Sly as a Fox

 Sly as a Fox by Wendy L. Koenig is the second novel in the Sylvia Wilson Mystery series. The first novel, On the Sly, was reviewed about a year ago by another person who write for the blog, Curt Remarks, and he provided Ms. Koenig with great praise. I did not get to that book, but I just got my hands on Sly as a Fox and I didn’t put it down until it was finished. As a mystery/thriller, this second novel in the series deserves a WOW. 

Sylvia Wilson is a 24-year-old girl who is tightly attached to her brother who is one year older. She is continuing to recover from the emotional traumas which described in book one, as well as the trauma of having been kidnapped eight years earlier and then having her parents killed by a drunk driver. Even before the death of her parents, she had been a troubled youth who loved to fight even if it meant getting badly beaten up. Meanwhile, her brother was a good guy, one who did everything right. Upon the death of their parents, Sylvia and Aaron went to live with Aunt Peaches who certainly had her hands full with Sylvia.

 

When her brother, who had taken an undercover assignment with the FBI, suddenly went missing, Syl went bonkers as she joined the FBI efforts to find him. He had promised her that he would always check in with her every other day so she would know he was okay, but then she had not heard from him for four days, then eight. She refused the orders of the FBI to go home and stay away from the investigation, and Syl could tell they were not making any progress. It was only with her efforts that Aaron was found although he was being tortured by that time. She was a relentless character. The plot involved an FBI mole who was working for the bad guys, and a string of bank robberies that needed to be solved. Dead bodies were scattered about the entire story, some from Syl’s prior life, some in the present. Koenig filled out her plot with a cast of characters, both good guys and not, so the protagonist came across as a troubled but very talented and brave woman.

 

Now, I get to go back and read book #1. This is fun.

 

Libertyland

Libertyland by Peter Sacks is a very scary political thriller, scary because of its plausibility. A professor has been talking up the benefits of extreme capitalism and railing against any sort of social benefits to the less fortunate, saying that providing welfare considerations to such people is only giving them money which was hard earned by others to the weak, helpless, and homeless. Most people seem to find his diatribes as absurd, but some don’t. Those who do buy into the liberyland concept are ultimately very wealthy and powerful. Professor Garrick Cripps was successful in finding a group of people who would fund him and his efforts which are eventually aimed at collapsing the Democracy of the U.S., and overthrowing the U.S. government.

 

Then at the age of 40, Cripps girlfriend Suzanne, a computer science professor, wrote a satirical manifesto which championed Cripps’ ideas and plans. However, she had never really bought into his ideas while still loving him madly. She wrote this manifesto for his birthday thinking he would enjoy her sardonic humor. Instead, Cripps loved it, did not see the humor, and used the manifesto to further sell his ideas. His beliefs were like those of Ayn Rand, only quadrupled. Cripps broke off his relationship with Suzanne who could never get over the rejection, and before he reconnected with her again 20 years later, she waited for the hoped for call from him, and he built up his support system.

 

Meanwhile, there was another breakup, this one between Navy SEAL Carson McReady and Laura Cavendish. It was McReady’s longterm plan to become a SEAL, and it was Cavendish’s plan to become a computer expert which led to her early involvement with Cripps and her becoming a cyber expert who went to work for the Pentagon.

 

As the story unfolds and moves through the eventual confrontation between Cripps and McReady, the author filled out a gripping story filled with associated characters who helped bring to life the main characters. The plot kept me interested. One should expect that an ex-Seal squad leader would be capable of doing some physical damage to his enemies, although that only happened after Cripps, et al., had done so to him. McReady was dedicated to the preservation of liberty as he understood it, not in the selfish and twisted logic of Cripps and his team.

 

I recommend this story highly, a 5/5. It is certainly a timely read given the current state of U.S. politics in 2024.

Flat

Personally, I have a fascination with the Age of Exploration. I remember hearing a lecture when I was in 8^th grade about Prince Henry the Navigator who was a primary figure in the Portuguese discovery of the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean which provided the country with incredible riches. Prince Henry actually traveled very little, but he was the financier on behalf of the Portuguese King (his brother) who was putting the necessary ships into action. It was a fascinating time not only because of their eventual discoveries, but because of the risks of these adventures and because of their failures. People continued to debate whether the earth was flat. To openly comment that the world was round was a heresy and the time period overlapped the years of the Spanish Inquisition which led to the death of anyone who spoke against the Catholic orthodoxy. In that era, sea charts showed the edge of the world and sea monsters and the edge of the earth were drawn in the periphery of those maps. The Pillars of Hercules, which are the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side of the Strait of Gibraltar and either Monte Hacho or Jebel Musa on the African side were seen as the end of the world, and Cape St. Vincent in Sagres, Portugual was regarded in those same words, “the end of the world.”

