The narrator, J J (“Jaye”) Graves, is from a family of morticians. She also is in that profession and is the fourth generation of morticians. She was a doctor but when her parents died, packed up her bags and retreated to the small town of Bloody Mary in Virginia to run Graves (Hm…) Funeral Home.
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Since hardly anyone died there, she makes her ends meet by volunteering to be a coroner as well.
Fiona Murphy is dead at thirty and her abusive husband, George is the prime suspect He has already been arrested. Jaye is called to the crime scene, a ditch where Fiona’s body was found.
The person who found her was Johnny Duggan, the groundskeeper. Jack, Jaye’s close childhood friend was the chief of police.
He tells her that her car was near her body. She had gotten out of the car to talk to a guy who was in a big truck (who was the murderer). If she was running away from George, then this is not a likely scenario so as hard as it is to accept, George may not be the killer.
There is a writer, Brody, an attractive young man, who comes to Jaye for information for his murder story. He alternately seems very attractive as well as obstinate and annoying.
Jack is cutely jealous of Jaye’s attraction to Brody. They go to interview the psychiatrist that Fiona was seeing for a long time, and he is curiously reluctant to talk to Jack and Jaye. He, Dr Hides, is interviewed and they both get a very definite feeling that he is trying to hide some information (pun intended, of course).
Investigations, meanwhile, reveal that Fiona was into sex with violence and also was doing two other things that her husband George did not know. Probably into prostitution because she owned a Lexus that George knew nothing about and also she was having sex with Dr Hines, the psychiatrist, who was also into sadomasochistic sex.
Jaye herself is dying for sex and so jumps into bed readily with Brody.
Jack calls and says that there is another body, that of Amanda Wallace. Jaye goes there and finds her in a hotel room, less than twenty minutes drive from her own home, killed by strangulation and sexually assaulted. Clear conclusion that she was having an affair. (She was married and a mother of two).
Now Jack discovers that Amanda’s lover is Marcus Colburn, one of Jack’s own detectives, and the latter admits to meeting Amanda a the hotel but claims he had left earlier than the murder time. When they learn that Amanda was also seeing a psychiatrist, Jack and Jaye go to the house of Dr Hines with intent to arrest him. Only to find that he was hanging, dead, in his house.
When Brody announces his intent to leave, disappointment swells within Jaye. However, he says that he suspects Jack was the murderer of all three murders they were investigating!
And thinking back, Jaye cannot give him a solid alibi based on the time of those murders, which sends her into a panic. Could it be true?
But then she decides to trust her instincts and trust Jack. Why? Not based on solid evidence. Then she realizes that there was another person in all those places where the murder happened. Brody! In one place he was with her but had the opportunity to slip away for a critical period!
The killer turns out to be a surprise. That is good. What is not good is that there are hardly any clues along the way (at least to me there weren’t!) and he explains afterwards the killer gives justification for each murder. The other thing that rankles is that like a James Bond villain, the killer takes all the time in the world to describe each killing, including at least one thing Jaye had chalked up to an accident. But given that the killer is suddenly produced seemingly out of nowhere, I guess this was the only option to tie all the loose ends in the story. (Can you see me trying hard to avoid any spoilers?)
In spite of all this, I enjoyed this book because it takes itself very lightly and a thread of humour is running all the way through it. It is a kind of romantic mystery and what’s more, a lighthearted, humorous romantic mystery.
We have reviewed several Jack Reacher stories earlier by this author. See Gone Tomorrow or Nothing to Lose for two examples. Let us dive into the story now.
A lawyer goes to visit his client in prison. The prisoner is completely bald, fully chained and seems to be mentally deficient. He utters from memory a lot of legalese which the lawyer memorizes.
On the way back, he is talking – relaying the instructions – to an accomplice of the prisoner on the cell phone. His car skids, and gets into the path of an oncoming tourist bus. He corrects it on time and moves on, but the bus tried to avoid him simultaneously and on the icy road, it was not so lucky. It gets into an accident. One of the passengers traveling in it aimlessly is our Jack Reacher.
The accident cripples the bus and they wait, shivering, for the cop to arrive. The cop who came seems to be after something bigger and asks everyone to prove who they are, where they are going, and whether they can show him the hotel reservations. Reacher wonders why.
Slowly, Reacher comes to know that someone is sending messages through word of mouth. Since the big criminal’s lawyer is fully watched, he guesses that the prime suspect is terrorizing another criminal and makes him send word through his lawyer, who is not watched. The only witness to topple the drug scheme (because that is what it was) is a teacher and librarian, aged, living alone, who refuses to move into anonymity through a witness protection program.
Meanwhile Plato, a druglord, who is safe in Mexico City orders elimination of the lawyer (loose end) and the sole witness. Reacher meets the woman and even stays in her house. Meanwhile he goes to visit a biker gang who they suspect deal in drugs but have never compromised themselves so far. Pure Reacher style. Short staccato sentences and guesswork but not much of action in most of the book – an unusual first for a Reacher book.
There is a red herring where the driver of the bus reacher was in was arrested in the vicinity of the area where the lawyer died, with a gun that had recently been fired. But he is just a disgruntled driver who let off steam by shooting at a road sign (in a town where many signs are routinely riddled with bullets – wait, what? – and so is let off.
The story is one of interminable wait, a surprise that comes from the usually action packed style of Lee Child in his Jack Reacher novels. So, it is interesting? Definitely not. A lot of hurrying up and waiting while guessing what a remote concrete bunker is being used for is definitely testing your patience to the limit.
The biker group suddenly leaves and then Racher, and two policemen figure out where the key is hidden and go get it. Go into the bunker.
When Anderson, the aspiring Chief, is shot, it gets serious. Reacher and Holland realize that the man on the ground is a compromised cop. (We have our suspicions, of course).
There are some surprises; the one where Reacher knows he has failed to save the cop whom he liked and also the main witness from being murdered – and then goes into despondency so deep that he just wants to give it all up. This is not like Reacher and when he has a frank phone conversation with a female cop Susan whom he has never met, it becomes interesting.
The last fifty or so pages are spectacular, but what did you expect in a Jack Reacher novel?
The title is sexy and implies a deadline that everyone knows about. However, without giving much away, I can say that this is very misleading in this book.
