Animosity

This was my fifth David Lindsey book, his 11th book which was written in 2001. (Remember he also wrote Pacific Heights under the name Paul Harper.) Animosity was so interesting and so different than his other books. While the plot mattered a lot, this story was mostly driven by a fascinating study of characters. Ross Marteau is a sculpture who splits time between Paris and his home in San Rafael, Texas. He’s famous, and he’s made a small fortune by doing expensive nude sculptures of the beautiful wives of very wealthy men. His work is in demand and he is able to move directly from one commission to the next. The wealthy men seem to want to catch the beauty of their women before they change and age. Marteau has never been married and he’s had relationships with his models and his subjects, including the women he’s sculpting. If his art is criticized at all, it is because he has chosen to go for the money rather than attempt to be true to his art, as if he should sacrifice a comfortable life for the sake of his craft. The book starts in Paris as his relationship with the next lover, Marian, has fallen apart. They have been brutal with each other and their fights have been fodder for the French tableaus. But as Marteau leaves Marian, she does not take it well. She only exits his life after throwing a knife at him which imbeds in his shoulder and does him some damage. He moves back to San Rafael to begin work on his next commission. It is there that he is contacted by two French sisters with a new commission. He quickly becomes romantically involved with the older sister, Celeste Lacan, while delaying his other commission to take on the statue of the younger sister, Leda, a stunning beauty who has a most interesting deformity that will be a great challenge to his talents. But, all is not as it seems. The older sister is married and estranged from her wealthy and abusive husband. Leda is angry about her own appearance and the abuse her sister has put up with in order to get a stipend from her husband that supports them both. As the story evolves, Marteau learns that Celeste and Leda specifically chose him to do the statue because of their connection with one of his past lovers, his first model, who was a most destructive woman and the real love of his life. Leda turns out to be a most manipulative and scheming woman. The love scenes that Lindsey writes are very erotic, and the ending of the story was absolutely unexpected by me. Even knowing that, you won’t see it coming, I promise. This was a good book, a quick read, most enjoyable, and it gets a high recommendation from me.

The Affair by Lee Child

The Affair is the best Lee Child novel I’ve read. The setting is a flash back to 1997 when the Jack Reacher character is a Major in the Army’s military police. By flashing back, the author provides valuable character development for his famed Jack Reacher that I’ve felt lacking in his previous works.

Major Jack Reacher is ordered to Carter Crossing, MS, a small town near Fort Kelham. Fort Kelham is an Army base for training some elitist ranger squadrons. A young woman has been raped and murdered and Reacher is to be the Army undercover guy outside the base. He is to interact with the local authorities and subtly convince them that Army personnel are innocent of the crime, whether they are or not. Yet from Reacher’s record he has no history of subtlety. His approach has always been direct and his style ‘nothing but the truth.’ So, this assignment makes him think he is somehow a political scapegoat and his Army career may be in jeopardy.

Sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux immediately recognizes Reacher as the Army infiltrator when he arrives in Carter Crossing. She is a former USMC MP and had been expecting the tactic from the Army. She is also a beautiful single woman the same age as Reacher. Mutual professional respect and a strong physical attraction quickly advances to a sexual relationship yet they remain suspicious of each other’s motives. Reacher learns there were two other young women raped and murdered in Carter Crossing both Black and both ignored by the Army. Reacher also discovers a volunteer militia group attempting to protect the Army but unknown to Fort Kelham’s leadership. High level politics are at play.

Through further investigation Reacher learns the most likely suspect for the murders is Captain Reed Riley. He has the reputation for fraternizing with the prettiest young ladies, was stationed at Fort Kelham at the time of all three murders, and dated all three. He is also the son of U.S. Senator Carlton Riley, who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Yet Reacher’s Army superiors keep feeding him evidence that points to Sheriff Deveraux as the murderer. Her military history and conditions surrounding her discharge come into question. Reacher must make his own judgments and act in his vigilante style to save face for the Army and bring the true villains to justice.

Lee Child has a true talent for building and maintaining suspense; holds your attention and compels you to read on. His Jack Reacher character is perilous not just for his infallible combat skills but for his confidence in his own judgments and eagerness to act on them, legal or not. He acts as judge, jury and executioner and we applaud him for it. Great fiction!