 

A few months ago I was lucky enough to sit for a few days on the Costa del Sol in Spain and stare at those pillars, and to spend a few days on the cliffs at Sagres where I tried to imagine what it must have been like as a man of the sea in that era. Of course, ocean going boat design was in its’ infancy. The boats that were being sailed were barely seaworthy. The rocky shores of Morocco, Spain, and Portugal were littered with sunken vessels. Also, this was the age of the Barbary pirates who were a threat to all sea trade in this area for hundreds of years until the early 19^th century.

 

Risk and reward were never more apparent than the stakes of sea travel when the world was still thought to be flat, the name of this new novel “Flat” by Neal Rabin. The book is subtitled, “An edgy voyage of accidental discovery.” In the midst of descriptions of what life must have been like on the sea, as well as what life was like on land for people from all walks of life, from the royal lives of the upper crust of society to beggars, Rabin told a spell binding story of success and failure, of fortune and death. He sprinkled in names of famous people from the era including Columbus, Magellan, and Bartholomew Diaz. Magellan played a key role in this story. The characters he used to play out this adventure were believable and interesting. Rabin’s wit, which was obvious from the dialogue among his characters, was a bonus. It was a vicious storm for which the boats were hardly capable of surviving and which blew them off course to unknown territory that led to new discoveries.

 

If this historical era is of interest to you, like it is to me, then Flat will be a novel you’ll enjoy. The book will be available on June 30, 2024.

The Assassin's Protégé

 

The Assassin's Protégé is a thrill ride of an origin story. 

Alison Blasdell has given readers Ainsley Jarred, a helicopter tour pilot on Maui living a second act after the Navy and relationships gone south. She finds herself on the run because of a microchip device left with her- a pleasant nod to one of my personal favorite Hitchcock devices. Where the author really shines is the characterization of Ainsley, the mix of detail and emotion that allowed me to not only connect but be vested in her development. If you're looking for a female action hero who can give it out as well as they can take it, this is the book for you.

Every protégé must have a mentor and Ainsley's is Dick Jordan, ex-CIA agent turned private assassin/fixer. The training meshes with aiding her in staying one step ahead of those who will do anything, including targeting her family, to obtain the microchip. I found the sex and violence a little over the top, but the story had a nice balance of side characters and directionality. Published in November 2019, the Assassin's Protégé has the potential to be the first in an exciting series. 

A Galway Epiphany

 Ken Bruen, an Irish novelist, has been one of my favorite authors, and it’s my assumption that his protagonist, Jack Taylor, is in large part the author himself. I read and reviewed the most recent novel, Galway Confidential, the 17^th in this series just last month (4/24), the first of his novels that I had read in 6 years, but there had also been a long gap between the dates that the 16^th and 17^th books were published. Although East Coast Don (ECD) reviewed the 16^th book, A Galway Epiphany in 2022, I felt a need to read it to find out why book 17 started out with Jack awakening from a two-year coma. But now I’m confused about all the major injuries Jack has suffered over the course of these novels. The 16^th book ends with him being stabbed many times by a father had mistaken Jack’s interest in his daughter and/or was trying to protect himself from charges of child abuse. But, upon awaken from his long coma at the beginning of the 17^th book, Jack had been run over by a Mac truck. Maybe it’s just me that has lost track of Jack’s horrific injuries.

 

Always an Irish noir writer, this may have been Bruen’s darkest novel, which is indeed saying something remarkable. There was a teenage girl who was a psychopath and murderer. There was a woman who was trying to pass herself off as a nun in order to get donations for a fake cause, a psychopathic man who loved to set people on fire, priests who thought of their own needs first, and the usual cast of substance abusers. But, despite the noir, I am drawn to Bruen’s erudite writing and the authenticity of his descriptions of Taylor’s substance abuse. Given the excellent review of the book by ECD, I need not write more. Please read his review.

The Blind Devotion of Imogene

 

The Blind Devotion of Imogene, subtitled The Misadventures of Imogene Taylor by David Putnam is my second Putnam novel and the fourth reviewed in this blog. We have liked them all. This book is particularly intriguing, and I cannot remember any prior crime novel in which I so enjoyed the conversation among characters, and sometimes when the characters talked to themselves. While it’s a crime novel, it is a departure from Putnam’s stories about Bruno Johnson.