Though the story kind of ends neatly, there is the tantalizing note saying ‘to be continued’ at the end. Intriguing. Sure there are some lose ends like what happens to Susan, whom Reacher never met and the details of Reacher’s final escape but I guess that is reserved for the second part of the story. Typically I am annoyed when a story is abruptly stopped because a second part is coming and the author wants us to buy and read that too. (For instance Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz which we have reviewed earlier). But in this case, the story is fully self contained and you can skip the sequel if you so choose, and therefore the book is fully satisfying.
All in all a very tame Reacher – by the normal high standards of Reacher books. Still readable. But since nothing at all happens much of the time, I will restrict it to a 6/10, earned mostly for the last part of the book.
This is a standalone book from Bernard Cornwell. We have reviewed many of his books earlier here : For instance Sharpe’s Fortress from the Sharpe series, 1356 from GrailQuest series and Sword of Kings from the Saxon series.
Saban was six years younger than his brother Lengar and he was due for his trials of manhood in a year. They both were the sons of the chief of the tribe of Retharryn. Lengar, who was serious and also cruel, was likely to be the next chief. When Lengar takes Saban for his training, reluctantly, they meet a stranger who was wounded coming to the tribe on a tired dun horse.
The stranger goes straight for the abandoned Death House. Lengar follows and Saban follows Lengar since he has no choice. Since he was an Outfolk, Lengar figured he must be rich and greed impelled him to follow.
Lengar decides to kill him. The Outsider did not speak their language but he did recognize a word. He was seeking Sannas who was an ancient witch and also an outsider. He said to Lengar that ‘he could give him power’ but Lengar did not understand and, if he did, could not have cared. Outsiders were the enemy, and over the doubts of young Saban, he puts an end to the outsider through his arrows.
But knowing that he had a lot of Gold, Lengar takes it all and to ensure that his their wild and violent father did not learn about it, he tries to kill his brother Saban. But Saban escapes with one piece of gold and now Lengar knows that he has to admit getting the gold and give it to his father. He is furious.
Hengall, the father, was the chief of one of the two dominant tribes there – the Ratharryn. He had three sons – Lengar was the eldest, the middle son Camaban was a cripple and (in his view) a half wit so he did not count and then Saban, the youngest. The high priest warns Hengall that soon Lengar will challenge him for the position, with a fight to the death of one of them. But when Lengar tries to challenge Hengall, he backs off and is thus defeated; sullen, he departs.
Galeth, Hengall’s man, persuades Camaban to ‘agree’ to be sacrificed to propitiate the Gods but Calaban, cunningly makes Hirac the priest hesitate and runs away. Hirac dies soon after and the omens are all bad after that. The young priest, Gilan, dreams of succeeding Hirac as the high priest but he is too young to be selected.
Meanwhile the Outfolk come and try to pay an astounding sum to get the golden trinkets back. Hengall not only refuses, infuriating Lengar who wanted them to fight with their tribe the Cathall but also wants to make peace with the Cathal tribe. Lengar runs away at night to join the Outfolk and Hengar takes Saban to pick a bride for him with Cathal, thereby uniting the two tribes in marriage. They have earmarked the beautiful Derrewyn for him.
Sannas, the powerful sorcerer as old as the hills is feared but Camaban wins her heart.
Derrewyn comes to live in Hengar’s tribe as is the custom and the whole tribe is aghast at her beauty. Especially Jengar, the chief hunter of the tribe who was a friend of Lengar before he left. He dreams of killing Saban in the hunt and thus claiming both the privilege to rule after Hengar and also get Derrewyn whom he plainly lusts after.
Now the time comes when Saban has to prove he is a man, by escaping from armed hunters. With Jengar specifically aiming to kill him, that would prove very difficult.
In their most vulnerable and sacred moment of celebrating the installation of the ‘Sky Temple’ when they are dancing, Hengall is killed by an arrow and the defenseless Rathyrrin folks are surrounded by armed Outfolks, led by Lengal who has come back for revenge.
He then forces his uncle Galeth and Saban to kneel before him. Saban is sent off to be a slave so that he is no threat. Derrewyn and Lengar are to marry, and then Jengar tells him that when Lengar tires of him, he will be Jengar’s. He also tells him that he was Lengar’s spy all along and that is how Lengar knew when they would be defenseless and attack.
Jengar has big plans to even outwit his allies, the Outfolk and Saban is humiliated further by Jengar peeing on him. He wants to die but there is no way. He wants to kill Lengar but he has no opportunity. Now he is a slave, taken away by a huge man called Haragg. He vows to kill Lengar if he gets a chance in the future.
Cathallo’s priest Morthor is sent to Cathallo but after his eyes have been gouged out by Lengar’s people as a warning and after his shoulder has been made unusable by torture.
All the aces seem to be with Lengar.
But after a while, Haragg confesses that Camaban was behind his slavery. He insisted on it, and with Haragg because he knew that Lengar was planning to kill him as he killed his father and Camaban wanted him alive. Haragg also tells him that his mutilation of fingers and his manacles were to convince Lengar that he, Saban, was no longer a threat to him and that in reality, he is a free man. He also says that Camaban wants to meet Saban.
Lengar comes to meet the chief called Staki through whose territory the stones must pass. He tricks Staki and attacks and massacres the entire tribe. Saban goes and confronts Jengar and kills him on a one to one battle.
Bernard Cornwell can light a story on fire. When it gets tense, the story gallops. I can think of no better example than the Winter King and its Arthurian sequels. But this story? It just wanders back and forth. Fortunes made, fortunes lost, evil triumphant and then evil lost. And people come and go and even major characters like Camaban or Derrewyn just wander around. Even the Sun bride whom Saban marries keeps going around placidly in the face of disaster. Though her predictions turn out to be true always, it appears that she is marching to the call of an unseen drummer, and frankly, most of the people in the story seem half crazed.
Stonehenge is not a novel about the well known monument alone. It has got a lot of crazy subplots. The problem is that they are not well knit and feel like sudden disparate lurches that the story takes when the author has run out of a plotline and threads another in parallel. Not at all a typical Cornwell novel and that is not a compliment!
Sure, there are two things going for it. You really understand that Camaban, the cripple is the chief character in the story not Saban. He amasses greater and greater power and then goes sort of mad. The other thing is the twists – all of them betrayals – of Saban with his relations. He does protect some – his son and his daughter in law chosen by his son but he is just a victim of all the treacheries, first by Lengar and Jengar and then a series by Camaban. The only saving grace is that he identifies and prevents a surprise mass slaughter planned by his mad brother Camaban.
