The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett

    2024; 406 pages.  Book 1 (out of 1) in the “Shadow of the Leviathan” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Intrigue; Epic Fantasy, Murder-Mystery.   Overall Rating: 9½/10.

 

    Taqtasa Blas, one of the Commanders of the Engineers, has met a gruesome end.  You can read about it in the first excerpt below.  The “how” is easily determined – exposure, either through ingestion or inhalation, to the malignant blooms of the dappleglass.  It appears there is a murderer afoot. 

 

    Interestingly, ten other engineers also perished recently from dappleglass poisoning.  But they were nowhere near Blas, and they died at somewhat different moments, which indicates they weren’t all infected at a single time and place.

 

    Iudex Inspector Ana Dolabra has been assigned to the case, along with her assistant, Dinios “Din” Kol.  Their task is to figure out who the poisoner, or poisoners, were, and when and where those lethal doses were administered.

 

    But Ana is a topnotch investigator.  She intends to also find out who hired the poisoner(s), which will answer the question of why someone wanted so badly to kill a bunch of engineers.  Good luck on that quest, Ana.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Tainted Cup is an epic fantasy tale set in the Holy Empire of Khanum.  Ana and Din are emissaries of its ruler, the Conzulate, but they are a long way from the capital city, Imperial Sanctum.  Khanum is a hierarchal society where one’s rank is of utmost importance.  Ana’s and Din’s loyalties will be tested, but this is also true for those whom they will question about Blas’s murder.

 

    Our two protagonists reminded me muchly of Arthur Conan Doyle’s heroes.  Din assumes the role of scribe, chronicling the events like Dr. Watson did for Sherlock Holmes.  Ana has some remarkable deductive talents, just like Sherlock, and uses some quirky habits, including most of the time interacting while blindfolded, to better “read” the tones and nuances of witnesses’ testimony.

 

    Din himself has some special talents as well.  He’s an “engraver”, which means he has eidetic memory, which in turn means he is the perfect set of eyes and ears to witness events and to “record and playback” testimony.  And unlike the usually clueless Dr. Watson, Din frequently injects biting sarcasm into his snappy remarks, even when conversing with his boss, Ana.

 

    The action starts immediately with Ana and Din arriving at the manor where the remains of Taqtasa Blas repose.  The servants there seem to be covering something up, but what?  From there the case quickly gets more complicated as additional bodies are found.  The worldbuilding overall is superb, with Robert Jackson Bennett deftly blending it into the storyline, yet somehow avoiding bogging things down with long descriptions.

 

    The ending is how I like them: tense and exciting, with lots of twists, yet quite logical.  All the murders are solved, and both Ana and Din reveal personal secrets to each other.  It is obvious that they are going to be a formidable investigative team for the Conzulate of Khanum.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 3,017 ratings and 463 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.69*/5, based on 22,048 ratings and 4,903 reviews.

 

Things That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t…

    “Pick a glass and stick it up your damn nose quick!”

 

Excerpts...

    The most remarkable feature of the room was the clutch of leafy trees growing in the center—for it was growing from within a person.

    Or rather, through a person.

    The corpse hung suspended in the center of the bedchamber, speared by the many slender trees, but as Otirios had said it was initially difficult to identify it as a body at all.  A bit of torso was visible in the thicket, and some of the left leg.  What I could see of them suggested a middle-aged man wearing the purple colors of the Imperial Engineering Iyalet.  The right arm was totally lost, and the right leg had been devoured by the swarm of roots pouring out from the trunks of the little trees and eating into the Stonewood floor of the chamber.

    I stared into the roots.  I thought I could identify the pinkish nub of a femur amid all those curling coils.  (pg. 9)

 

    “The number of people holding a grudge against the Hazas is beyond count.”

    “Might you also count among that company, ma’am?” I asked.

    She raised her eyebrows at me behind her blindfold.  “My, my.  That’s rather insolent of you, isn’t it?”

