The Innocent by David Baldacci

Will Robie is a U.S. government assassin.  He’s not FBI, CIA, Secret Service, military or any other well known agency.  But if an American enemy, global or domestic is ordered to be taken out, Will Robie is your man.  He is a 40 year old, six foot one, 180 pound killing machine.

 

For years he has successfully carried out every sanctioned assassination without question or remorse.  Then one day he is sent to kill a young single mother living near poverty in Washington DC.  He easily enters the apartment undetected but finds the target asleep with her child.  Seeing this he can’t pull the trigger and a long distance sniper takes out the target and her child from outside the apartment.  Suspecting foul play, Robie heads for his private safe house via an escape route known only to him.  At a deteriorating bus station in DC, Robie saves the life of a 14 year old girl, running from danger herself.  The girl, Julie Getty is wise beyond her years and had escaped from a foster home only to return to her parent’s home and witness their murders.  Her parents had loved her but their addiction to drugs had caused them to seek foster care for her.  The unlikely pair, Robie and Julie reluctantly join forces at the bus station.  Robie somehow feels responsibility for the teenager’s welfare and agrees to help her find her parent’s murderer.

Robie’s lead handler, Blue Man is impressed by Robie’s judgment and loyalty and assigns him to represent their powerful covert agency in the FBI’s investigation of the single mother’s and her child’s murders.  FBI Special Agent Nicole Vance quickly adopts Robie’s theory that at least one traitor is at work within one of the Federal law enforcement agencies.   As evidence unfolds, it becomes apparent that the two dual murders are connected.  Julie’s father and the ex-husband of the dead woman served together in the First Gulf War.  The ex-husband is also found brutally murdered.  The investigators discover other members of the former unit and each one has been interrogated, threatened, and/or murdered by forces unknown.  What secret was thought to be known by Robie and/or Julie and was suspected of being spread?  Whatever the secret why was it worth murder to conceal… and by whom?  Can it somehow be related to Robie’s past?  Robie  feels he has to find answers to these questions to survive.

I’ve read several of Baldacci’s books over the years and tend to run hot and cold on him.  Many times his ideas do not seem that original to me and he’s easy to confuse with other authors.  But The Innocent is creative and compelling… definitely one of his strongest works.  The unlikely pair of lead characters, an assassin and a distrusting teen age girl share a common goal to find the truth.  Each have their own personal code of ethics deemed more important than their lives.  Yet they each have a vulnerability that makes them likable.  You quickly find yourself hoping for their success and safety.  The plot and story line are reasonably believable fiction and the facts are revealed in an active pace with numerous twists to keep you flipping pages.  Well done Mr. Baldacci…more like this please.

Capital Murder by Phillip Margolin

Capitol Murder by Phillip Margolin is his third in a series of Washington DC based thrillers.  His main characters private investigator Dana Cutler and lawyers Brad and Ginny Miller return to unravel several clever interrelated subplots.

 

After Brad’s boss, a Supreme Court justice is murdered in the previous book, Supreme Justice, Brad goes to work as an aide to Oregon Senator Jack Carson.  Brad’s wife Ginny leaves her high brow Washington legal firm to engage in more satisfying work in the Justice Department.  They look forward to normalcy in their new careers and in their marriage.

 Meanwhile back in Oregon (Brad and Ginny’s home state), Clarence Little, a convicted serial killer now on death row, begins sending disturbing and threatening messages to Brad.  Brad was instrumental in overturning one of Clarence’s many convictions but is no longer involved in Clarence’s legal battles.  Then in the midst of appealing another conviction, Clarence escapes from jail, killing a guard and his current lawyer.  Brad and Ginny are concerned that Clarence will come after them.