There are enough killings and enough blood and quite a few twists in the story to satisfy the reader. However, the story does not run straight and the threads are not as neatly arranged as in most other Bernard Cornwell’s stories and so I cannot say that I stayed satisfied with this story.
There is a man who was evading detection. He ran away with quite a lot of money that did not belong to him and simply vanished. Ultimately a very professional ‘location service’ was hired to find that man and recover the money stolen. They search for many years and finally, after many false starts find him. They take him, after an anxious moment where he just disappeared for two days, and then fingerprint him to determine that he is indeed their quarry. He was going by a false name but his real name was Patrick.
Meanwhile, a partner, Eva, far away in USA realizes that he is gone, just based on the fact that he did not contact periodically and on the fact that he was unreachable. She operates the ‘code’ by calling the FBI to tell them that a private gang has Patrick in custody. FBI figures out that it is a private agency and which one.
The owner of the agency, Stephano, is surprised when the Feds come knocking on his door threatening to cause him trouble if he did not hand over Patrick immediately. He is stunned at the speed of the discovery. He complies and FBI says that he will be prosecuted for torture. Patrick was nearly at the death’s door when he was delivered. By then he had given the name of the girl who was his partner. She of course, had fled by then.
She finally sees the TV and realizes that Patrick has been taken custody by the FBI.
Patrick meanwhile sends her to a childhood friend of his, a lawyer called Sandy, to represent him and he agrees, even though he suspects that the case is hopeless.
Patrick manages to get himself into a hospital instead of jail, citing his injuries while Patrick’s lawyer Sandy (who was his classmate ages ago) manages to cause a huge stir when he announces to the press that he is suing the FBI for torture.
The man in charge of the previous torture is still planning to find and torture the girl lawyer (who is Patrick’s girlfriend Eva) and recover the money Patrick stole.
Now we go into the back story. One of th lawyers was working for a company which habitually overcharged government contracts and made money. This partner, Aricio was one such man. He did not want to be in a small town like Biloxi as he had ambitions of the top job in the large company. However, he was forced to look after the defense contract from the government.
Aricio also knew that if the fraud was ever found out, it is the people closest to the danger zone that were fired before the company made a deal to pay back and promise that it would never happen again. When his deal starts to smell and an investigation was imminent, he turns whistleblower going after the 15% that was given to those who helped blow it apart and that was the nineteen billion dollars that Patrick, a young lawyer in the company through which Aricio was trying to redeem himself, disappeared with.
Meanwhile Patrick provides evidence to his lawyer that Trudy was carrying on with Lance before, during and after his marriage and also that the daughter was not his. He had collected evidence through detectives and had a DNA sample analyzed.
He asks Sandy to meet Trudy’s lawyer and present the evidence: his terms of not publicizing it to the media is that she withdraw all claims on him and accept a divorce with no compensation. He does not need visiting rights to his daughter, love her as he does.
The reaction of the lawyer and, when he carries the news to Trudy and Lance, is terrific to read. He provides evidence of their affair throughout her marriage to Patrick as well as DNA evidence that the daughter is not his but Lance’s. Sandy’s terms to Trudy is to agree to a divorce with no claim at all on any of his property or the whole evidence will be presented to the media and the divorce court.
Patrick meets a judge, Karl, on a non business visit and explains how he planned the heist. He actually learnt that his partners were planning the swindle and – by tapping their rooms – he found that they were planning to fire him so that he does not get any part of the loot. He explains how he planned the car crash – does not explain how the corpse came to be in the car but everything else. How he wanted the crash to look real and in engineering it, nearly twisted his shoulder and could have even died if it had gone wrong.
In the meanwhile, Evaès father is kidnapped and she almost decides to come home. Patrick stops her and sends Sandy to convince her to stay. He also gives evidence to Sandy to tip off the Feds that Stephano, the private investigator hired to find him in the first place by his lawyer friends, is still trying to recover the money.
Meanwhile, Eva feels she is followed by a guy and after verifying, runs. Unfortunately, she takes a flight which was already notified to look for a lady of her description by FBI. She is caught and transferred to a cell.
Patrick then does several amazing things, managing to get the feds drop their charges in lieu of helping them catch the crooked lawyers. Twist number one : the whole deal that made the money he stole was crooked and designed to screw the US of A. He then proves that the body in the car was not that of the boy in his cabin but was that of a man called Clovis, who he had helped and then later used his body to place in the car.
The astonishment and defeat of all his opponents, and the near perfect planning ahead of time by Patrick are astounding!
He then throws a bombshell to Sandy about who gave the clue that had him get caught.
And finally the biggest bombshell of all when he was released and goes a fully free man to the place to spend the rest of his life in peace.
Jeffery Deaver’s most famous detective is Lincoln Rhymes and we have indeed reviewed many books of that series here. For instance, see The Kill Room. He has also written books with other heroes and for an example of that, see The Pain Hunter. This book belongs to the later category. Let us go to the story.
Matthews is having lunch with Colter Shaw and is worried that a woman, Evie for Eveline, has been kidnapped. Evie called a friend and said she needs to travel a while but Matthews suspects that her abductor made her call the friend. If Evie had called him, Matthews, he would have immediately known she was in trouble, he claimed.
Evie had gone to an artist’s retreat outside Chicago, not unusual. But she did not come home on Sunday night, which was.
Shaw agrees to take on the case but he has a suspicion, knowing that Matthews did not share her passion for art even though he loved her, that she has just gone off with a friend who is more to her taste. When Shaw checks with the galleries she usually frequents, he is told that she had gone to an artist’s convention with Jason, “her boyfriend” to an artists’ retreat called Muncie. A studio owner called David Goodman tells this to him.
Colter now decides that Eveline has simply found a friend more to her taste. He is tempted to just walk away as this is not a missing persons case anymore . But he decides to go and track her down anyway to satisfy his curiosity – not to persuade her to come back or anything.
