Library Limelights 205

Chris Pavone. The Accident. USA: Crown Publishers, 2014.

It's exciting to add excellent new (to me) authors to my crime fiction lists. Like Chris Pavone, who did it again, producing a first-class thriller after his acclaimed debut novel The Expats (LL199). Literary agent Isabel Reed receives a hand-delivered paper manuscript for an unauthorized biography of Charlie Wolfe, a high-profile media mogul. In the normal course of events Isabel would shop it around for an editor and publisher. But nothing is normal here: the manuscript contains explosive political skulduggery and would be a runaway bestseller, ruining Wolfe. The anonymous author is in hiding, fearing for his life; keeping the paper manuscript ‒ purposely never stored electronically – as secret as possible becomes extremely dangerous. Teams of mysterious agents are on the job to destroy the author, the manuscript, and any intermediaries.

Unfortunately the fallout begins among Jeff the trusted editor, Brad the potential publisher, Stan the movie producer, and some of their assistants who predict a bonanza and privately make copies. CIA agent Kate (from The Expats) is peripherally involved; her boss Hayden seems to be on a rogue mission to find the manuscript. The labyrinthine world of publishing meets an implacable force as the agents strive to eliminate all copies and anyone holding them. Will anyone remain alive to publish it? In a flash of understanding, being forced to hide herself, Isabel realizes the author's identity. Pavone's timing is exquisite in momentum and revelations; it's a totally unexpected shock of a climax. Great anticipation for two more books that follow this!

One-liners:

▪ He wrote a rambling emotional letter addressed to "Everyone," and a separate, very short note to his ex-wife, apologizing for "everything." (114)

▪ Do people in publishing houses really steal things from each other? (160)

▪ This was the scariest roadway he'd ever driven, and it was already the scariest day of his life. (188)

▪ But also like the others, this blond guy doesn't know about the surveillance cameras that are watching him while he's spying on her. (208)

▪ This he thinks is the secret to New York City's vast productivity: everyone works all the time to avoid facing their loneliness. (335)

Multi-liners:

▪ Langley doesn't know a damn thing about Kate, or her team, or this mission. They never have, and Hayden hopes they never will. (163)

▪ Not being her mum has been one of Camilla's main goals in life. The primary goal, in fact. But there's no avoiding one's genes. (199)

▪ "Bribe is not an attractive word, is it? And I don't think it's the operative concept here." (340)

The breakthrough:

Jeff turns his attention to the stack of paper in front of him, to the manuscript that he hopes—that he knows―is the thing he's been waiting for. Now that it's here, something this big, he's worried, unconfident. He hasn't had something this important since that Pulitzer winner a half-decade ago. He's out of practice, afraid of how to handle it, how to present it to his boss, his colleagues. Of how to manage Isabel, and her expectations, and timetable. Afraid of other editors to whom she might submit it, afraid of a bidding war, an auction, a humiliating defeat. Afraid of other, less easily identifiable issues, prickling his psyche. Afraid of the decisions he will face. The decisions he will make. (49)

A pot of gold:

And it all begins here, one person at a time reading something that can't be put down. In the past year, Camilla began reading hundreds of manuscripts; she looked at hundreds of page 1's. For at least half of those manuscripts, though, she never got to page 2. 

When her boarding group is called, Camilla is on page 109. As the plane pulls away from the gate, her eyes are racing down page 138. At liftoff she's on 145, and she holds her breath and feels a shiver run down her spine, and she knows this is it. (155)

Hayden reflects:

After 9/11, the personnel landscape had changed dramatically, with paramilitary organizations proliferating, merging with one another, going out of business, renaming themselves, redefining their scopes of operations, obfuscating their ownership and mandates and recordkeeping. There are plenty of crew-cut guys looking for work in America, guys who pride themselves on their discretion, on the sacrosanct honor of sworn secrecy, on an unwavering conviction that the right to security outweighs the right to privacy, at least where other people are concerned. Or if not on any of these principles, on the much more straightforward consideration of cash.A boom era for mercenaries. (192)

Ann Patchett. State of Wonder. 2011. USA: Harper Perennial, 2012.

I begin to think every book of Patchett's is a wonder, blowing me away. Life in the Amazon area is not for wimps, for reasons evident throughout the book. Minnesota obstetrician-turned-pharmacologist Marina Singh is persuaded to head for the jungle to check progress on her employer's development of a fertility drug. Not only that, she desperately wants to find out what happened to Anders Eckman, her longtime lab partner, who preceded her there and died of fever. Marina needs to find the intimidating and elusive project head, Dr Annick Swenson, for answers. When she does, trust takes time, then several mysteries begin to dissolve, including discoveries the pharma company never expected. Dedicated to their own impenetrable rituals, the Lakashi tribe ‒ fictional, but as real as your next-door neighbours – largely ignores the scientific activities in their midst.

In fact the characters are all so real, the setting has such clarity, the background science so convincing, the reader lives with and in them: Anders' stricken wife; the Bovenders, enjoying a free apartment in Manaus; Easter the deaf child; the medical colleagues; Milton the fixer; but especially Marina and the intractable Dr Swenson. Everyone combating the intense humidity as best they can. A hair-raising surgery under the most primitive hygiene conditions. Battle with an anaconda. If you ever had a hanker to visit the Amazon, this is as close as you can get without a ticket — complete with flora, fauna, natives, and weather ― and that may be for the fascinating best. But above all, it's an amazing love story of many proportions, reinforcing the power of friendship, trust, and self-understanding. Patchett is an absolute jewel among today's popular authors.

