What pleasure to find a quartet of
older novels by some favourite mystery masters, books I must have
missed when they first appeared. The first four, all paperback
winners. Must have been a literature lucky star over my cosmos in
June! Good micro-recycling going on here in my cave among
anonymous thriller readers.
Stephen White. The Program.
New York: Dell Publishing, 2001.
The adventures of Boulder psychologist
Allan Gregory have not always engaged me, but this one was tops. Each
main character has a first-person perspective as events unfold, and
the tension gets unbearable toward the end. A woman in the witness
protection program, now known as witness security, has everything to
fear about her alleged security as three different hostile sources
track her. White gives us a satisfyingly complicated plot, difficult
to predict, and a wild climax.
Robert Tanenbaum. Falsely
Accused. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1996.
Old friends Butch Karp and Marlene
Ciampi are as fresh as the day they were written, even though it's
early in the long-running series. Precocious daughter Lucy is only
seven at this time and the twins have not yet been born. Dialogue
between characters is funny and smart, as expected from this skilled
writer. All the colour of New York City and the lively Karp household
are integral parts of the whole. Marlene launches her private
protection agency while Butch realizes his true legal calling in
prosecution. Forces of evil and corruption, beware!
Michael McGarrity. Under the
Color of Law. New York: Penguin/Onyx, 2002.
One in a series featuring Santa Fe
police chief Kevin Kerney. I'd read one of them before, enjoying the
atmosphere of New Mexico. The discovery of a murdered woman looks
like a straightforward case until suspect after suspect emerges and
the body count escalates. Kerney and his career army wife come into
the line of fire because a much more sinister high-tech plot is
uncovered. Keeps you guessing about the perps until the end.
James Grippando. Beyond
Suspicion. HarperCollins Publishers/HarperTorch, 2002.
An author (and series) new to me, but
I'll be seeking more. Grippandi is gripping [groan]. The plot
is based on a Miami lawyer, Jack Swyteck, who finds himself
unwittingly enmeshed in a conspiracy that twists from fraud to murder
to illicit blood sales. How they are all connected is impossible to
guess, with a surprising climax. Here's a case where the
mise-en-scรจne
occasionally shifts to seedy third world locales and violent
characters. Although Swyteck as a legal professional seems rather
trusting, he manages to navigate the necessary street smarts.
James Renner. The Man from
Primrose Lane. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux/Sarah
Crichton Books, 2012.
A hot item when it came out, the book
had a long waiting list. I wonder if anyone else was put out when
halfway, or two-thirds of the way through, the author shifted into a
parallel universe of science fiction? Not my cup of tea at all, but I
see now there were tiny warning signs in a story otherwise replete
with good characters and plot. Some mind-bending mathematics and
impossibly intricate family relationships added to my discomfort. Red
hair is a recurrent thread and kept me going at times. My biggest
question about the murder mystery was how could Renner possibly
conclude this story? Well, he did. Left brain readers will love it.
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