    “I would simply note, ma’am, that Vashta just referenced your old grudges with them.”

    “A rumor,” she said dismissively.

    “And you also once said of the Hazas—I wouldn’t mind seeing all their progeny rotting in the ground like a bunch of f**king dead dogs.  Which is, I feel, mostly how one talks of one’s enemies.”

    “Oh, yes, well,” she said, sighing.  “This is why people are so loath to talk before an engraver. . .They never forget a f**king thing you say!”  (pg. 241)

 

“What a tool cynicism is to the corrupt, claiming the whole of creation is broken and fraudulent, and thus we are all excused to indulge in whatever sins we wish.”  (pg. 286)

    There’s quite a bit of profanity – 22 instances in the first 10%, seven of which were f-bombs.  Later on, “localized” expletives were used—“by the Harvester” and “by the titan’s unholy taint”—which I always like.  I don’t recall any adult situations, but homophobes beware, a gay relationship is alluded to.

 

    I didn’t note any typos at all.  Kudos to the editors.

 

    For me, The Tainted Cup was a captivating first book in a series, with fantastic world-building, mystery-composing and witty interactions.  My only gripe is that the second book, A Drop of Corruption, won’t be released until next April.  I have very little patience when I’m forced to be patient.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  Here’s hoping that the next book’s cover includes a drawing of the main creature in this story, the leviathan.  It has a major impact on the storyline, periodically comes out of the sea, and wreaks havoc on the human coastal bulwarks, even when the humans are tipped off that it’s on its way.  Yet I don’t recall it ever being described. Is it a giant whale-like beast?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Mister Slaughter - Robert McCammon

   2010; 440 pages.  Book 3 (out of 8) in the “Matthew Corbett” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Historical Fiction; Intrigue; Thriller.  Laurels : Goodreads Choice Award for 2010 Mystery & Thrillers (nominated).  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    New York, 1702.

    Everybody already knows Mister Slaughter is a dangerous killer.  The courts in England want him delivered so they can give him a fair trial, and hang him afterward.

 

    Mister Slaughter currently is in the care of a sanitarium in Philadelphia.  New York has been chosen as the seaport that will extradite him to London, and Matthew Corbett and his mentor, Hudson Greathouse, have been assigned the task of taking a wagon to Philly and picking up the prisoner.

 

    They are quite aware of how dangerous this mission is, but it pays well.  Slaughter will be handcuffed, leg-cuffed, and forced to carry a heavy metal ball around that is chained to his shackles.  Matthew and Hudson will work as a team; one will drive the wagon while the other keeps a pistol cocked and aimed at Slaughter.  They can switch positions as needed.  I don’t see any way things can go wrong.

 

    But Mr. Slaughter can.

 

What’s To Like...

    Mister Slaughter is the third book in Robert McCammon’s “Matthew Corbett” historical thriller series, and so far I’ve been reading it in order.  The first two books were very exciting, and this one continues that streak.

 

    Mister Slaughter admits he’s killed frequently in the past, but always for good reason.  He’s aware of the fate awaiting him in London, and offers an alternative “win-win” solution to our two protagonists.  The reader gets to sit in the wagon alongside Matthew and Hudson and weigh Slaughter’s proposal versus directly delivering him to New York for the standard fee.  I love it when the baddie is just as clever and resourceful (if not more so) as the heroes.

 

    There are lots of other plot threads to keep things interesting.  Can Greathouse find enough money to buy a black slave’s freedom?  Does Slaughter really have access to the riches he claims?  What makes “Sutch’s Sausages” taste so mouthwateringly good?  Is High Constable Lillehorne’s wife (and several other women) playing hanky-panky with Dr. Mallory?  Who the heck is Sirki?

 

    The thriller aspect is done well.  I enjoyed trying to figure out Mr. Slaughter's angles, and Robert McCammon wove plenty of excitement and intrigue into the tale to keep my interest.  The historical aspect also kept me turning the pages.  New York City’s population in 1702 included lots of both English and Dutch settlers, since it had been a Dutch possession until about 40 years earlier.  There were also several Native American villages beyond the city limits, which play a key role in the tale, and I loved the attention Robert McCammon pays to realistically presenting their way of life.

