#1519 Black Ice (the audio book) by Brad Thor

Black Ice, the 20^th Scott Harvath novel by Brad Thor, has already been reviewed twice in this blog, first by me in 6/21, and second by ECD in 8/21 when Black Ice was published. Please refer to those reviews in order to get a more complete sense of what this book is about. I’ve begun listening to more audiobooks while I take long dog walks, and while I did not catch the name of the reader of this book, I can tell you I was very disappointed in that effort. This book contains characters from various countries including Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the U.S. While the reader did well with Harvath’s dialogue and the basic narration of the story, the characters from other countries, whether they were men or women, were indistinguishable. In other words, Harvath’s Norwegian girlfriend sounded the same as a male Russian operative. I cannot give the audiobook a favorable rating or recommendation.

WCD 

#1518 Gangbuster, One Man’s Battle against Crime, Corruption, and the Klan by Alan Pendergast

Gangbuster, One Man’s Battle against Crime, Corruption, and the Klan, is an amazing nonfiction work which Alan Prendergast has written more like a thriller than a dry nonfiction historical work. Phillip Van Cise was an attorney who was floating about the Western US, looking for a place to develop his career. He found such a spot not long after landing in Denver and he then won an election as the city’s District Attorney. In the Roaring 20’s, grifters and confidence men seemed to have had free rein to swindle people out of their life savings without worrying about getting caught. The highest levels of government were corrupt.  

In the first half of the book, the battles between Cise and the corrupt government leaders and criminal bosses was detailed by Prendergast. Responsible citizens of Denver backed Cise, but the corrupt powers were formidable. The second half of the book is devoted to the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in Denver. Colorado had the second highest per capita of Klan members, only falling behind Indiana in such efforts. Prendergast wrote about the Klan’s message, “It was a nationwide call to white Protestants to unite and defend their women, their homes, and their communities from a seemingly endless array of threats posed y Blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and others who were not, could never be “100% American.” There seemed to be little difference in the claims of the Klan in the 20’s and todays ultraright wing rhetoric. John Galen Locke was the leader of the Klan in Colorado.

Nationwide, by 1925, the Klan had a membership of two million to four million people. Considering the use of hoods to hide their identity, and their habit of working in secret they were often referred to as the Invisible Empire, while the usual governmental forces were thought of as the Visible Empire. It was after internal warfare in the Klan that the membership suddenly and rapidly declined. Prendergast wrote that they lost 80% of their membership in a matter of months. 

 

(As an aside, I’m originally a Hoosier although I’ve now lived in California longer than I lived in Indiana. I was always aware of the racism and bigotry in the state, and it’s my memory that the right wing newspaper, Indianapolis Star, quoted the Grand Dragon about once a week during the 1970s when I was living there and attending medical school. Interestingly, at least in the 70’s and 80’s, the Star was owned by the same family which produced Dan Quail, former senator from Indiana and the one-term Vice President of the U.S., under the first President Bush from 1989 to 1993. There can be no doubt that the Klan continues to wield influence in state politics.) Prendergast wrote, “The most grotesque fall from grace was in Indiana, where Grand Dragon David Stephenson lorded over the largest, loudest state organization in the country. At the height of its power, roughly a third of Indiana’s adult white males were loyal to the Klan, and few Hoosier politicians would dare to make a move without first consulting Stephenson, a charismatic salesman in his early 30s.” It was Stephenson’s violent treatment of women which derailed his plans to build his own empire. By 1929, the number of Klan members in Indiana dropped from 250,000 to about 4,000.

 

Even after Van Cise left office as the District Attorney, he could not leave the ongoing corruption and residual Klan related problems. In private practice, he was able to take on such cases that led to a further gansignificant decrease in such corruption. The author wrote, “The group would linger, increasingly fractured and directionless, but there was no longer anything to fear from the Colorado Realm of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was finished.”

 

If you’re captured by U.S. history, this book is a must. While I knew it had been a big factor in Indiana during the 20^thcentury, I knew little of its spread to the western part of the U.S. It’s an excellent read and it gets my recommendation.

 

 

# 1517 Downfall by Mark Rubinstein

Downfall is Mark Rubinstein’s latest novel, due out in 4/23. This book is a murder mystery and a thriller. It’s my opinion that Oceanside Publishing is developing a list of authors that are quite good at what they do, and this book has already been very favorably reviewed Michael Connelly, who is in my opinion the king of this genre.

 

Rick Shepherd is an internist in Brooklyn who followed his father, James Shepherd, into the world of medicine. The two doctors don’t have much contact with each other even though their practices are close to each other, and their practices are run quite differently. James Shepherd has an old time practice and still makes house calls. He is much more interested in delivering meaningful care than earning a dollar. Rick is part of a multi-practice specialty group, and the managing partner is all about making ever penny he can from the practice. Rick hates the way his practice is run, but he can’t see doing things his dad’s way. As the book begins, father and son have argued about that recently.