From East Coast Don:

Thought I'd add my $0.02 here rather than as a comment. I agree with Midwest Dave that this is one of the best Reacher books to date. I've read the entire series and like any series there are some hits and some misses. I'd be hard pressed to say which Reacher books weren't first rate, but Child's venturing back (like Vince Flynn did in his last Mitch Rapp book) was a welcome diversion from the Reacher as vagabond savior to the latest in a long line of locally oppressed. Actually wish Child would venture into Reacher's military past more often. This one is not to be missed. I still have the question I've posed in other posts - with all the Reacher books having been optioned to Hollywood, just who in the hell would play Reacher? Know any 6'5" 225-250# actors looking for a lead role as one serious alpha dog?

Louise's War by Sarah Shaber

Spring, 1942 in Washington, D.C. Louise Pearlie is a supervisory file clerk in the newly created OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. She's a late 20's widow from Wilmington, NC. Her best friend from junior college, Rachael Bloch, lives in Vichy, France with her husband, an expert on ocean currents and geography, especially north Africa - ground zero for an allied invasion. And they want out in advance of the Nazi's arrival in Vichy.

Louise learns of Rachel's plight and tries to find a way to get the OSS special projects folks to sneak the family out. She quietly asks her boss about moving them up the visa list. But fat guy that he is, he dies suddenly of a heart attack and the file disappears. Louise sets out trying to find the file. Failing that, she'll try to reconstruct the file. And just maybe she'll find out who took the file and why.

So our heroine tries to get her hands on info through the DC party circuit, Director Donovan's inner circle, friends in her boarding house, a mysterious boarder from Prague she has the hots for, all the while thinking the FBI is on to her little investigation.

Sarah Shaber is a local Raleigh writer who wrote the 5 book Simon Shaw series, all reviewed here. The cover blurb says this is the first of a new series by Shaber. The same blurb used adjectives like cozy, comfortable, and charming - all very accurate. This short book could easily read over a lazy weekend. Nice story, but I think I liked the Simon Shaw series better.

East Coast Don

The Day Before Midnight

Maybe this was a good thriller when it was written in 1989, but 22 years later, it’s an old story line. It had been a while since I read Hunter, one of my favorite authors (think Bob Lee Swagger), but I’ve reached too far into the past. It’s a story about terrorists taking over a U.S. based nuclear missile silo with the intent on starting WWIII, and coming out victorious so they can rule the world. In 2011, it may still be a possible thing, but we’ve heard variations on the theme too many times. Hunter does his usual great job in presenting interesting and believable characters, and the plot evolves in a plausible and rapid manner. Alas, it’s just too dated and trite.

Swan Peak

This is another Detective Dave Robicheaux story, but this time, he’s moved out of venue. Instead of the usual Louisiana scene, Dave and his wife Molly have taken time off for the summer. They’ve gone to Montana to hunt and fish on the ranch of a friend, and they’ve taken along Clete Purcell, one of Dave’s oldest and best friends. What Burke does so well is write about seriously emotionally damaged people. Both Dave and Clete have PTSD from their Vietnam days, and Clete’s is even worse than Dave’s. Clete has not gone the way of AA, cannot keep a relationship, and his violent tendencies keep him from staying in a job. He had one been Dave’s beat partner on the New Orleans Police Department, but after losing that job due to his unrestrained violence, Clete became a PI. Dave and Molly have taken Clete to Montana, hopefully to give him a chance to clear his head, to sober up. But, it does not work out that way. Burke writes so clearly about what it’s like to have PTSD, I wonder if he is not a sufferer of that condition. He writes with equal insight into alcoholism. The other important characters in this book are psychopaths, and Burke knows them well, too. This is a story about multiple murders that take place. First the college couple is found mutilated, then the older Hollywood twosome are killed in a truck stop. There’s more, and the cast of characters is good. As the book evolves, there are really so many bad people involved, that the serial murderer could be any of them, and the identity of that person is not revealed until near the end of the book. Burke uses the book to spin some of his own philosophy. So, in an attempt to get away from trouble, of course Dave and Pete walk right into it. There is a collision of truly deranged characters with those who are only partially bent. Burke has Robicheaux think, “I’m not sure I believe in Karma, but as one looks back over the aggregate of his experience, it seems hard to deny the patterns of intersection that seem to be at work in our lives, in the same way it would be foolish to say that the attraction of metal filings to a magnet’s surface is a result of coincidence.” In describing one of the psychopaths, at the character’s funeral, Burke writes, “Quince Whitley had probably been a misogynist, if not a misanthrope, and his mourners represented elements in our cultures whose existence we either deny or whose origins we have difficulty explaining.” Finally, regarding Dave’s struggle with sobriety, this main character says, “The desire is always there – in my sleep, in the middle of a fine day, in the middle of a rainstorm. It doesn’t matter. It’s always there.” I will keep James Lee Burke in my power rotation of authors.