He then goes to Muncie and asks around. There he finds his car has a flat tire. While he is puzzling over this, two burley folks get him and take him. He meets Evie Fontaine (to give her her full name) and her ‘boyfriend’ James. He learns that she ran away because Matthew was an abuser and was violent with her. When he finally threatened to break her (painting) finger or blind her, she decided it is time to run. And James is not her lover – he is gay. He simply took her away to keep her from danger.
She hysterically pleads with Colter not to betray her to his client, the husband. He agrees, but after checking out her story. She says she has proof and takes him to an industrial shed which is her studio. When he gets there, he finds himself trapped. David Goodman has Matthew bound and in terror and Evie is pointing Matthew’s pistol at him.
When John gets there with Colter’s rented car, Evie shoots him dead without batting an eyelid. The plan was to frame Colter, Matthew and John as an altercation gone wrong. David himself seems to have been an unwitting pawn.
The tables turn again and again. This is Jeffery Deaver’s speciality in all of his books.
I will leave the ‘How does it end?’ part to avoid spoilers. Like some of his other books, this one also is really a short story masquerading as a book.
Stephen King appears quite a lot in our reviews. See Gerald’s Game or Doctor Sleep for two examples. Why do we review him so much? Because of his excellent narrative powers, his ability to draw you into a tale and, frankly things he tries anew, like this book for example.
Andy Bissette and Frank Proux, two policemen are interviewing an old lady, the titular Dolores Claiborne. The whole book is pretty much a conversation, with Dolores doing most of the talking. Stephen King has written a book about a gripping story, all of which happens in a conversation! He really likes to try out things, does he not?
The lady came to argue that she was not the one who killed Vera Donovan. Who is Vera? The story explains.
She admits to killing her husband Joe St George but that was twenty nine years ago! At that time she had three kids : fifteen year old Selena, thirteen year old Joe Junior and nine year old Little Pete. Joe left her nothing, and was a drunk husband with no sense of his responsibilities. At that very time, Vera Donovan decided to come live full time on the island and offers Dolores a job as a housekeeper. Dolores had no money so she jumped at the offer.
Vera was rich, her husband made a fortune and left everything to her when he died. Vera was a virago, and would not quit smoking or drinking even after her heart attacks. Dolores was a stay at home companion to Vera even after her children had left (and Little Pete had left the world)..
Vera was a harridan but Dolores stuck with her through the screaming and bad manners. Vera’s kids never visited her from town and she did not have anyone else either, living alone in the big mansion (except Dolores, her housekeeper).
On top of all that, she was in a wheelchair when she was not in bed.
Her evil streak did not abate. She was harsh to servants with strict instructions and whenever they were flouted thrice the person was out. Dolores was the only one who could stay but then she had to put up with a lot. This is even before her cunning where she deliberately soiled the bed at unexpected times and expected a clean up. On one particularly egregious occasion Dolores was mad enough to scream ‘I will kill you!’ at her highest voice; every servant in the house would have heard it.
But really Vera was a tormented soul, seeing ghouls and monsters in everything, even dust bunnies and had to be calmed out of her raging terror and hysteria, and only Dolores was able to do that.
There is a horrible contest between them of Vera trying to make as much mess with her poop – outside the diaper – as she could when Dolores was away working and how Dolores managed to outwit her after several ‘defeats’.
She then moves over to her husband Joe. Joe was her sweetheart in high school and after marriage she found that he was a drunk and also that he had a temper. On one particularly painful hit, she ‘fixes him’ by smashing a pitcher on his cheek, wounding and bruising him. When he rises in anger, she gives him an axe handle first and says ‘If you want to finish it, now is the time; but you will rot in jail for the rest of your life’.
She protects her two kids Mark and Selena from any knowledge of the beatings and the ugliness in the marriage.
However, Joe seems ‘cured’ of wanting to sexually assault Helena but when she finds out that Joe had stolen the kids’ savings she had put in the joint account, she knows she needs to get rid of Joe. On a full eclipse of the sun, while the entire town is away either on the beach or on Vera’s rented boat on the sea, she manages to get Joe drunk and lure him to the abandoned well in a drunk state.
What follows is pure adrenaline filled action : Though Joe is trapped and falls, he does not die and there are several times when Joe seems to outwit her, severely injured though he is. In the end, she manages to come out on the top. But pays a very heavy price for it with her relationship with the children later.
Excellent stuff. In fact the entire book is told in the racy conversation style of a woman past her prime, not very well educated and struggling with the slings and arrows of a fortune intent on heaping problems after problems on her. One of his best books, in my opinion.
And then she is grilled by a Scottish detective who is highly suspicious and tries to trap her into admitting her guilt. He pulls apart her story and cross examines her grimly and she comes very close to giving up and admitting her part. But at the very last moment, she gains control and he retreats, unsatisfied but knowing that he is defeated. This is an excellent part in the story and keeps you turning pages.
After that the story moves towards its conclusion very fast. We learn what happens to Vera Donovan and why Dolores is in the police station. Even those events are well told and tied beautifully to the earlier events where Vera’s mind was going and she was seeing monsters everywhere and Dolores had to go and comfort her at every turn.
Now, the latest episode happened while Dolores was out hanging the clothes and the book races towards its conclusion.
A superb job of plotting and execution and it keeps you tense and absorbed until the very end.
For the murder she did not commit, she is harassed and hauled over the coals, which is heartrending. The townspeople start bullying and threatening her anonymously. Notices on her door, phone calls, drunk groups shooting near her house, the whole nine yeards.
The whole thing is touching – how it happened and how it looked like to the townsfolk who caught her in suspicious circumstances always. And the phone call from Vera’s lawyer is the icing on this cake. As if the story is not already top notch, there are things revealed at the end that make you stunned. I know it is an old book and I know that most of you would have already read it, but I will refrain from giving anything away except to urge you to read it if you have not already!
Sure we have reviewed many books by this author, both his Egyptian series featuring Taita or, like this one, about the Courtneys. See, for example of the latter, A Time To Die or Assegai.
Unfortunately, unlike the above two examples, this book is not up to his usual mark. I would not have believed if someone had said that Wilbur can write a slow burn kind of book where not much happens throughout except for the last fifty pages, but this is just that kind of a book.
A young girl is targeted by a stalker in a Mick Jagger concert. When she comes out alone he tries to follow her and interrupts a Hell’s Anger biker who is trying to force himself on her in a deserted area outside the concert grounds. The ‘hunter’s’ name is Ramon Machado. The girl? Isabella Courtney, from the Courtney family that features in so many of Wilber Smith’s books.
