Copyright 2010 by Splendide Mendax Inc and Preston Child. Published by Grand Central Publishing.

This is #10 in the series of mysteries featuring Aloysius Pendergast, effete FBI special agent extraordinaire. It is only the second Pendergast mystery that I have read and that first one for me was #14 in the series, so some of the references that made little sense to me in that book came into focus a bit more while reading this one. In a series like this, with some continuity between books, it is probably best to start at the beginning. I may go back and do that.

Pendergast is an interesting if somewhat unbelievable character. Preston and Child want us to believe that an active FBI agent could investigate cases while driving a Rolls Royce. And that he is perfectly free to investigate cases on his own, as in this volume, without an extended leave from the FBI. Or that he can use “unconventional” methods, like destroying a bar by exploding a propane tank, without encountering some serious official blowback.

I try to be tolerant of all of this nonsense because I do, after all, enjoy the writings of Clive Cussler, a guy who pens the most ridiculous plots this side of sci-fi. Cussler’s main guy, Dirk Pitt, is similar to Pendergast in that he is capable of superhuman feats. You can’t enjoy a Cussler story without checking your disbelief at the door.

So why do I have difficulty giving the Pendergast character a similar pass? I think it is because with Cussler/Pitt the plots are so over-the-top and Cussler is so clearly pulling my leg that I feel that I am just along for the ride. With Preston and Child I don’t get the same sense of a shared joke. They want me to take Pendergast seriously. I have a very hard time doing that.

So, beyond my problem with the believability of the character, what do we have here? An intricate plot spanning over 12 years, starting with the death of Pendergast’s wife in the mouth of a lion. Yes, she was attacked by a lion while they were on safari. Pendergast found only her disembodied hand, with its distinctive ring still intact.

Twelve years later he happens to look at the gun she was using when she was killed and finds evidence that she had been shooting blanks. He realizes that rather than a tragic accident, her death was murder by lion. The rest of the book is a non-stop chase to find the murderer. It is fun, if unbelievable.

The endgame takes place in a swamp where he and a colleague are first attacked by a group of murderous local yahoos, bitten by an alligator, shot and nearly set on fire. But despite being outnumbered and outgunned, they prevail and find the murderer. Or one of two murderers. The other, at the end of the book, remains alive and undiscovered.

I can guess the plot for the Pendergast #11 book.

Another plot complaint: throughout the book there is a major subplot involving a young woman – Pendergast’s ward – who is arrested for infanticide. I was curious, as the plot unfolded, how this plot line was going to tie in to the death by lion and the battle in the swamp. Answer: it doesn’t. Apparently this was all one big “coming attractions” subplot for #11.

So despite being entertained by the main plot and the superhuman exploits of Pendergast, I found myself annoyed at being manipulated by Preston and Child.

6.5 out of 10.

Copyright 2006 by Sandra Brown Management Ltd. Published by Simon and Schuster, New York.

Let me begin by apologizing for the preponderance of book reviews in this blog which is intended to be a diary of our full-time RV lifestyle. But in this pandemic there is darn little left to do but read. So, sorry, but this is our RV life right now.

I liked this book a lot. That makes 3 straight books that I liked a lot, which is some kind of record. Hopefully my view is not being tainted by my boredom.

First, let me mention something that I liked about this book that has nothing to do with the plot or the prose: it was a large-print edition. I think this is my first large-print novel and I have to admit that it was a pleasure being able to read it without reading glasses.

Second, let me mention something I liked about the book that had a bit to do with the plot, but not much: it was set in Savannah GA, one of my favorite cities. Many of the settings in the book were familiar to me from the times I have visited there. This familiarity made it easy to picture the scene and made it more realistic to me.

The plot. It begins in the courtroom of Judge Laird where a career criminal, Robert Savich, is on trial for murder. The lead detective, Duncan Hatcher, and his partner, DeeDee Brown, are confident that this time they had built an iron-clad case against Savich, a long-time nemesis who had skated free numerous times. This time the trial ends in a mistrial when Judge Laird rules that a juror had lied on his questionaire. Hatcher is incensed that the juror had not simply been replaced by an alternate and voices his displeasure so forcefully that the judge slaps him with 3 days in jail for contempt.