 

    The ending was a two-stage affair, the first being suitably exciting and the second being suitably filled with intrigue.  Plot twists were plentiful in both finales.  The book’s main storyline—the fate of Mister Slaughter—is tied up nicely, and the series' main storyline—an earlier death sentence that has been imposed upon Matthew—edges him closer to his demise.  Mister Slaughter is told in the third-person POV, and is a standalone novel as well as part of a series.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Higgler (n.) : a peddler; a person who travels around selling small items.

Others: Bustarole (n.); Ferrago (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 790 ratings and 188 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.32*/5, based on 3,993 ratings and 170 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Said suspect,” Greathouse continued reading, “also charged to stand in connection with the disappearances of Anne Yancey, Mary Clark, and Sarah Goldsmith and the concurrent robberies of their family estates, on or about August 1689 through March 1692, under the aliases of Count Edward Bowdewine, Lord John Finch and . . .”  He hesitated.  “Earl Anthony Lovejoy?”

    “I was so much younger then,” said Slaughter, with a slight shrug.  I had the imagination of youth.”

    “So you don’t deny any of this?”

    “I deny,” came the smooth answer, “that I am a common criminal.” (loc. 1399)

 

    He looked at Matthew and nodded.  “Someday you’ll see your world and not know it, and think it strange . . . monstrous, even.  And you and your Englishmen will yearn for what was lost, and never be able to find it again, for that is the demon’s trick.  To point the way forward, but to close the way back.”

    Matthew ventured, “I suppose that’s called progress.”

    “There is progress,” Walked agreed, “and there is rushing toward an illusion.  The first takes wisdom and a plan, the second can be done by any drunken fool.”  (loc. 3708)

 

Kindle Details…

    Mister Slaughter sells for $11.99 right now at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series range in price from $11.99 to $15.99.  Robert McCammon has other series and standalone novels for the Kindle; they cost anywhere from $2.99 to $15.99.  He also offers several short stories for $1.99 apiece..

 

“But, dear sir, never blame the wind for wishing to blow.”  (loc. 1455)

    It’s hard to find things to quibble about in Mister Slaughter.  The cussing is moderate (12 instances in the first 10% of the book, and at least one f-bomb later on) but not distracting.  Thrillers inherently contain violence, and that is true here.

 

    There were a couple of typos, including Edmond/Edmund, curtsey/curtsy, and everytime/every time, but overall, the proofreading was good.  Annoyingly, there were no page numbers and the “time remaining” estimates were based on the six sections of the book, not the 35 chapters.  And a dog dies.

 

    But I pick at nits.  Based on the first two books, I had high expectations for Mister Slaughter, and it fully delivered.  There's lots of action, lots of intrigue, lots of twists, plus great character development—even for the secondary ones.  The story is capped off by a thrilling finish and a warning to Matthew to never let down his guard.

 

    What more can you ask for?

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  At the back of the book is a short section titled “Matthew Corbett’s World” wherein Robert McCammon details what’s accurate, and what’s inaccurate, in the settings and events used in Mister Slaughter.  I found it utterly enlightening.

The Odessa File - Frederick Forsyth

    1972; 329 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: Suspense-Thriller; Intrigue; Holocaust; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    I learned it in high school History class, so it has to be true.  With the exception of a few Nazi officials who knew they would be executed as war criminals, almost all of the German civilians welcomed the liberating Allied armies.  Well, maybe not the Russian army so much, since they had some atrocities to avenge, but at least the American, British, and French soldiers.

 

    The problem is, if that’s so, how do we explain why so many Nazi war criminals managed to avoid being found, arrested, and tried?  Yeah, a few were caught and put on trial, including Hermann Goring and Adolf Eichmann.