~ And now I must watch "Fitzcarraldo" again ~

One-liners:

▪ "Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it." (43)

▪ The expense of one apartment in the Amazon for a researcher who didn't use it was nothing when put against the potential profits of fertility. (105-6)

▪ This woman who had fixed the course of Marina's life looked for all the world like somebody's Swedish grandmother on a chartered tour of the Amazon. (127)

▪ It could have been that once an anaconda had squeezed him half to death there really wasn't anything left to be afraid of. (270)

Multi-liners:

▪ "The Bovenders are the guards of the gate. It is their job to keep you away from her, that's what they're paid for. I have no idea if they know where she is, but I am certain that no one else knows." (101)

▪ The doors sealed them in with the music and sealed the world out and suddenly it was clear that building an opera house was a basic act of human survival. It kept them all from rotting in the unendurable heat. (123-4)

▪ "I know how to sleep, Dr. Singh. I don't need you to watch me unless it is something you are trying to learn to do yourself." (312)

Grief and loss:

"What if he isn't dead?" 

Marina pressed her head deep into the pillow. "He's dead, Karen." 

"Why? Because we got a letter from some crazy woman in Brazil who nobody's allowed to talk to? I need more than that. This is the worst thing that's ever going to happen to me. It's the worst thing that's going to happen to my boys ever in their entire lives, and I'm supposed to take a stranger's word on it?" 

There had to be an equation for probability and proof. At some point probability becomes so great it eclipses the need for proof, although maybe not if it was your husband. "Mr. Fox is going to send someone down there. They're going to find out what happened." (29-30)

Departure:

Mr. Fox was sorry, genuinely sorry, that he had ever asked Marina to go and he told her so. Marina said she was sorry she had agreed. But Marina had been a very good student and a very good doctor and a very good employee and lover and friend and when someone asked her to do something she operated on the principle they had asked because it was important. She had succeeded in life because she so rarely declined any request that was made of her, how would the Amazon be different? (47-8)

Arrival:

Never had Marina's lungs taken in so much oxygen, so much moisture. With every inhalation she felt she was introducing unseen particles of plant life into her body, tiny spores that bedded down in between her cilia and set about taking root. An insect flew against her ear, emitting a sound so piercing that her head snapped back as if struck. Another insect bit her cheek as she raised her hand to drive the first one away. They were not in the jungle, they were in a parking lot. (69)

Dr Swenson's attitude:

"The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived. That is how one respects indigenous people. If you pay any attention at all you'll realize that you could never convert them to your way of life anyway. They are an intractable race. Any progress you advance to them will be undone before your back is turned. You might as well come down here to unbend the river. The point, then, is to observe the life they themselves have put in place and learn from it." (162-3)

Michael Connelly. Dark Sacred Night. USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2018.

Coming down from a Patchett high is quite a contrast with the terse prose of everyday police activity. But this is familiar, classic Connelly territory, not to be missed. Renée Ballard is the detective star here, working the grimy streets of nighttime LA. Then a cold case in the hands of our old friend Harry Bosch catches her attention; he wants to find young Daisy Clayton's killer of nine years ago. Bosch is personally involved because he's sheltering Daisy's fragile mother Elizabeth. Ballard and Bosch easily fall into an unofficial partnership; the narrative switches between them, even as each works on other cases as well. They plod through mind-numbing thousands of police street interviews in the years around Daisy's death.

With his district colleagues, Bosch is also working on suspects in a mob murder. Hard to believe, but Harry seems to have become mild-mannered and is making mistakes — is he tired, careless, disillusioned, or all three? Guilt over failed operations makes for sleepless nights. Things really heat up when Harry disappears. He had been ignoring the threats and is forced to face a gruesome death. Too late, he realizes his heedless actions could affect his daughter Maddy's safety. While Ballard is professionally more than capable, and a hero at that, she appears to live mainly in a tent on the beach. Undoubtedly we will see more of this pair, with an aging Harry perhaps ready to pass the torch.

One-liners:

▪ Elizabeth Clayton was a badly damaged person with dark memories to work through and a difficult path ahead. (65)

▪ He went down face-first and she dropped all 120 pounds of her weight through her knees into the small of his back. (155)

▪ Arresting a celebrity in a celebrity town was risky business. (183)

▪ Besides, concentrating on the clinic kept some of the darker thoughts about his recent mis-cues out of the front of his mind. (271)

Multi-liners:

▪ The call of her addiction was always there. The memory of her daughter was like a malignant ghost that followed her. (65)

▪ "Make the guy think he's helping the police. Draw him in and lock in his story, then turn it upside down. He goes from hero to zero." (333)

▪ "I'm opening the door and I'm just going to start shooting. It'll be self-defense. I know lots of cops and they'll believe me." (403)

▪ Their relationship had been held together by the case. Now the case was over. (422)

Cop's night street interview:

Subject is a human tumbleweed 

Goes where the wind blows him 

Will blow away tomorrow 

Nobody will miss him (72)

Bonding?

She didn't like the way she was acting, being so picky and by the book with Bosch. 

"Look," Bosch said. "I know about you. I know you've been burned bad in the department. So was I. But I've never betrayed a partner, and over the years, I've had a lot of them." 

Ballard looked up at him. 

"Partner?" she said. 

"On this case," Bosch said. "You said you wanted in. I let you in." 

"It's not your case. It's an LAPD case." 

"It belongs to whoever is working it." (91)

Hindsight:

Through it all he was haunted by only one thing. His daughter. Not having final words with her. Not being able to watch her prosper as an adult. It tore him up to think that he would never see or speak to her again. Guilt overtook him as he acknowledged that he had squandered the past several months as Maddie's father trying to save a woman who didn't want to be saved. (306)