Ramon, in fact, is being groomed as a successor to the KGB head Joe Cicero, who knows he is dying of cancer. Ramon has been asked to seduce Isabella to gain valuable intelligence that can help overthrow the apartheid government in South Africa and install a communist paradise in its place.
As a part of his plan, Ramon surreptitiously replaces Isabella’s birth control pills with a cleverly designed placebo without her knowing.
When she inevitably gets pregnant, he persuades her to keep the baby. But he cannot marry her until his current wife, estranged, gives him a divorce.
Let’s put the story aside. Just like all of the other books, Wilbur revels in a world where the men are the best in everything, animal cruelty is fine, and everyone is fun loving. And in almost all books, they are tolerant of the black people, even friends with them, and against apartheid, but really, it is the white men who live the decadently luxurious life and ‘protect’ the others under their care.
Here a bull fight – to which Ramon takes Isabella – is described in loving detail. Wilbur Smith says – through Ramon this time but almost from the mouth of all the heroes – that they make no attempt to ‘hide’ the cruelty but ‘it is just nature, darling!’. And then they forget the plight of the poor animal and enjoy the ‘sportsmanship’ of the entire ‘contest’.
I know that Wilbur Smith’s books are not the right place for an animal rights activists to be, but I noticed that in all of his books, this ambience pervades.
The one time where Ramon lost his cool and control is when he dropped his Spanish passport and Isabella found that, rather than Rome, he had gone to Moscow. His only explanation is ‘Never pry into my private affairs again!’ and she accepts it with good cheer.
Ramon discloses that even though he loves Isabella, he cannot marry her because he is ‘already married to a Catholic woman’ whom he no longer loves but she will not grant him divorce. He says that ‘later, when it is done, he will marry Isabella’.
Michael Courtney, her brother comes to London and finds Isabella fully pregnant. She confides her love for a Count to him. She also discovers that Michael is gay and likes black men as partners.
When Ramon comes back with a bullet wound and refuses to say how he got it, she meekly accepts that she cannot question him and nurses him back to health.
Michael is impressed by Ramon, especially when Ramon could wangle an interview with a hard to get dissident of South Africa in London. His name is Raleigh
Isabella reveals to Ramon the secret ‘weakness’ of Michael and Michael is trapped by the man he went to interview. He there is presented with a black male dancer who is desirable and they have sex while Raleigh watches through a one way mirror and films the entire sordid saga.
The story moves much more slowly than Wilbur Smith’s books are used to. Isabella finishes her PhD thesis – she does not seem to have to even consult anyone in her university and yet gets to defend it by going to London for just three days and passing with flying colours! She has a baby boy. Ho hum. You are supposed to get very concerned about the stupid way they are getting entangled into the Cuban communist plot to overthrow the South African (apartheid) government and install a communist utopia but you are simply irritated at the stupid carelessness. Count the ways : Even though Isabella knows that Ramon went to Russia and was angry at her for discovering it rather than explaining it, she happily lives with him in love. The nanny Adra, while being very solicitous, sulks for days when Isabella discovers she got a private mail from Cuba; again when Isabella discovers that she has extensive medical knowledge for a nanny. No smooth explanations, but Isabella simply (seems to) shrug her shoulders and get on with life.
Michael is even more stupid. When he goes for an interview and gets to meet the gorgeous black dancer, he jumps into the latter’s bed and gets himself ensnared. This is all so unrealistic that you are not as invested in the story as you could be. Though, to be fair, Wilbur has never been one for emotions – we discussed some of this in his earlier works. But this book seems to stretch it too far.
The story finally takes off when Ramon asks Isabella to come to Spain to meet him at a hotel and leave her child Damien with Adra. She does. Then she finds that Ramon is not staying at the hotel. She thinks ‘he is delayed’ and stays there for two days but when she finally gets back to London, she finds that her child is gone, the apartment is emptied and Ramon has left an envelope ‘to come over to England where she will be met by a person. Don’t talk to anyone and do as I say’. So what does she think? Ramon is in deep trouble and has been forced to write this! In her fright, she had enquired about Adra and the child with the neighbours but decides not to seek help with her brothers but exactly do as she is asked.
She goes to London, taken in a van (with no windows) and taken to an apartment. There her child is almost drowned and she is warned to be faithful to the movement or else. She is cowed and goes as an agent back to South Africa. It was indeed Ramon who orchestrated the entire thing, including the near death of his own son, and watched her reaction from a concealed place.
The story moves on where she gets the opportunity, with her grandmother’s help to rise in the ranks and really control the levers of power in South Africa’s government.
She begins passing plans of the South African government to the Communist regime, where Ramon, now that Cicero is dead; as is the habit with Wilbur’s heroes, he is astonishingly clever and impresses all Politburo members in Moscow with his plans for the success of the Communist order in South Africa.
She complies, and is rewarded with a reunion with the kid (and briefly, Ramon) after deliberate humiliation. Back in South Africa, she is asked for nuclear plans of the government – and is also chosen for the Senate by the Prime Minister, who seems to recognize her as a rising star in South African politics.
At this point you suppress a yawn. Without doubt this is one of the most boring of Wilber Smith’s books. (Even the abominable book, The Seventh Scroll reads better!). The story does not move. The great capable lady remains trapped and does everything Ramon asks, which was the plot from page one. No twists just a long, long cycle of orders and obedience. Not at all like Wilbur’s normal books full of action and surprise.
But when the story takes off, all the gore is there, if not the full plot. He describes a semi true version of how General Andom took over Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia, but in this author’s telling, the plot was masterminded by Soviet and Cuban rulers and executed by Ramon. The destruction of the loyal forces and the bone chilling massacre of not only all those opposed to the takeover – like the armed military loyal to the emperor but also all nobility (to establish a communist paradise in its place) like Pol Pot did, as well as all religious leaders, Christian and Muslim who were supportive of the coup (for the future troubles they would make) are all chillingly described. Wilbur even gets into details with relish, as is the normal feature in most of his books.
Ramon goes alone and murders the emperor who was in house arrest. (Yes, there were rumours that the ailing emperor, in a house arrest in his palace – not in a dilapidated hut as in the book – was murdered).