 

    Some others fled to foreign countries, mainly to South America.  But most simply blended into the German populace with forged identities, and lived out their lives to a quiet and peaceful end.  How could that happen?

 

    Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File presents a plausible explanation for such a travesty of justice.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Odessa File is a best-selling 1972 thriller/historical fiction novel where we follow Peter Miller, a German freelance reporter as he investigates the whereabouts of SS Captain Eduard Roschmann, aka “The Butcher of Riga”, the maniacal and savage commandant of a concentration camp located there.  The story takes place in 1963-64, primarily in places all over Germany, especially the Hamburg area, with occasional quick detours to places like Egypt and Israel.

 

    The book does a fantastic job of chronicling the post-World War 2 sentiments of the German people.  Not every German rejoiced that the Nazi personnel, particularly those that had been in the infamous SS Division, were now hiding out and posing as German civilians.  The titular “ODESSA” is an acronym for “Organisation der ehemaligan SS-Angehorigen”, which translates to “Organization of Former Members of the SS”, a (fictional) clandestine group that gives huge amounts of money, muscle, and resources to any former SS person who needs to become “invidible”.

 

    I liked that lots of real-world figures have parts in the story, including Simon Weisenthal (Nazi hunter), Anwar Sadat, General Meir Amit (Mossad), Reinhard Heydrich (Nazi), Bishop Alois Hudal (Nazi sympathizer), Bruno Streckenbach (SS general), and Peter Miller’s target, Eduard Roschmann.  You’ll also pick up a few basic German phrases along the way; chuckle at ancient (1970s) things like Telex, pensions, photostats and public telephones; and ;earn how to make a car bomb out of common household materials.

 

    The overall plot of the book is fairly straightforward.  Our protagonist sets out on his search for Roschmann, gets stonewalled by all sorts of German bureaucratic agencies, doggedly keeps at it, and gradually becomes a threat to Eduard Roschmann’s well-being, which calls for the Butcher of Riga to take appropriate countermeasures.

 

    It all builds to an exciting, twisty, and suspenseful climax.  Peter Miller survives and fulfills his mission, but not in the way you’d expect.  Not all the baddies die, but those that don’t, have to flee for their lives.  Things close with a “where are they now” epilogue that includes both fictional and real-world characters.

 

Ratings…
    Goodreads:  4.13/5 based on 58,363 ratings and 910 reviews.

    Amazon: 4.6/5 based on 508 ratings and 147 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “The trouble with you, pal,” he told his reflection in one of Sigi’s brilliantly polished saucepans as he rinsed out the cup with his forefinger, “is that you are lazy.”

    He had been asked by a civilian-careers officer, at the end of his military service ten years earlier, what he wanted to be in life.  He had replied, “An idle rich man,” and at twenty-nine although he had not achieved it and probably never would, he still thought it a perfectly reasonable ambition.  (loc. 395)

 

    “He was killed, you know, shortly after that.  He returned to his native Austria and was killed fighting against the Americans in early nineteen forty-five.  His body was identified by several people who had known him in life.”

    “He must have been a remarkable man,” said Miller.

    Dr. Schmidt nodded in agreement.  “Well, yes, some thought so.  Yes, indeed, some of us thought so.”

    “I mean,” continued Miller as if the interruption had not occurred, “he must have been remarkable to be the first man since Jesus Christ to have risen from the dead.  He was captured alive by the British on December twentieth, nineteen forty-seven, at Graz in Austria.”  (loc. 2085)

 

Kindle Details…

    Presently, The Odessa File sells for $6.99 at Amazon.  Frederick Forsyth has more than a dozen other novels in e-book format, including the highly-acclaimed thriller, The Day of the Jackal.  The prices for those range from $6.99 to $13.99.

 

“It’s a question of election mathematics.  Six million dead Jews don’t vote.  Five million former Nazis can and do, at every election.”  (loc. 2445)

    There’s little to quibble about in The Odessa File.  Cusswords are sparse, only six instances in the first 25% of the book.  There are a couple rolls-in-the-hay and two allusions to male excitement.

