Honour Among Men: An Inspector Green Mystery

Honor Among Men is the sixth in a 10-book Inspector Green series by Barbara Fradkin, an award-winning Canadian crime novelist. This is somewhat of a complex plot which is very well told. Two boys from rule Nova Scotia are sent to Serbia-Croatia in 1993 as a part of the UN’s peacekeeping mission. They both see too much tragedy there and are very frustrated by the constantly changing restrictions that are put on their efforts by the UN bosses. After a year’s tour, they bring their traumas home causing their families great suffering. But these matters only gain prominence when a murdered woman’s body is found in the river in Ottawa, very near Parliament Hill. Inspector Green is called in when the woman’s possessions contain a medal for bravery. Therein begins the military connection, the investigation of which is made difficult by the opaque responses by the military. Meanwhile, more murders take place and one cop is nearly beaten to death during the investigation. Fradkin takes these very interesting and well-developed characters back and forth in time between the events in 1993 and the current-time investigation, and the characters travel between Ottawa and Halifax. This is a good book which won the Arthur Ellis Award as the best crime novel in 2007, and it gets my strong recommendation.

It was pretty cool how I learned about this author and this novel. I’m a great fan of the writing of Louise Penny, and I recently read her novella, The Hangman. She included a character named Arthur Ellis, an assumed name of the character who once was Canada’s official executioner. One of her beloved characters, Myrna, a bookstore owner, recognized the name and showed Inspector Armand Gamache a book by Barbara Fradkin which had won the Arthur Ellis award. In Penny’s story, Ellis had come to town to kill someone, but someone killed him first. At the time I was reading Penny’s novella, I had no knowledge of the award or of Fradkin, but quick Google searches showed these were not fictitious characters. So, I decided to read one Fradkin’s books that won the award. Kudos to Penny for this clever way of bringing Fradkin to my attention. I plan to read more of Fradkin.

The Enemy Inside by Steve Martini

The Enemy Inside is Steve Martini’s most recent legal thriller featuring Paul Madriani, a San Diego based defense attorney.  The series dates back to the early 1990’s and of late his clients tend to be tied to national political corruption and international conspiracies.

Alex Ives is a young reporter for a Washington D.C. based internet news service called Gravesite.  While vacationing in San Diego, he is involved in a traffic accident that kills Olinda Serna, a vastly successful lawyer who deals in political influence peddling in the U.S. Congress.  Ives is arrested for vehicular manslaughter and thanks to Madriani, is released on bail.  Coincidently, Ives was previously investigating Serna for Gravesite, following a trail of corruption and conspiracy that involved huge cash payoffs to congressional members by depositing the money in Swiss banks.  But Ives didn’t even know Serna was in San Diego and has no recollection of the accident.  In fact, he would have died in the accident as well if not for a Good Samaritan passerby who pulled him from the crash.  Further, his blood alcohol was well below the legal limit.  Apparently, he had been drugged at a party and the accident staged.

As Madriani and Harry Hinds, his partner begin to investigate Ives, more of his associates are murdered.  Alex’ boss at Gravesite dies shortly after Madriani interviews him and the young woman who lured Alex to the party where he was drugged the night of the automobile accident turns up dead as well.  The attorneys conclude Alex’ life is in danger and send their PI, Henry Diggs with him into hiding in Mexico.

 

With the information Madriani learns from Ives’ boss, he is convinced a conspiracy to bribe U.S. Congressmen is at the core of Ives’ problems.  Madriani and Hinds head for Switzerland to talk to an ex-bank official, Simon Koroff.  Koroff tells them about millions of dollars deposited in Gruber Bank, his former employer, in the names of several U.S. Congressman.  He also tells them that Olinda Serna and her associate, Rubin Bentz had frequently visited the bank.  Bentz is serving a jail term in a Colorado federal prison in solitary confinement... evidently to keep him from talking.  Koroff too is murdered shortly after the meeting with Madriani and Hinds.  The attorneys quickly head back to the States.

 

Madriani gets a call from a Washington political broker telling him he should apply for a federal judgeship because he has the backing of California’s senior Senator.  He is told he should consider representing Rubin Bentz if he wants the appointment.  Madriani doesn’t want the appointment but he definitely wants to talk to Bentz.  Bentz has incriminating information stashed somewhere that could unravel the U.S. Congress not to mention save Madriani’s client.