Another subplot involves a Middle Eastern terrorist group who had planned to blow up a professional football stadium packed with fans during a Sunday game.  While the plot is foiled before any damage is done, information surfaces that Sen. Carson could somehow be implicated.  Sen. Carson is a high ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.  One of his generous campaign donors, Koshani is a sexually exotic woman who operates a high class escort service in Portland and is suspected of having ties to the foiled terrorist group.  Koshami has compromising photos of the Senator that if published would destroy his career and personal life.   Koshani is summoned to DC and testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee presumably to clear Sen. Carson.  While in DC she stays at Sen. Carson’s Georgetown townhouse and is murdered.  The murder eerily resembles the work of Clarence Little.  With no clear evidence tying Sen. Carson to any illicit activity, P.I. Dana Culter is hired to covertly investigate the Senator before federal agencies risk implicating such a high ranking official.  Since she frequently does investigative reporting for a magazine, she is able to conceal her true employer.

The author successfully weaves several subplots into a compelling story.  Terrorist plots, corruption in government, inter-agency rivalry, and manipulation of the democratic process all set right by likable private citizens make for an entertaining read.  However, with such a complex interconnected plot, I thought plausibility seemed compromised at times; some of the events are a little too coincidental.  Plus, the ‘blow up the football stadium’ plot line has been done before.  Nonetheless, Margolin's Capital Murder is a good effort in the genre and worth a look.  I would however recommend reading the trilogy in order: Executive Privilege, Supreme Justice, Capitol Murder.  Character development builds on itself from one book to the next.

A Death in Vienna

Let there be no doubt that Daniel Silva is at the top of my power rotation of authors. I wait all year for his next book, and have never been disappointed. For authors of international thrillers, he has no peer.

This is the fourth in the 12-novel series about the Israeli assassin Gabriel Allon. I first read this book some years before we started the blog, and given that I have been traveling in Vienna, I thought it was appropriate to re-visit “A Death in Vienna.” Written in 2004, it is a powerful story about the Holocaust, the efforts by some to deny that it ever occurred, the efforts by others to keep those memories alive, and the efforts of still more to recreate the next Reich. Although this book is written in novel form, Silva has obviously done his research and much of what he has written about is quite real. The personal stories of brutality, tragedy, and survival of the Shoah (synonymous with Holocaust) are vivid, gripping, and artfully told.

In this story, a Nazi war criminal is discovered living in Vienna under an assumed identity in which he has achieved great political power and wealth. But, after WWI, Austria was declared Germany’s first war victim rather than its co-conspirator, and Austrians largely escaped having to bring their own war criminals to justice. After the war, some of those Austrian Nazis were hired by the U.S. to help set up its own intelligence agencies, so they had additional protection from being discovered. Yes, some former SS officers were knowingly put on the CIA parole, and the modern day CIA is not eager for their complicity to come to light.

In this story, Allon must leave his latest art restoration effort in Venice to investigate a bombing in Vienna, but his subsequent travels take him to Israel, Rome, Argentina, and back to Vienna. One the one hand, I find detailed accounts of events of the Holocaust so difficult to read and consider. On the other hand, Silva makes these viscerally disturbing events surprisingly readable and understandable. 

Having read everything Silva has written, I eagerly await his 13^th book in this series, and I will probably dive back into some more of his earlier novels.

Now it's April 2023, and I've reviewed this book again, this time in audiobook format. I obviously have a great love for Silva's work, and I've frankly never read a better account of the Holocaust than what he does throughout the novel. In Chapter 17, Silva gives a bold telling of Gabriel Allon's mother as she provides her verbal account of the war for Israel's Vad Yashem, the country's memorial to those who survived the war. Her account is both gripping and horrifying, yet brave and determined experience and survival of the Holocaust. I find it hard to rate these books when compared with Silva's other novels, but this just might be his best.

The Last Man by Vince Flynn

-->

The top spook in Afghanistan has been kidnapped. DCI Irene Kennedy knows that when Joe Rickman breaks, and everyone does, the secrets in his head could endanger countless assets and the CIA’s clandestine service would take years to recover. The head of CIA operations in Afghanistan is no help because he is in bed with the State Department’s “reintegration” program that has lead to green on blue violence where former Afghan creeps are absorbed into the police training only to bite the hand feeding them by killing American troops. Then there an ambitious FBI agent who has been fed intel that Rapp and Rickman have been siphoning $$$ into private Swiss accounts.