 

    I caught a couple of typos: Kaposs/Kapos, hose/those, rights/right, By-By/Bye-Bye, but those might have occurred when the book version was converted into e-book format.  And although the book is mostly written in "American" English, a couple of “British” spellings show up, including: disk jockey, whisky, and “waked up”.

 

    It should be noted that this is more of a Suspense/Intrigue tale, not an Action-Adventure.  Thrills-&-spills do show up, but not until the second half of the book, when Peter Miller has morphed from a nuisance into a threat to Roschmann.

 

    For those who are cinephiles, a movie version came out in 1974 starring Jon Voight and Maximilian Schell, although Wikipedia implies that its adherence to the book’s plotline is rather “loose”.

 

    That’s about it.  I found The Odessa File to be a great read, both as a work of historical fiction focusing on post-WW2 Germany and a page-turner.  This was my first book by Frederick Forsyth, who rarely discounts the e-book versions of his novels, but I will now be on the lookout for other works by him, including his equally famous thriller, The Day of the Jackal.

 

    9 Stars.  For those who wonder whether books and movies really have any significant impact in the real world, Wikipedia has this note about the 1974 film adaptation of The Odessa File: “After the film was released to the public, he [Eduard Roschmann] was arrested by the Argentinian police, skipped bail, and fled to Asuncion, Paraguay, where he died on 10 August 1977.”  All because of the movie.  Awesome!

Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene

   1958; 212 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres: British Humor; Historical Thriller; Intrigue.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

 

    Jim Wormold could use some extra pesos.  He’s a single parent, trying to make ends meet while raising a sixteen-year-old daughter, Milly, who hasn’t quite grasped the concept that money doesn’t grow on trees.  She’s just bought a horse, of all things!  Well, she’s made the first payment, with no idea where to get the rest of the money, let alone how to also pay rent for a stable to house the horse in and hay to feed it.  No problem though, Daddy will surely find a way.

 

    But Daddy is a British national who lives in Havana, Cuba eking out a living in a small shop out of which he sells vacuum cleaners.  It’s the 1950’s and political tensions in Cuba are running high.  There are rebels in the hills (led by some young whippersnapper named Castro), and a bunch of very nervous policemen in the streets, including Captain Segura, aka “the Red Vulture”, who seems to have caught Milly’s eye, and vice versa.  Wormold could use a monetary miracle right now.

 

    Happily, the miracle comes in the form of the British Secret Service, who are looking for an on-the-scene agent in Havana to send them intelligence reports on the volatile local situation.  They’re willing to pay Jim a modest monthly stipend, plus cover any expenses he incurs while gathering information on their behalf.  That includes money he might spend recruiting local Cubans for their help in promoting British interests.

 

    It’s manna from heaven, and Milly gets to keep her horse!  Jim just sends in expense reports for agents who exist only in his head, along with “intelligence reports” covering whatever he can dream up.  In exchange, London sends him back money because, after all, what can they do to check up on him?  Spend lots more money to send someone over to Cuba to audit him?

 

    Funny thing about that, Jim.

 

What’s To Like...

    Our Man in Havana is set mostly in Cuba during the closing days of the Batista dictatorship.  When Graham Greene was writing it, the final outcome was still very much in doubt, and I was impressed with the “feel” for 1950’s Havana that the book conveys.  Revolution may be in the air, but you can still find good booze in bars and fine food in restaurants, get drenched by ocean mist when walking by the shore, and ride horses.

 

    The book delights in poking puckish fun at the British Secret Service.  Graham Greene was an English author, so the book is written in the Queen's English, not American.  There are cheques and pyjamas, things are learnt and smelt, and you manoeuvre your tyres around kerbs.  I even "learnt" a new French phrase, “coup de foudre”, which is translated below.