Martini is the master of complex legal thrillers as is proven once again in The Enemy Inside.  His plots and subplots are numerous and multifaceted.  But with such a sizable cast of characters, keeping all the players straight is a challenge.  From international hit men, to Washington politicians, lobbyists and conspirators, to reporters, to Swiss bankers, to Chinese government officials, Martini juggles a lot of storylines but satisfactorily connects all the dots by the end.  The thrill ride is a journey well worth the effort.

The Hangman (a novella)

I love Louise Penny’s writing and this is the only one that I hadn’t read, a novella, The Hangman. Arthur Ellis checked into the Inn and Spa just outside Three Pines, paid for a week’s stay in cash, then apparently hanged himself from a tree, even leaving a suicide note. But, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache was not fooled. The man’s hands and fingernails were clean, no evidence that he had actually climbed up in the tree to jump off and break his neck – someone had killed him and then hauled him up there in an attempt to fake his suicide.

In this very short work, all of the usual detective team and cast from Three Pines were there. The first clue was that Arthur Ellis is the name of award for Canadian Crime Writers. The real Arthur Ellis was the official name of Canada’s real hangman. The murdered man, under that alias, had come to murder someone else, but his intended victim(s) got to him first. Inspector Gamache sorted through the scant clues to solve the mystery and arrest the guilty party – it’s a good story, and now I’m waiting for Penny’s next full-length novel which is due out later this summer.

No Time for Goodbye

The story starts in May 1983 when Cynthia Bigge was 14 years old. She was having some big disputes with her parents, and then she made it worse one night by lying about where she was going and who she was going to be with. When she missed her curfew, her mother quickly discovered that her alibi of being with her best friend was untrue. Cynthia arrived home totally drunk, and then she passed out. She woke up late for school, with a bad hangover, and then rushed out of the house, only being surprised that the house was so quiet. Uncharacteristically, her parents and her older brother weren’t there. During the day, when she learned her brother hadn’t come to school at all, she ran home to discover no one was there – and in fact, her family had disappeared, and no clues were found about their disappearance for the next 25 years. Cynthia then grew up with an aunt, and there was always a cloud over her that either she had something to do with her family’s disappearance, or that she had been such a bad character that they simply chose to abandon her.

Fast-forward 25 years. Cynthia is now 39 years old and married to Terry Archer, a high school English teacher. They have an 8-year-old daughter, Grace. Cynthia’s psyche has been permanently marked by her early family tragedy, and she’s terribly afraid that something will happen to Grace. Cyn can’t let Grace out of her sight, and the precocious child is feeling smothered by her. Terry steps in as much as he can, but Cyn is a pretty fragile woman, so Terry keeps his interventions on the soft side. At times Cyn thinks she hears the voices of her missing family, and at times, she is sure she is being followed and watched. In this case, she is not just being paranoid.

First, her beloved aunt Tess, the woman who had stepped in as a surrogate mother, was murdered. Then, the detective she had hired to find information about her missing family was also killed. Next, she ran into a man who she thought looked exactly what her brother would have looked like so many years later. The stress was tearing at the fabric of her relationship with Terry, and Cyn’s anxiety was obviously rubbing off on Grace.

The author’s resolution of the mysteries and crimes was quite clever. This was more of a plot-driven story than one of character development. No Time for Goodbye is the first novel by Linwood Barclay, who was born in the U.S., but is now known as a Canadian author. This novel was published in 2007, and I would rate it in my category of airplane books. I read it on a two-legged flight from Chicago to Montreal, with a short layover in Minneapolis. It entertained me for the few hours that the trip took and finished during the approach to Montreal. After taking a look at some more Canadian authors, I’ll probably find my way back to one of Barclay’s later works. Thanks for the recommendation from Guy Dubois of The House of Crime and Mystery and A Crime Festival in Quebec City.

Motive: An Alex Delaware novel

Detective Milo Sturgis is on a losing streak in terms of being assigned homicide cases that he can’t solve. The cases seem to have no relationship to one another. First there was Katherine Hennepin, a quiet bookkeeper, then Ursula Corey, a socialite and strikingly successful business woman, and then Deirdre Brand, a street person. These women have nothing in common, but each murder scene included a carefully prepared and untouched meal that had been tailored to their different lifestyles. The meals seemed to be a signature from a serial killer. Milo called in his buddy, Alex Delaware, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, and the two of them thought through the possibilities in a way that is unique to Kellerman.