Kennedy has little option but to send in Mitch Rapp to turn over rocks and kick ass until he finds Rickman, the sooner the better. Rickman was snatched from his safe house and the only thing left was a squad of dead guards. In tracking Rickman’s last movements, Rapp learns that Rickman had planned to take his pet Rottweiler to the local vet.

Meanwhile, a hired assassin took a shadowy assignment, for a cool $3 mill, told only to go to this address and this time and await a text with the identity of the target . . . Rapp.

When Rapp goes to question the vet, his team realizes that they are trapped by a large contingent of Afghan cops, but the firefight is one-sided leaving 21 cops dead, 1 of Rapp’s guys down, and Rapp knocked out of the game with a blast-related head injury. How in the hell could these cops know Rapp would be at the vet when Rapp didn’t even know he was going there until a couple hours earlier?

It’s up to Kennedy to step in and direct things on the ground in Kabul, Jalalabad, Islamabad, Karachi, and DC. Someone is hell bent on squashing the clandestine service. As Rapp slowly recovers his memory, he and Kennedy piece together a multilayered plot of deceit that is more reminiscent of the old Cold War, but can’t quite trace it back to its source.

OK, let’s get it right out in the open. Flynn is at or near the top of the MRB power rotation so it’s likely this would be well received. And who are we to argue with success? 13 NY Times best sellers out of 13 books is one hellacious resume. And no doubt when this book is released for general sale on 13 November, The Last Man will be his 14^th. I’d be astonished if it doesn’t open in the top 5 if not #1. This is terrifically plotted and paced with dozens of twists that will keep any fan turning pages as fast as they can be read. Had life not gotten in the way, this could’ve been read in one sitting.  I was pleased that there is a hint at 1 or 2 characters to be developed in Flynn’s next outing. Flynn fans will not be disappointed. Absolutely first rate. How do authors like Flynn dream this stuff up?

p.s. And a big tip of the hat 

to MRB’s newest best friend at Simon and Schuster for the advance copy of The Last Man.  Wow, what a start to what we hope will be a long relationship.

Vienna Blood

This is the first book to be reviewed in this blog by Frank Tallis, and Vienna Blood is the second in his series of six detective novels, the protagonist being Max Liebermann. This novel takes place in 1902 Vienna, and Liebermann is a sort of Sherlock Holmes savant who studies the works of Sigmund Freud. The Hapsburgs were still in power, and Vienna was teeming with intellectuals, musicians, artists, and wealth. Liebermann is sort of like a Victorian Alex Delaware as written about by Jonathan Kellerman. The plot was extremely clever, starting with the nonsensical murder of a giant anaconda (the emperor’s favorite) in the zoo at the Schonbrunn Palace, but it is quickly followed by the murder of four prostitutes, and then others.

Just like Alex Delaware has a pal in the police department in Los Angeles, Liebermann has a pal in the Vienna Security Office, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. At times Rheinhardt is very frustrated with his friend’s withholding of information, but he is dependent on Liebermann for his insights into the crimes that he investigates. Liebermann and Rheinhardt have a remarkable friendship and share intimate information about one another’s lives. Remembering that this is turn-of-the-last century Vienna, there is a lot about the arts that is weaved into the story and which is important to the plot. By reading this book, you’ll learn more about Mozart and Wagner. Also critical to the plot line with a Jewish protagonist is the early development of beliefs in the superiority of the Aryan race. The symbol of the swastika appears in one of the murder scenes, and no one has seen that before.

There is no doubt that part of my enjoyment with this read was being in Vienna and knowing the locations that Tallis uses as the characters move through the city. But, the characters were vivid and three-dimensional, and the plot was excellent. Tallis filled out the story with a number of excellent subplots which made excellent use of the era. I hope I can acquire the first book in the sequence, Mortal Mischief (A Death in Vienna), and I’ve already gotten the third book, Fatal Lies. Can you tell? I’m excited about this author and I appreciate my sister’s recommendation.