That done, he returns to his formula. And the story drops back to the soporific descriptions. Now it is focused on Ramon’s son Nicholas. He is of course the Superman that his dad is. Stunning good looks; impeccable behaviour; ability to drive a jeep (taught secretly by a driver in the camp); ability to play soccer like Pele; mastery in multiple languages; admired and loved by all; clearly superior to the hoi polloi of the camp, though Wilber is too careful to rub it in the reader’s face. Like Isabella is strong willed, able – she made it to the highest reaches of the South African Senate -, intelligent, beautiful, clever – need I go on? Don’t even get me started on the original Superman of this story – Ramon himself.
They go from strength to strength, Ramon’s achievements piling up aided by the continued treachery of Isabella.
Then there is a fistfight between two brothers, Garry and Sean – both brothers of Isabella that sprung out of jealousy. The supposedly timid brother Garry gives a lesson to Sean by breaking two of his ribs.
And, like in most Wilbur Smith books, they seem to completely forget it, and Sean tries to trap Garry with prostitutes. Go figure. There seems to be nothing but evanescent quarrels and violence in his books and you don’t get the sense that you are dealing with real people here, just strawman caricatures of a wealthy and very proficient family where everyone excels in something or the other.
Courtney enterprises wants to arrange a nerve gas manufacture with an Italian company for South African government. Isabella pries the information out of Sasha, her dad. The Italian heiress, a widow now, arrives for hunting and the elusive unattainable aged beauty just as suddenly falls for Sasha. (Yes, another Wilber Smithism).
But there are a couple of surprises too. Elsa, the heiress and ruthless negotiator, lets a leopard that was in her sights go, because ‘she could not shoot something that was so beautiful. So unlike Smith who delights in blood and gore, the gorier the better. Also Gary explains to Bella why sanctions imposed by the Western nations on apartheid South Africa helps retain the system while pure sanction busting capitalism would eventually get rid of apartheid, as a population that gets richer will demand equality. A strange, convoluted logic, not unlike what the West thought about China when they made China prosperous by making it the world’s workshop. Both very flawed logic, as it happens.
However, the other things are all typical smith. Even when the powerful Courtneys kill and hunt at will ‘they have a limit of fifty birds per person to keep it fair and be kind to the birds’. (Yeah, tell it to the birds that died). And ‘only shots are allowed at the most difficult targets, birds that fly swift and high’. Yes, that should make it evenly matched, right? Similar to the argument he has made in other books as to why hunting, within limits, allows the animals to be culled but benefits the animals by bringing money into the ecosystem (or at least the pockets of the heroic family). No amount of trouble or oppression can keep these attention deficit people down for more than a few minutes as they romp off for hunting or having sex or violent behaviour as of there is nothing to worry.
The story by now also seems to have forgotten the trap into which Isabella has allowed herself to be caught. Yes, I know it will go back to that, but right at this point, Bella seems to be enjoying the good things in life as much as anyone else, with nary a thought about her boy who has been separated from her and who is totally under the influence of the glorious socialist and communist system.
The Courtney family, meanwhile goes hunting, fishing etc, excelling in everything and playing by the ‘rules of the sport’. So when a large Marlin is nearly at hand, Sean refuses to bag it because it is not sportsmanlike. I do understand that the Wilbur Smith audience loves to read about violence in animals and hunting by the ‘superior’ man who ‘gives them a sporting chance and really feels sad to bring down such a magnificent animal’, to modern sensibilities it still feels like slaughter using uneven tools and gadgets. (Both the splendid dove shooting of Roman and supreme fishing abilities of the other Courtneys). Anyway Sasha and Elsa grow close to each other, and given her background (wealth mainly?) the matriarch approves. She was worried that at his age, after his wife died, Sasha was ‘alone for too long’.
The story finally turns to the original plot and Bella goes on betraying both her family and her country to get a chance with her son. More of the same.
As you are about to weary at the hackneyed plot, the story turns finally. Isabella’s secret is partially known to the family as her diary was discovered by the maid. They do not know the extent of her treachery but know about her marriage to Ramon and about Nicky. They, in turn, expose Ramon’s real face, showing her that he is the mastermind of all her troubles.
When she gets the invitation to go visit Nicky, the Courtneys send a tracking device hidden in a cycle pump and mount a rescue operation to get Nicky and Bella back.
What happens next is the rest of the story.
Yes, I will admit that the book takes off and the attack happens when Ramon was with Bella and then after a very action packed battle and chase, the Courtneys manage to rescue Bella and an angry Nicky who does not want to leave his dad. Ramon escapes narrowly and is furious at Bella’s treachery, which he suspects is the only way Sean could have reached their camp with the Ballantyne troops.
They are totally devastated to learn of the extent of exposure due to Bella and set about trying to repair the damage. They first take steps to remove the Marxist half brother of Bella and Gary from the employment – Bella maneuvered to get him employed at the command of the unknown order givers. They also realize that four barrels of the nerve agent is missing and the half brother has disappeared before they could get to him.
The book ends with the same pace. But the tension is only there for the last fifty pages or so in this large book.
A typical Wilbur Smith story attempted but is somewhat weak in plot and very muted in the action scenes.
This is another Jack Reacher book. One thought before we launch into the review : Unlike other authors we normally review who have a series with central characters (Take Anne Perry, Jeffery Deaver, Agatha Christie, Bernard Cornwell to name just a few), an overwhelming majority of what Lee Child has written is about Jack Reacher. Even that he got bored writing and tried to give it away to others to continue.
Jack Reacher is in a New York subway and is looking for the telltale signs of a suicide bomber. He is on the lookout for a woman and thinks he has spotted her.
However, it turns out that she was just a person contemplating suicide. In front of Jack, she blows her own head off. The train is stopped and doors locked and everyone, including Jack, wait until the police arrive. The police officer is a youngish woman and she interviews Jack as to what happened.
He is detained to be interviewed by some Federal Agency. After hearing that the lady did not say anything to Reacher or pass anything to him, they let him go. When he gets out, four people try to stop him to ask questions, but Reacher refuses to talk, shows them that he cannot be roughed about, and leaves. But then the brother of the dead woman, called Jacob Mark, meets him and tells Reacher that the girl ‘did not commit suicide’. Intrigued, Reacher takes him to a coffee shop to talk.
The girl who died was Susan Mark. They were both of Greek origin.