Fast forward to an awards ceremony where DeeDee is receiving a commendation for exemplary police work. Duncan goes, reluctantly, as DeeDee’s escort, and encounters Judge Laird there. He manages to be civil. Until he meets Laird’s trophy wife, Elise, who figuratively knocks his socks off. Hatcher, more than a little tipsy, gets Elise alone for a few seconds and says something wildly inappropriate. She really should have slapped him or at least walked away, insulted. But she doesn’t. And she lies to her husband about what Hatcher said to her.

Not surprisingly, much of the rest of the book is about Duncan and Elise’s incipient relationship and Duncan and DeeDee’s quest to nail Savich. These two plot lines are, of course, intertwined. There are twists and turns galore and the plot left me guessing right up to the very end. This is one of the best plots I have encountered in a long time and the ending is reminiscent of The Sting.

My complaints? Well, the book is written in the third person which give Brown the freedom to jump from scene to scene. Sometimes the jumps are jarring, with a large block left out, purely to keep the reader guessing. It works, but seemed a bit unfair.

Also, I have some problems with Hatcher’s behavior. He is a veteran detective with an exemplary record and a reputation for integrity. One thing you absolutely don’t do as a detective is form an emotional attachment with a suspect, which is what Elise Laird becomes. You also don’t break the law in an attempt to bring a criminal to justice, which is what he does with Savich. He was very out of control – and out of character – for much of the book. The ending absolves him, mostly. But not completely.

But these complaints don’t do a lot to diminish the entertainment value of this book.

8.5 out of 10.

Copyright 2007 by Lincoln Child. Published by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

This book is strongly reminiscent of the Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. That is not a bad thing. But where Crichton wrote realistic medical mysteries, this one tiptoes into the sci-fi genre. That surprised me as Child is one of Jett’s favorite authors (I stole this book from her mini-library) and I have never seen her read a sci-fi book before.

You have to be willing to believe in aliens to appreciate this book. I don’t believe in aliens – at least not the type that are central to this book – and I have a hard time swallowing some highly improbable engineering feats that are also crucial to this plot – like having a 12-story research facility operating 10,000 feet underwater in the Atlantic. An unpressurized facility. I need to find the engineers that were able to built this structure. They can probably figure out a way to make my toilet stop leaking.

The plot? Without giving away more than I already have, I will tell you that the protagonist, Dr Peter Crane, is summoned to this super-secret underwater facility to diagnose a multitude of mysterious illnesses in the hundreds of people working there. As usual, there is tension at the top between the three people running the operation: an admiral who ostensibly is running the whole operation, a general who is focused on the national security aspects and a scientist who is overseeing the scientific research. And, just to stir the pot, add in a saboteur who is intent on destroying the whole operation.

If you can swallow the aliens and the improbable engineering, you might very well enjoy this book. Child is a skilled author. The prose is lively and entertaining and the plot, though ridiculous, is engrossing. On balance, the entertainment value wins out.

8 out of 10.

Copyright 2020 by David Benjamin. Published by Last Kid Books, Madison WI.

Full disclosure: the author is a friend. A very good, lifelong friend. We met in high school, in Madison WI in 1963. That is particularly relevant because this book is set in a high school in Madison WI in 1963. It is semi-autobiographical. The protagonist, Cribbsy, a 16-year-old wiseass aspiring author is Benjamin, for sure. Some of the other characters – but not all – are identifiable as people I know and grew up with. I see myself in one of the characters and many of the places are both real and very familiar. That familiarity makes this book exceptionally interesting to me.

But I believe anyone would find this book interesting. It is a fascinating look back at the turbulent month of November 1963, when Kennedy was shot. But, despite the title, this is not about Kennedy, nor the assassination, except as a backdrop to the adolescent drama and angst of a fascinating group of teens.