 

Rick is returning to his office building after lunch, but he can’t get into his building because the police have taped off the entrance. There had just been a murder, a shooting in the front of the building and a man Robert Harper was dead. It was later that same night that Rick and his girlfriend, Jackie, see the story on the news and are impressed by how much the pictures of Robert Harper looked like Rick, as if they were dopplegangers. They wonder if Rick was really the intended target. Only a couple days later, it is Rick’s dad, who is murdered in a very similar manner as he was going to make an evening housecall.

 

The police have no solid clues, and this leads to the introduction of detectives Art Nager and Liz Callaghan, both of whom are single and lonely, and they begin to develop a relationship. The story of the detectives added great depth to the novel. The author fills out the story with Rick’s sister Katie and his mother, as well as his Uncle Harry, the younger fraternal twin of James. Rubinstein develops the theme of sibling rivalry, using James and Harry, as well as Rick and Katie of examples of that. The ongoing unsolved nature of James murder becomes a significant stress on all parties, including the relationship between Rick and Jackie.

 

This is a very creative story, and it’s one I did not figure out until the author revealed the killer’s identity in the last pages of the novel. I understand why Connelly wrote so highly about this book and it gets my solid recommendation.

 

WCD

#1516 The It Girl by Ruth Ware

This is a different kind of mystery-thriller, The It Girl by Ruth Ware. Six students were beginning their first term at Pelham College, one of the colleges at Oxford. As the protagonist, Hannah Jones was the narrator for the story, and the first person she met at Pelham was April Clarke-Cliveden, and they had been assigned as roommates. Hannah and April (who was the “It Girl”) were remarkably different characters. Hannah was shy and lacking self-esteem, while April was beautiful, outspoken and very outgoing. Another important difference, Hannah came from a family that was struggling financially, and April came from significant old money. The cast of the story was filled out by Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily. By the end of their first year, April was dead.

 

April was significantly devastated by the loss of April who had become the best friend she ever had. But April was also a troubled girl. She was sexually promiscuous and was not above sleeping with someone else’s boyfriend. April was also a practical joker, but her jokes often had a very cruel aspect to them. Not everyone was as enamored with April as Hannah was. Meanwhile, Hannah dated no one although she had a secret crush on Will who was April’s main lover.

 

The reader was led to believe that the murderer was John Neville, an Oxford porter, a creepy older guy who was stalking Hannah. Hannah was with Hugh when they saw Neville coming down the stairs from Hannah and April’s room, just prior to their discovery of April’s dead body. She was the primary witness in Neville’s murder trial which resulted in his conviction and imprisonment. The only limit to the imprisonment was Neville’s unexpected death due to a heart attack when he was in his early 60s. Throughout the trial and time in jail, Neville always insisted that he was innocent.

 

Ten years had passed when Neville died. Hannah had always felt uncertain about the role she played in the conviction of Neville even though everyone around her assured her that she had done nothing wrong. By then, Hannah had moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. Never having graduated from college, dropping out after April’s death, she found a job in a book shop. Later, Will moved to Edinburgh in pursuit of Hannah. They were eventually married and at the time of Neville’s death, Hannah was pregnant with their first child. She could not believe her good fortune that the worst thing in her life, the death of April, had led to the best thing in her life, a marriage to Will. 

 

The author skillfully moved backward and forward in time, titling her passages as “before” and “after.” Everything had changed for Hannah and Will “after” April’s death. The story is about the entwinement of the lives of the six main characters and what happened to them after they left Pelham. The resolution of this story took me by complete surprise, a story line that the author had left seeming unlikely until believable explanations were given near the end of the book. 

 

Since I listened to the book in an audio format, I can tell you that hearing the various English accents by narrator Imogen Church was thoroughly enjoyable. Now I’m a fan of both Ms. Church and Ms. Ware. Her debut novel, In a Dark, Dark Wood (2015) was a New York Times bestseller, but her best best seller was her second book, The Woman in Cabin 10. She will publish her eighth novel in late 6/20/23 entitled Zero Days. So, I have another author to get excited about. Ms. Ware belongs in this blog.

 

#1515. Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman

You read that right . . . Hillerman.

As a favor to the long-time and now retired Navajo policeman, the legendary Lt. Joe Leaphorn, he gets invited to sit in on  breakfast meetings with the current captain and a few other officers including Jim Chee and Bernadette (Bernie) Manuelito (Chee’s wife). The Navajo nation (including the police) have a deep respect for elders and appreciate his insights about ongoing cases.

As Leaphorn leaves the meeting, Bernie gets a call and steps outside to take it only to see the hoodied-driver of a black sedan step out, walk over to where Leaphorn is opening his truck’s door, pull out a handgun and shoot Leaphorn in the head. The driver hustle’s off and Bernie goes to aid Leaphorn. Promises him she'll find who did this.