Tropical Depression by Laurence Shames

So why is Murray Zemelman so depressed he is considering suicide? He's the Bra King - the leading producer of, you guessed it, bras. He's married to one of his models, spends his days looking at, designing, and marketing certain female assets. And he's taking enough Prozac to perk up a Clydesdale. So, instead of sucking down the carbon monoxide in his garage, he tears off for . . .

Key West where he pays 6 months advance for a penthouse and decides to take up fishing . . . no deals, no pressure, just he and the fish. Problem is, he has no clue how. Watching this Indian, Tommy Tarpon, gives him some clues. And he plays cards with a bunch of old farts and a Florida state senator. He also wants to see if Franny, his first wife now living in Sarasota, will consider dropping in.

But Murray is getting bored. He needs a deal. While chatting it up with the Indian fisherman, he learns that Tommy Tarpon is the last living member of a small Florida tribe, the Matalatchee. But he's not the only guy looking at a deal. Our senator accepted campaign money from a connected guy who wants to open a casino in Key West, but so far hasn't been able to deliver the goods and Charlie Ponte ain't happy. No he isn't.

Tommy is bitter toward the Whites, so Murray sees the deal he needs and starts the process to get the Matalatchee recognized by the US of A in order to partner up to open their own casino and stick it to the Man. Once that process starts, the Senator tells Ponte who tries to lean hard on Tommy Tarpon to accept him as his partner, but Tommy politely passes.

Franny comes down for the recognition ceremony, Tommy turns Ponte down getting Franny kidnapped, but Murray orchestrates a distraction at the exchange (a boat load of models in lingerie, of course) and they they retreat to a small island to hash out a plan to draw out the Senator and Ponte so that Tommy can protect his Sovereign Island nation.

My brother-in-law lives in Tampa and has read a number of Shames's books, recommending him to me and glad he did. Call Shames "Carl Hiaasen lite". Surely everyone knows humorist Hiaasen who writes about the rape of Florida by developers and crooked politicians. If the other books by Shames follow this trend, the sleezebags are transplants from the north and (surprise, surprise) politicians trying to get a piece of Key West.

And funny. Having just returned from a week at the NC Outer Banks, I would have to say that any of the Key West series by Shames are excellent examples of a beach read. Funny mystery? Mysterious humor? Who cares. If you like Hiaasen, you will like Shames.

East Coast Don

The Coldest Winter

I’m still in Korea and I’ve continued to read a bit more about the history of his country. This was Halberstam’s last book, the 21st of 21, a 10-year work that was finished in 2007. This is a nonfiction work. He had just turned in his final manuscript, when five days later, he was killed in a car crash in California where he was on his way to an interview for his next book. He was a journalist and author, one of our best contemporary historians (and I don’t think that’s an oxymoronic phrase). Much of this book was a bit too tedious for me, a tight and well-written history of “The Forgotten War,” the Korean War. It would serve as a great textbook on the subject. The best part was the end, the last two chapters, the epilogue, the author’s note, and an afterword by Russell Baker. Chapter 10 was entitled “The General and The President.” It beautifully reviewed the conflict between very unpopular Truman and nearly deified McArthur, the conflict leading to McArthur’s dismissal, and then McArthur’s famous farewell speech to a joint session of Congress. Chapter 11 was entitled, “The Consequences.” Halberstam’s analysis of Korea and the effect it had on the politics of Vietnam is insightful. His review of politics and policies of the Democrats and Republicans through the 50s and 60s was excellent. He wrote, “In a stunningly short time, South Korea had morphed itself into a dynamic, highly productive, extremely successful democracy. ‘I cannot think of another country, at least in recent history, that went so swiftly from an authoritarian system to a democracy on its own,’ a member of the party of Roh Tae Woo, a truly democratically elected president of Korea, once told Frank Gibney. In the South the great success had come because the top of the political hierarchy had been forced, no matter how reluctantly, to pay attention to the needs and aspirations of the bottom and middle of the society.” At a time that the middle class of America is feeling that it’s been sold out to corporate greed, and at a time of people occupying Wall Street as a demonstration against such, maybe Halbertson’s words will bring hope to their demands to be noticed and more fairly represented.