He learns that Lila Hoth was a Ukrainian beauty who was with her mother Svetlana Hoth. He learns that they are after a military man with the first name John. Their initial story is that the “John” guy was kind to the mother and so they want to thank him but the real story comes out – A very new Soviet weapon was taken from Svetlana’s husband (a sniper) and – this is the reason for their rage – both the husband and Lila’s brother were given over to the local women to be tortured for hours and killed. The mother was hearing their screams for almost a day.
They now want justice. (Even now they say that they just want to meet the man and ask ‘Why?’).
John Sansom seems to fit the bill. He is a politician running for high office and had won three medals of the highest honour. His biographical book that he penned does not explain what he got the medals for.
Reacher goes to warn him of the danger he is in.
The story moves on and Lila and Svetlana are exposed as working for Afghan terrorists. When Lila’s cover is blown, she sends a shocking CD of her torturing and murdering two people, one a cab driver from Kabul who was an American collaborator and second, Mark’ son, with gruesome ferocity, mainly executed by Svetlana, the silent older woman.
Sansom’s deputy, Springer, allies with Reacher to find and stop them. Springer notes that Reacher is angry and warns him that this is exactly what the evil people want : to get him angry so that they can lure him to their place of choice and execute him.
Reacher finally learns that there is a real memory stick (and he now thinks he knows where) and it does really contain explosive information of the army consorting with Osama Bin Laden (during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when US allied with the Mujahideen group of Afghanistan as allies against the Soviet Union) and supplied arms and money and everything they asked for.
The Hoths have disappeared from the place where Reacher guessed they were holed up. Now he gets help from Sansom (gun, knife and ammunition) and goes to find them. One man against about thirteen men plus Svetlana and Lila, two vicious killers. Now we have a perfect setting for an action packed ending, Lee Child style!
He guesses where Lila is holed up and sensing his nearness, Lila calls him. He makes a deal with her for seventy five thousand dollars and lures his seven people into a trap with NYPD undercover with them. However, the Feds show up since they probably tapped the line to NYPD and try to arrest Reacher. With full ammunition still hidden on him!
He escapes using a spectacular technique (Will not spoil it for you in case you plan to read the book).
Then he goes to the hotel and talks to the man again, roughing him up a bit. He learns that Lila and crew have moved off as soon as he was there last time. He then guesses where Lila is – no not a weird guess but uses what Lila had told him earlier. OK, I need to digress here : he argues his way logically to answers but in real life there is a much much higher chance of going astray. In the novels though, he is spot on and for the sake of a thriller novel that pays only lip service to reality, you can overlook these. But sure, there is a logic in his guessing where Lila and her team are holed up.
He then uses brilliantly – Lila calls him to renegotiate – to confirm that his guess is correct and then in pure Reacher style, starts taking out the enemies with stealth, surprise and sped. Pure action, explosive, fully entertaining.
But of course even till the very end, there are surprises and Jack almost gets killed. The surprise comes almost too late.
All in all, an enjoyable read, simplistic and loose ends are all tied at the very end.
We have reviewed several of Bernard Cornwell’s books. We have reviewed several of his series as well as standalone books like this one. For a sample see Wildtrack and Redcoat.
The narrator John Rossandale goes home to see his sick mother. He never was close to the family and had been away but feels compelled to go, when he got word from the bankers that his mother has fallen sick and wants to see her.
He meets her in the hospital and she dies in front of him. He lies to the doctor that he was only a distant relative and goes back to his boat. He meets the family at the funeral. His sister seems to be mentally unwell and looked after in an institution.
His sister Georgina has the mind of a two year old (and is a fully grown woman) and is being looked after in a convent equipped to look after the mentally deficient.
Family fight ensues with cutting remarks bouncing off John, irritating his (other) sister further. John decides to leave the scene, go back to the sea.
He remembers a Van Gogh which, oddly, belonged to the family in better days that disappeared and everyone, especially his sister, accuses him of stealing. When he is rowing back to his ship after having a troubling tooth extracted, he spots a man in his ship. Startled, he stealthily circles around hoping to surprise him and discovers (when he is still on his boat approaching the ship) that there are at least two people there, a man and a woman.
A thin man confronts John and John wounds him. He escapes in a boat with an accomplice waiting nearby but not before he throws a look of intense hatred at John.
John goes to confront the girl who is Jennifer Pallavincini. Attractive and young, but she was sent by the collector Sir Leon who was trying to buy the stolen Van Gogh. She offers him nineteen million dollars or more for the painting but refuses to believe John when he says that he did not nick the painting and does not know where it is.
He then limps across to his old friend George Cullen’s garage and asks him to give these facilities over for a few days while he gets the ship in shape. When he described the two mean folks George immediately identifies them as Trevor Garrard and Ronny Peel. Garrard is cunning and dangerous, and Peel is just the muscle. When George left and John is sleeping, the two arrive at the repair shop and cleverly trap John. They promise that there will be no marks on him and he seems to relax a bit but realizes that they are planning a drawing accident for ‘the Earl’ and panic rises in him. But he is truly helpless against the wiles of Garrard and the strength of Peel.
He learns from Garrard’s words that they know he does not have the painting but his living is inconvenient as the painting’s ownership could be disputed at all times as long as he is alive.
He is saved on time by Charlie, who funds all the rebuilding of his twice ruined ship Sunflower. Charlie is now a very rich businessman but shows the same affection to John as he did in olden days. He promises also to get to the bottom of the puzzle of Garrard. Who sent him? Why?
But soon the urge to move takes him and he sails with his boat to Azores where he meets an annoying old friend called Ulf.
Next thing he knows, Jennifer Pallavincini knocks on the cabin door, astonishing him! She asks him to help her employer recover the painting. He refuses and says he is sailing. She relays the news that his sister Georgina is about to be successfully petitioned to be moved to the care of his uncaring Elizabeth so that she can get at the tightly locked trust money. Georgina will not know or care. Even though his blood boils, he sends Jennifer away and goes, meets Ulf, and knowing that he is the one who betrayed the location to Jennifer, beats him and knocks some of his teeth off, in front of her.