The characters are complex and fully developed. Their problems are real – sometimes shockingly real – and the narrative is amusing and chock full of literary references. I laughed, I cried. I even, occasionally, had to put the book down and reflect on that period in my life. And interspersed with the witty prose are real headlines and snippets of news articles from November 1963. For those old enough to have lived through that month, it it a collage of news that I had forgotten which made me realize both how much things have changed (e.g., all the references to “Negroes”) and how much they are still the same (e.g., the overwrought reactions to social change). There are also quotes from JFK, presented in a different font, which in counterpoint to the other nonsense, make him seem like an absolute oracle of the times.

How much did I like this book? It is 568 pages and I finished it in a week. That is over 80 pages per day. I haven’t read a book that fast in… well, forever.

9.5 out of 10. Maybe I would have given it a 10 if Cribbsy had gotten the girl. But that wouldn’t have been Cribbsy. And, in a way, he did get the girl. You will see what I mean.

Copyright 2004 by James Patterson. Published by Little, Brown and Company, New York.

This is one of Patterson’s wildly popular books featuring Alex Cross, FBI agent and psychologist. It appears to be the 9th of his Cross books and the second where Cross is up against the Russian supervillian known as “The Wolf.”

This book scores high on several counts. First, chapters are short – 2 to 4 pages. I like that. I can pick the book up and read a few chapters in 15 minutes. Second, it visits many interesting places. Washington, Seattle, New York, London, Paris. A few others too. I like a book that takes me to places I would like to go. And it has an archvillian with a big agenda – destroying four major western cities in this case. Cross has a worthy adversary.

But there are negatives, too. Lots of gratuitous violence. The Wolf seems to want to kill everyone he works with, along with a few thousand innocents. You would think his reputation would get around and others would be hesitant to do business with him as all of his allies end up dead. Second, the deadline to destroy the four cities if the ransom – some $2B – is not paid is extended 3 or 4 times, apparently because the book wasn’t long enough. And the four cities change. Frankfurt is dropped and Tel Aviv is added. For a guy who supposedly plans his evil to the last detail, changing the list of cities in the middle of the blackmail made no sense. Maybe Patterson decided he would rather research Tel Aviv than Frankfurt? Didn’t matter because neither city figured into the plot at all. Puzzling.

My biggest problem with the book, though, was its lack of consistent pace. After reading 80% of the book it was apparent that Cross and his colleagues were not one bit closer to catching The Wolf than at the outset; it was just one long, frustrating chase around the world. I also had a hard time swallowing that The Wolf, a supervillian who had been on the “most wanted” lists of law enforcement around the world for 30 years, was so mysterious that no one had an inkling as to his identity. Or her identity, as it was suggested many times that The Wolf might be female. This, despite the chapters of the book that were written from the viewpoint of The Wolf used male pronouns. This conceit was maintained up to the very end where there was a brief, final attempt to pin the identity on a woman.

Then there was the threat to the cities. The Wolf, to prove his power to wreak damage unless he gets his money, destroys bridges in New York, London and Paris. Why bridges? No good reason, but the havoc is sufficient to extract the ransom from the blackmailed governments. True, The Wolf demonstrates that he had access to some “suitcase nukes” so the payment would be small change compared to the cost of rebuilding major cities. But after the ransom is paid the nukes are not found and no one seems to care. Uh, wouldn’t the existence of the devices continue to be a bit of a concern?

Cross finally tracks down The Wolf and the villain dies. But the takedown is more a matter of luck for Cross and stupidity on the part of The Wolf, which seemed out of character for a supervillain. And (spoiler alert) he commits suicide before he can be interrogated. And before the money can be retrieved. So the book ends with $2B and some suitcase nukes still missing. Not a very satisfying conclusion.

So was the dead guy The Wolf? We will never know. Until Patterson finds a reason to resurrect him in a future novel, like a popular character on a soap opera.

It was a fun read, for the most part, but left me feeling manipulated.

6 out of 10.