 

    The writing is witty, and Wormold’s spying scam quickly degenerates into absurd lies-upon-lies.  He tries in vain to keep the deception going for as long as possible, knowing that it will inevitably come crashing down at some point.  Nested in among all the tomfoolery are some keen insights from Greene about nationalism, international relations, the dark business of espionage, and, of course, coups de foudre.

 

    There aren’t a lot of characters to keep track of, and some of them exist only in Wormold’s imagination.  Our Man in Havana is an easy, fast read, with 22 chapters/interludes covering 212 pages.  I learned how to beat someone who’s a better checker-player than you (I suck at checkers), chuckled at Milly’s “invisible duenna”, and never did figure out if the lyrics quoted twice in the book (“they say the earth is round/my madness offends”) are real or just something Graham Greene made up.  I suspect the latter.

 

    The ending is a mixed bag.  On one hand, it's decently clever, and logical.  OTOH, it's not action-packed, twisty, or filled with over-the-top laughs.  More on this in a bit.  Our Man in Havana is a standalone novel.  I don’t believe Graham Greene ever used the setting and characters in any of his many other novels, but to be honest, this was my first Graham Greene book.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Coup de foudre (phrase, French) : a sudden unforeseen event, in particular an instance of love at first sight.

Others: Morocco (n.); Pissoirs (n., pl.), Doss (v.); Verger (n.), Solecism (n.); Huff (v.).

 

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.1/5 based on 944 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.94/5 based on 27,791 ratings and 1,952 reviews

 

Things that sound dirty, but aren’t…

    What enormous bladders Cubans have, and how clean Hawthorne’s hands must be getting by this time.

 

Excerpts...

    “Why did you set fire to Earl?”

    “I was tempted by the devil,” she said.

    “Milly, please be sensible.”

    “Saints have been tempted by the devil.”

    “You are not a saint.”

    “Exactly.  That’s why I fell.”  (loc. 175)

 

    “One reason why the West hates the great Communist states is that they don’t recognize class-distinctions.  Sometimes they torture the wrong people.  So too of course did Hitler and shocked the world.  Nobody cares what goes on in our prisons, or in the prisons of Lisbon or Caracas, but Hitler was too promiscuous.  It was rather as though in your country a chauffeur had slept with a peeress.”

    “We are not shocked by that any longer.”

    “It is a great danger for everyone when what is shocking changes.”  (loc. 2350)

 

Kindle Details…

    Our Man in Havana goes for $10.99 right now at Amazon, although I picked it up when it was temporarily discounted.  Amazon has a couple dozen other Graham Greene e-books available, ranging in price anywhere from $2.99 to $12.99.

 

“Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”  (loc. 3001 )

    There’s just a smattering of cussing (9 instances in the first 50%), a couple racial epithets (that were common in the 1950’s), and one brief reference to drug-smuggling (cocaine, opium, marijuana).  That’s about it for R-rated stuff.  If this were a mystery, I’d say it qualifies as a “cozy”.

 

    My main disappointment with Our Man in Havana was the storytelling.  I was hoping for something exciting, twisty, and absurdly over-the-top.  The storyline was none of these.

 

    This is not to say the book wasn’t enjoyable.  The humor may be light-hearted, but it’s there in abundance.  It was a pleasure to read book set in Cuba where the island’s people are portrayed as being as warm as its climate and as savvy as any foreign agent in their country.  Indeed, my favorite character, besides the protagonist, was the "heavy", Captain Segura.

 

    Oh yeah, one last thing to quibble about. the dog dies.

 

    6 Stars.  A few months after publication, the book was made into a movie and filmed on location in Cuba in early 1959, just a couple months after Fidel Castro took power.  Castro visited the filming and Wikipedia notes that he “complained that the novel did not accurately portray the brutality of the Batista regime”.  Sometimes you just can’t please everyone.

The Queen of Bedlam - Robert McCammon

   2007; 645 pages.  Book 2 (out of 7) in the “Matthew Corbett” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Historical Fiction; Murder Mystery; Intrigue.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    New York, in the year 1700.  We can’t quite call it New York City yet, since the population hasn’t even hit 5,000.  But it’s growing rapidly, and who knows, it might eventually grow to be as big as Boston or Philadelphia.