 

This book’s protagonist, Imogene Taylor, was somebody I cared about from the outset. A 75-year-old woman who has been released from jail on parole to a sadistic parole officer who has predicted Imogene will never survive on the outside of jail, will violate her parole, and will be reincarcerated. After 10 years in jail for murder, Imogene was determined to stay free of jail, and one condition of her parole was to keep a job. She becomes a cashier at a variety store (think K-Mart) that serves the desperately poor. There’s conflict with the store owner and other employees. Meanwhile, she does a good job watching the store and then going home at night and getting soundly drunk in an attempt to forget when she pulled the trigger of a gun that killed the love her life, Wayne. She never denied pulling the trigger, but she made a mistake which she thought should have qualified her for a manslaughter charge, not a murder charge.

 

In addition to wonderful dialogue, the plot was fantastic. There were unexpected surprises throughout. I recommend this novel highly – you won’t be disappointed. Now, I’m ready for more of Putnam’s work.

Joey Piss Pot by Charlie Stella

#10 in Stella’s library of mob fiction (on top of two non-fiction and two plays). You got 10 published books in a common theme, you’re good. Trust us.

Chris Gallo grew up with some issues. When he was 12, his dad was ‘collateral damage’ in a mob hit in a Brooklyn bar owned by his grandfather Joseph. His mom has held Joseph responsible for well over a decade. After college, Chris bolted for the military. His mom didn’t find out until months into his tour in Afghanistan. When he came back, he opted for the FBI and steered his training to land him an undercover assignment in NYC checking into various mob factions with an intent on finding who ordered the hit that took out his father.

Joseph is retired now and spends most of his days with his life-long friend Artie Adler, a retired NYC detective. Joseph is worried about Chris as much as Chris’ mom. While he knows Chris is in NYC, he doesn’t know what he’s doing so he enlists Artie to resurrect age-old surveillance skills. What Artie finds doesn’t sit well with Joseph.

Now it gets complicated:

1.     Carmine Montalvo is a mob kingpin serving long federal time . . . has cancer and will die in prison . . . wife Doris sleeps around cuz she likes it . . . beds a 20-something Eddie Russo, a civilian . . . beds Jerry Galante, Montalvo’s underboss . . . beds Giovanni Rapino, a recent import from Italy, is a stone killer whose mother was raped and murdered in the old country years ago.

2.     Carmine tells Jerry to off Russo but Jerry thinks that’s a little stiff for a civilian and instead has some muscle put him in the hospital. Carmine learns of this and orders his lawyer, Morris Greenblatt, to have Rapino do what Galante didn’t have the stones to do. Rapino grabs a go-fer (Chris) to drive him to Russo’s house where he kills not only Russo but also his mom (Chris only drove. Didn’t know what Rapino did). No one - the cops, the feds, the other crime families - like it that Rapino took out civilians.

3.     In Rapino’s apartment building live two young Asian girls. Of course, Rapino is sleeping with each. A couple Asian gang members want the girls in their harem, but Rapino talks (wink, wink) them out of it. The girls ‘borrow’ money from Rapino to finance their way to Europe.

4.     Fontana is another underboss. Two (un-made) sons and a daughter. She’s pretty good at surveillance and a camera, the sons are inline to move up to run a crew but are also in at least one set of crosshairs.

5.     Then there’s a dirty internal affairs cop messing things up on both sides.

Like all of Stella’s books, the stories are about relationships on both sides of the law. Primarily, it’s the lifelong relationship between Joseph and Artie (the title could be revised to 'Joey Piss Pot: A Love Story'). They bust other’s shoes (balls) constantly about almost everything in their lives. And each would go the extra mile, no matter the potential danger, for the other. Then there is the relationship between Joseph, his daughter-in-law, and her son Chris. Fontana and his three kids. Doris and her dalliances.

It's mob fiction so there will be blood, but those settings are expected. The draw with Stella’s books is character development, not page after page describing a surveillance route with 12 tails in the rearview mirror. It’s the verbal back and forth that plants you in your chair. Clever, brutal, lean, creative, profane, authentic, hard. Makes you think you’re eavesdropping on a reality that only Stella knows and lays out for the reader that makes you wonder . . . 

“Where has this guy been?”

Remember Bum Phillips, the long-ago head football coach of the Houston Oilers? When asked whether his running back, Earl Campbell was in a class by himself, Phillips replied, ‘I don't know, but it sure doesn’t take long for the roll call.”

In that class of riveting writers that put you right adjacent to the characters, made sure you add Stella alongside of the likes of George V. Higgins, Elmore Leonard, Cormac McCarthy, George Pelaconos and newcomers to school SA Cosby and Brian Panowich.

Them’s some good reading.

Published by Stark Press so you may need to do a little digging. Stark says it'll be released in July 2024.

P.S. many of Stella's earlier books have similar titles. You'll have to read the book to find out what it means.

East Coast Don