But secretly he goes back to England to meet the lawyer of Elizabeth called Sir Oliver who tells him that he, John, has no case. He does not own any facility to care for Georgina and he has proven himself to be irresponsible, with a criminal record to boot! So the lawyer snidely tells him that he is trapped and cannot do anything to stop Georgina from being entrusted to the care of ‘her loving sister Elizabeth’. His motive of course is the fat fee waiting for him in that deal.
When he goes to see his sister, she is out but he finds that the ‘generosity’ of his sister is simply so that she could make money by creating a retreat with all comforts and slowly easing out Georgina, after all the attention is dead, to a creepy and cheap place while making money as a tourist resort! He now knows he needs to fight to rescue Georgina and with his weaknesses, he stands no chance.
He decides to approach Jennifer and a lawyer, Harry Abbot, comes to see him and says that he, Johnny has been invited to the house of Leon Buzzacottwho is the art collector. He also learns that Jennifer is a Countess and the daughter of Leon. She is engaged to a business magnate called Hans, who the spirited mother of Jennifer labels ‘boring’ and talks only of cheese (his business) till you want to scream. Or talks to Leon about the stupid game, Golf. John finds that he likes Lady Buzzacott.
Jennifer is shocked when he gives away the painting to Leon for just the surety of Georgina’s future. It is Harry’s theory that Elizabeth is behind the whole plan of hiding the painting and sending ransom notes, and John is reluctant to believe that his money crazy angry sister will stoop so low but what other explanation is there?
They hatch a plan to get the person who has the painting into the open (Gazzard’s boss, who is Elizabeth) by making John the bait. He comes back ostentatiously to England in the full glare of media publicity and all papers, and TV channels show this in prime time and he causes an uproar when he announces that he has ‘donated the painting’ if it is recovered to the Buzzacott gallery!
Charlie comes to meet him the next day and gets an update on the plans and the protection and affectionately calls him an idiot. He says the best thing for him is to sail away and not become a pawn for Buzzacotts. John promises to think about it.
Meanwhile Jennifer and John grow close and she even accompanies him on a boat trip on The Sunflower. But due to sabotage, there is a huge accident where the cut gas lines ignite when Jennifer strikes a match (to prepare food) and the boat burns. John leaps through the flames to carry her and jump off into the sea and almost drowns with her in his arms when he is rescued.
When he is in the hospital, he is visited by Lady Buzzacott. He learns that Jennifer is badly burnt but the plastic surgeon is hopeful of making her ‘all new again’.
Charlie visits him at the hospital and learned what happened from John. Charlie is devastated at the latest misfortune and insists that he will buy John a brand new boat. John has lost everything he owned in the world with the boat. John refuses the offer.
When he gets well, he decides to go stay with Charlie, as he feels safest in the company of his childhood friend.
Sir Leon calls him to come visit him to inspect the arrangements he has made for Georgina and he agrees to go.
He goes and sees Jennifer and professes his love. She reciprocates but claims it is ‘too late’.
Sir Leon, however, offers money on condition that he stays far away from Jennifer. The money is to build a new boat.
Meanwhile Harry Abbot, who is a detective who tried and failed to solve the mystery of the painting, tells John that the kidnappers who are in contact with Sir Leon for ransom want John and only John to bring the ransom. Sir Leon had agreed to pay up. With the money John is asked to go alone and board a ship. He does. He then realizes that the men behind the plot have an amazing plan! They have the ship fitted with a one way navigation system and a walkie talkie which is rigged so that he can hear what they say but they cannot.
On top of it the instructions are just numbers and are recorded from the radio broadcasts and replayed to him. He manages to guess that the coordinates are those for the navigation system and follows instructions. When they are sure that he is alone and unarmed (He has been asked to come just in shorts, carrying the bag) they give him their final destination.
John agrees to go, even though he knows that he is walking into his almost certain death, in the middle of a thick mist, because he is obsessed with avenging Jennifer’s burning. Even Harry asks him to turn back but John carries on.
A word on the side : Even though Bernard writes a lot about the sea in all his stories, the stories are not about the minutiae of seafaring. In this book, there is a bit more of that. It, however, does not take away, for those of us laymen, from the enjoyment from the story.
What follows is a sequence that is very tense and completely action packed. The whole last fifty or so pages take you to the edge of your seat and it is impossible to put down.
I will not spoil the ending but I thought I knew what the twist was going to be; I was half right. It is more complicated than what I thought but then highly satisfying.
It is a simpler story, and told in the inimitable style of Bernard Cornwell. A thriller that fully deserves its name!
So far, all the books we have reviewed of this author are Lincoln Rhyme books. See for example, The Kill Room or The Burning Wire. This is my first foray into a book by this author that does not feature the fascinating quadriplegic detective, Lincoln Rhyme. This kicks off the Broken Doll series, a set of four books, all of whom may be short stories.
This is also a very short novel(Is it really a full novel?) less than thirty pages! We recently reviewed Dolan’s Cadillac, also a short story masquerading as a novel, and arguably even The Old Man and The Sea, also recently reviewed here.
But for all that, it is definitely worth a read, and packs a punch like the Lincoln Rhymes series. Let us see what the story is.
Paul Offenbach was in an accident and was being attended to by Dr Stuart Collier as they were traveling to a hospital in an old emergency vehicle. They were traveling in a rural Wisconsin road.
Collier happens to be an emergency physician and Offenbach has him in his pistol sights. Because he had just seen Offenbach kill a blond before getting injured and needing help. The driver of the vehicle is from his gang(?) and he will stay with them until Offenbach has fully recovered.
The assistant Snake, is suspicious but begins to trust Collier when he shows that he did not run away when he could have.
Then Collier operates on Offenbach and the criminal seems to draw out a lot of confessions from the doctor. About Collier’s dad who died in a boating accident. Collier starts off as a physician who would do no harm and even claims that if the killer of his close family needed help, he would try to save that evil man’s life, putting away his emotion to the contrary. But as the talk proceeds, Collier admits to having some people – those with no chances of survival – die and also admits that at that moment, he felt he was doing the right thing. In addition, he admits to feeling some relief and even a sense of power.
When the treatment is done, Offenbach admits to Collier that he, Collier, is not going to get out of it alive. Collier reacts and opens the hatch and jumps out of the running van.
What follows is a tense chase and a bit of the cat and mouse game.
After all this comes the biggest twist in the story, in the last two pages. Of course I do not like to give out spoilers but will leave it to you to find out! It is definitely worth it.
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