Gallows Pole by JD Rhoades

Iron Horse is an off the books with no oversight squad taking the fight to the terrorist’s own ground and rules. They chart targets and take out the scum and the scum’s crew mostly by hanging and leaving a tiny iron horse statue. “The Horsemen” have the terrorists running scared.

An incident in Riyadh gets out of hand and the squad’s leader, Colonel Mark Bishop, declares himself a war criminal and sentences himself to a self imposed prison sentence built in rural Virginia.

In the US, a Honduran family, an Arab family, and an Iranian family are all found hanged in an apparent murder-suicide orchestrated by each father, neatly ordered by size . . . and a tiny iron horse is found at each site. 

One of the original Iron Horse squad, Heineman, has gone off the reservation. The FBI has assigned Melissa Saxon’s team to stop the killings, but the word gets to Bishop through his former squad convincing Bishop to end his exile and get back in the game.

Behind the scenes is the shadowy Mr. Campbell who was originally tasked to set up Iron Horse. Now he wants to bring Heineman and Bishop’s team back into the fold. Campbell manipulates the director of the FBI, Saxon’s team, and Bishop into a confrontation at his Shenandoah farm that where . . .  well you can probably guess the outcome.

Rhoades lives just down the road from Raleigh and made an initial splash with the redneck noir series starring the bail bond enforcer Jack Keller, but then went dark. A check on his blog showed that he had all but given up on the print business and had gone entirely electronic, now with 3 e-books available for Kindle and probably for the Nook, too. While one might say his stories are somewhat formulaic, they are no less engrossing. The acknowledged  cheapskate that I am has already purchased the other two, so be on the lookout. 

East Coast Don

Trickster’s Point by William Kent Krueger

Cork O’Connor and Jubal Little are out hunting in the frontier that is the Iron Range in the spout corner of Minnesota. Unfortunately, Jubal has an arrow in his chest with all the markings of the equipment used by O’Connor. Jubal doesn’t want to die alone so Cork sits with him for 3 hours while Jubal unloads his failings on Cork.

Now Jubal was an exceptional individual. A charismatic type from the day he and his mom moved to Aurora, MN from Denver. Jubal tries to hide his heritage as half Blackfeet (actual last name is LittleWolf) even though he is growing up on the fringes of a reservation. Jubal becomes the star quarterback who gets a scholarship, is then drafted by the NFL and, after bouncing around a few teams, lands for a successful 10yr stint with the Vikings after which, he is tabbed as a future political star by a powerful family with generational ties to the DC power elite. He serves the good people of Minnesota in the US House and has come back to make a run at the Minnesota governor’s race and things are looking very good. Win this race, then it’s the US Senate and who knows where that might lead.

But it’s the weekend before the election and Jubal rests at the base of a rock monolith (Trickster’s Point), spilling his soul and blood out to his lifelong friend.

No local really believes that Cork fired the fatal arrow at Jubal, but he is all the law has and the press is going ballistic that the first serious Native American politician has been murdered in the hours before his ascension to the governor's mansion.

But Cork is no ordinary friend. A local who is also a veteran of the Chicago PD, former county sheriff, and now a respected PI – and part Ojibwe, Cork conducts his own parallel investigation even while being told to butt out. With each passing question, the author takes O’Connor back to dozens of connections with locals who might want Jubal dead.

Since the 2008 passing of Tony Hillerman, I’ve been on the lookout for authors that weave Native American culture into their mysteries (maybe it's the 6.25% of me that is Cherokee). The Kate Shugat books by Dana Stebennow about native Alaskans are one such series and this series about the Ojibwe in Minnesota looks promising. But, so far, no one has stepped up to the level of the late great Hillerman’s depth of understanding and incorporation of Navajo culture, beliefs, and mysticism as integral components of his books. If you’ve never read Hillerman, well then shame on you.

Kreuger is a new author to the MRB boys. This 2012 book represents the 13^th(!) book in the Cork O’Connor series so I have some catching up to do. And while he won’t get mentioned in the same breath as the original master that was Hillerman, and won't garner the lofty status in my personal power rotation (yet), Kreuger will do nicely.

East Coast Don