhere for a summer beach read. 'Graphic' is far too gentle a term to describe what is portrayed.

I'm up to date on Thor's novels and I think each title is better than the previous. In this story, he unveils a new team of operatives that simply have to become a regular feature of future books. And at the end of the story, have we just been introduced to a new character set to partner up with Harvath? Remember the name Sean Chase. He sounds like one very cool customer.

I have read that Thor has spent significant time with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan at forward position. I would guess that some of the horror in this book is from conversations with the boots on the ground soldiers over there. And it probably helps to lean toward the political right to enjoy this book. Thor manages to get a lot of digs in about people who lean the other way.

East Coast Don

p.s. that Chinese installation? Think 'The Charm School' by Nelson DeMille (one of the very best espionage books ever written). I am betting graduates of the Chinese version of The Charm School will surface in the future. The Chinese appear to be up to no good.

Shakedown by Charlie Stella

Bobby Genarro used to run a betting office for the local Mafiya family and it did pretty well. But he met a woman, Lin Yao and everything changed. He begged out of the life, wants to find a legit jog, marry Lin Yao, and make babies.

But the mob life has changed in recent years. Seems like every time a wiseguy gets picked up by the Feds, he rolls over on his old employers getting a new life somewhere well outside of NYC. The remaining wiseguys are left to clean up the messes and kill whomever they think could be the next to roll. The old loyalties have gone the way of the proverbial dodo bird. So when a guy either disappears or drops out, there must be a better reason than going legit and getting married. Bobby’s old bosses want to know if he is cooperating with the police. And they figure that Bobby made off with some of the profits from the old office and want some significant cash.

Tommy Agro, a wiseguy who can’t quite keep his analogies and metaphors straight, runs the local crew. He is training a new guy, a former U Michigan football player who bench presses 500 lbs named Forzino (he got hurt as a senior and missed out on a pro career) and is the nephew of some bigger boss; lotta muscle and potential, but short on experience. Joe Quack is Tommy’s boss, and apparently hung like a horse, which he uses to his advantage.

The NYPD organized crime unit is watching this part of the mob kind of implode on itself, but one of the 2 cops turns out to be dirty and working his own agenda. Forzino moved to NY with his fiance, Sally, who is kinda taken by the mob life and ends up bedding Joe Quack (and being sore for days afterward).

Bobby thinks he knows how to handle Agro and his crew so he can keep what money he has and avoid paying anybody anything, or at least get off on the cheap. But Agro sends in an Irish freelancer to convince Lin Yao to get Bobby to pay up. But things go south, Lin Yao gets snatched and her cousin, the head of a local Chinese street gang, decides to secure his family’s honor.

What started out as a simple shakedown escalates into nearly a full-blown war between the Italians, Chinese, and an Irish group trying to make some inroads. Bad guys are kidnapped by other bad guys, fingers are cut off, a hostage exchange is screwed up, the dirty cop surfaces, Forzino learns about his wife and Joe Quack (and does what a wiseguy in training should do); basically all hell breaks loose in this little corner of the Vignieris family.

As with his other books, this one follows a winning pattern: a good guy trying to do the right think, wiseguys out for themselves and their crew, a good cop and a bad cop. Never having been to NYC for more than a flight transfer, the descriptions of NYC made unknown locales pop in my mind’s eye. And don’t forget the dialogue that grabs you by the throat and drags you into Gennaro’s world. And as always, I fail miserably trying to describe Stella's intricate plotting.

But this is a sad day. I now have read through all Mr. Stella’s books and will have to patiently await what comes next from Stella’s fertile, if deliciously twisted, imagination.

BTW, thanks to the Knuckmeister hisself for arranging copies of earlier titles that seemed to be awfully hard to come by. With all the crap sitting on the shelves at B/N and Borders, you’d think quality storytelling would deserve some retail real estate. Sort of makes you go ‘hmmm.’ No wonder big box book stores are hurting; they wouldn’t know quality crime fiction if Forzino whacked mgmt across the face with any of Stella’s work.

East Coast Don