 Motive is the 11^th Jonathan Kellerman book reviewed in the blog, and the 30^th in the Alex Delaware series. This one was released in February 2015. If you’re in the mood for a murder-thriller, Kellerman is always a worthy read. Delaware’s psychological insights are always interesting, and his favorable relationship with Sturgis is wonderfully portrayed. These are two very different men who have a palpable fondness for one another and for solving psychopathic crimes. I’ll keep reading Kellerman – his books may not be the best literature, but they are excellent entertainment.

Bum Rap by Paul Levine

Bum Rap is a legal thriller with a touch of romance.  Jake Lassiter, a former NFL linebacker and Victoria Lord and Steve Solomon, law partners and lovers are all Miami defense attorneys.  Solomon is arrested for murder and Lord hires Lassiter to defend her partner.

 

Solomon was hired by Nadia, a Russian bar girl working at a night club, to retrieve her passport from the club’s owner, Nicolai Gorev.  Gorev had helped Nadia immigrate to the United States in return for her work scamming customers at the club and was holding her passport as collateral.  Nadia had fallen in love with a customer and wanted her passport back so she could move on.  But at the meeting in Gorev’s office, the club owner ends up dead of a gunshot wound from Nadia’s gun.  Nadia steals a sack of diamonds from the wall safe and slips out the back door and Solomon is caught holding the gun when the police arrive.  Solomon tells the police that Nadia pulled the trigger but she has disappeared.  Now it’s up to Lassiter to convince a jury of Solomon’s innocence or find Nadia and deal with her unpredictable testimony.

Meanwhile we learn that the Gorev and his associate, Benjamin Coben (aka Benny the Jeweler) are being investigated by the Feds for diamond smuggling.  Solomon’s trial has already begun when they find Nadia living with her newfound love in Pennsylvania.  She cuts a deal with the Feds to testify against Benny the Jeweler in exchange for a free pass for her involvement in Gorev’s death.  To complicate matters further, Lassiter develops feelings for Lord.  So here he is, defending a client he’s not sure is innocent while day dreaming about the guy’s girlfriend.  He finds himself questioning his ethics in both his personal and professional lives.

Bum Rap is what we call an airplane book at Men Reading Books.  It’s an enjoyable quick read without much intellectual stimulation.  The characters are entertaining and somewhat likable but the plot is light on substance.  Perfect for the hurry up and wait chaos that is air travel.

Thanks to Net Galley for the advance look.

Persuader by Lee Child

Persuader is number seven in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers that will soon include twenty in the series.  A persuader is a shotgun… the Mossburg M500 paramilitary style 12 gauge shotgun.  With the right load it can ‘punch a hole in a cinder block wall big enough to crawl through.’  It can cut a human being in half.

Reacher is several years retired from the military when a group of ‘off the grid’ DEA agents enlist his services.  Seems as an MP he had a case where the big one got away and cost him some good people.  Lieutenant Colonel Francis Xavier Quinn was high up in military intelligence and was on the take and Reacher’s investigators almost had him… almost.  The arrest went wrong and Quinn escaped and went underground after brutally killing Reacher’s investigators.  Years later Reacher inadvertently spots Quinn in a public place in Boston.  He reports the sighting to one of his old army contacts and is hooked up with this rogue DEA group.  Quinn, now known as Xavier, has started an import export business in Portland, Maine and is selling guns to the highest bidder… mostly drug dealers and terrorists.  He has teamed with Zachary Beck, a wealthy rug merchant to cover his illegal transactions.  Beck lives in a compound on Maine’s rocky coast with his wife, college age son and several security guards.  The DEA planted a young woman in the compound as domestic help but she was found out and is being held.  They want her back and Reacher has the skills and motivation to be of service… he wants Quinn.

Reacher and the DEA guys, fake the kidnapping of Beck’s son (it had happened before) and Reacher appears to save the kid.  That gets his foot in the door of Beck’s compound.  Through diversionary tactics Reacher eliminates Beck’s security force and soon gains Beck’s trust.  But locating the undercover DEA agent and finding evidence to dismember the gun running operation proves more complex and dangerous than even Reacher expected.  But the danger doesn’t bother Reacher… not when he has a chance at redemption.

Persuader is like so many Jack Reacher novels in that Child builds suspense in one situation after another with no anticlimax.  Testosterone charged Reacher carefully studies each situation then blasts ahead with skill and accuracy to neutralize any adversary.  Then without pause moves on to the next precarious situation.  And as one of Child’s earlier works in the series, we get some insight into Reacher’s character.  ‘I don’t really care about the little guy.’ Reacher says, ‘I just hate the big guy.  I hate big smug people who think they can get away with things.’  Don’t we all?