911 is called and the cops mobilize to determine the who what and why of this cold-blooded attack on not just one of their own. This was ‘legendary lieutenant Joe Leaphorn.' Mentor to most every member of the Navaho police force. As Bernie saw it happen and is now the central witness, the police chief must put her on leave as she can’t investigate a case where she is a principal participant. Jim Chee is put in charge. As with all capital cases on Native American reservations, the FBI is called in to further add bureaucratic interference.

Leaphorn isn’t dead, but his wound is serious enough that he needs specialist care in Santa Fe, a few hours’ drive from Shiprock and the New England-sized Navajo reservation.

First step is the car. Owned by a local and used by her son, a college student. He’s an enterprising soul and rents it out on occasion for extra spending money. That extends the list of potential participants in the shooting.

Bernie is put in charge of tracking down family for a notification. Leaphorn rarely mentions family so it’s a challenging task. An important person they can’t find is Louisa Bourbonette, Leaphorn’s live-in girlfriend whom he met a few years after the death of his cancer-stricken wife, Emma. Apparently, Joe and Louisa (a college teacher) argued that morning before he went to the breakfast meeting and she headed to the airport for a flight to Houston and a conference. Now she’s added to the list of possibles, even though Chee and Bernie know that can’t be so.

While looking for family details in Leaphorn’s home, she sees other things he’s been working on. In retirement, he’s become a bit of a private investigator with a special interest in insurance-related investigations. Even though she’s off the case, she follows these leads just to see if there’s anything worth dumping on Chee’s lap. Or she just rationalizes that she is simply looking around to shorten the list of possible suspects so Chee can pursue the most viable ones. As you can guess that line of investigation slowly migrates to the top.

Don’t remember how or where I learned that the daughter of the late great Tony Hillerman had taken up the story lines of Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito.  The Blessing Way was the first Leaphorn book (1970) and her dad published steadily until his death in 2006. Fans wondered if he died leaving any unfinished manuscripts. He didn’t. A huge loss for his family and friends. He was among the best.

Fast forward to 2013. His daughter Anne is an award-winning reporter with a few non-fiction books to her credit. In her ‘spare time’ from reporting, she dabbled in fiction and finally, with the encouragement and help of close friends of both hers and her father’s decided to give it a go.

I've read all the Tony H. novels (all that preceded the birth of this blog) and was saddened to learn of his death. Hillerman wasn’t just a gifted author, he was an influential mentor to young novelists, particularly those whose work was based in the American west. Look closely at interviews of author whose mysteries are based in the west (Craig Johnson’s Longmire series and CJ Box’s Joe Pickett series come to mind) and Tony Hillerman is a prominent figure the careers of many writers. 

Somewhere somehow I found out that daughter Anne had picked up where Dad left off. And take off she has . . . since this book was published in 2013, she now has eight titles. She’s been busy. And what’s interesting, at least to me, is that Spider Woman’s Daughter has seamlessly followed her father’s winning style and formula: Navajo nation, Leaphorn/Chee/Manuelito, the detailed view of the land and customs of the Four Corners region, the interweaving of Navajo culture and beliefs into
crimes that impact all levels of life in the desert SW.

But more importantly for me. Out library has them all so expect to see a theme from me as I work my way through Hillerman, part deux.

ECD

 

#1514 Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

 

Dark Sacred Night is the second book (2018) of the Renee Ballard series by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch has retired as a homicide detective from LAPD, but he’s back working for the San Fernando Police Department on a part-time basis. The San Fernando Valley, in the northern part of LA, is in the midst of a significant gang war. I thought I had read this novel before, but it is not previously reviewed in this blog. It is Connelly at his best. The significant parts of this book have to do with Bosch and Ballard agreeing to be a team on old cases, and the final end to the Daisy and Elizabeth mystery – the resolution of the Daisy’s murder at the age of 15 (specifically a case Bosch has been pursuing for many years), and the sad end of Elizabeth’s long history of drug abuse and relapse. In the course of the main plot, Connelly and Ballard solve a couple other cases and learn to trust each other. It’s a very good story – don’t miss it.

#1513 The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

First, I discovered Libby, a library app that also connects to audiobooks. It’s free! Second, I have gotten sick of listening to political tripe while I’m taking my dog on long walks everyday. Third, I struck on the idea of listening to old classic thrillers. What a win for me!

 

I just finished listening to The Day of the Jackal which is one of the great political thrillers that I’ve ever read. I’ve read most of Forsyth’s novels, but that happened before we started the blog in 2009, and this is my third time going through this book, although it’s been at least 30 years since the last time. This is the story of an assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle who was the President of France in 1963 when the story is cast. Many attempts had been made on de Gaulle’s life by the OAS, a French dissident organization that hated the French President. They’ve chosen a new plan for getting to de Gaulle. It is a great detective story which was published in 1971 and made into a movie in 1973. This one is the best.