There are boatloads (literally) of new colonists coming to New York from England.  But there are also lots of Dutch colonists left over from when the town belonged to Holland, who called it New Amsterdam.  England took it over less than forty years ago.

    Matthew Corbett has been here for about three years now, having come up from the Carolina colony at the conclusion of his adventure down there, chronicled in Speaks The Nightbird and reviewed here and here.  He’s still a clerk, but now he works for the Magistrate Powers.  But his first love is solving mysteries and he's jokingly invented a new word to describe someone who goes about detecting clues to figure out who committed a crime: a “detective”.

    At present, he has a chance to put those “detecting skills” to good use, since someone recently slashed the throat of Dr. Godwin, a local physician.  Most likely it was some crazy person, since they also mutilated the doctor’s face.  It happened at night, out on a dark street, and if the madman has any sense (is that an oxymoron?), he’s probably skipped out to some other town.  Everybody in New York certainly hopes he has.

    But a respected merchant has just suffered the same fate, and when Matthew happens upon the scene right after the murder, it’s time once again for him to go detecting.

What’s To Like...

    The Queen of Bedlam is Book Two in this series, and like its predecessor, is equal parts Historical Fiction, Murder-Mystery, and Intrigue.  All three genres are masterfully done.  Most of the story takes place in New York and the surrounding countryside, but Matthew’s sleuthing will also take him on trips to Westerwicke, New Jersey and Philadelphia.  I found it fascinating to see how traveling on business trips was done back then.

    The character development – even secondary and bit-part ones – is exceptional.  Although for the most part you can tell who the good guys and the bad guys are, I liked that even Matthew has faults.  For instance, he's not nearly as good at tailing a suspect as he thinks he is.

    The depth of Robert McCammon’s research is revealed in the historical details, including visits to a brothel and a mental hospital.  I I enjoyed the glimpse of forensic science in 1700, and chuckled at Matthew’s “acid trip”, which could be described as both “very bad” or “very good”.  I’m always delighted when chess gets worked into a story, and was surprised that even a drag queen could make it into the tale.

    At one point Robert McCammon gives some literary nods to authors who apparently were popular in 1700, and I want to check them out to see if Amazon offers them as free e-books, since any copyrights have surely expired.  There’s also a bit of subtle humor sprinkled throughout the story, which gives some balance to the dark deeds going on.  For instance, we get a graphic illustration of a “bull in a china shop”, and Master Samuel Baiter makes a cameo appearance, when he's addressed by a slightly shorter version of his name.

    There are at least eight plot threads for Matthew (and the reader) to investigate.  1.) Who’s the Masker and why is he carving up people?  2.) Who killed an earlier victim?  3.) What’s troubling Reverend Wade?  4.) What’s the connection, if any, between the three (presumed) Masker victims?  5.) Who’s the Queen of Bedlam and what’s her story?  6.) How does Simon fit in?  7.) What’s the code in Ausley’s notebook mean?  8.) Who and where is Professor Fell?

    The ending is extended (a good fifty pages or more), exciting, packed with action, and suitably twisty.  I love it when not everything in the hero's plans goes smoothly.  The second-last chapter serves as an Epilogue to clear up a couple of the plot threads, and the final chapter serves as a teaser for the next book in the series.

    The Queen of Bedlam is a standalone novel, as well as part of a series.  I don’t think it’s necessary to read the books in order, although I’m doing so.

Excerpts...

    “What are they going to do to us?” (…)

    “They’re going to kill us,” he said.

    Berry stopped.  She stood gaping at him, her blue eyes scorching holes through his head, until Dahlgren gave her a shove that almost propelled her into Matthew. (…)

    “Kill us?” she gasped when she could speak.  “Kill us?  What have you got me into?”

    “An adventure,” he replied.  “I thought you liked those.”

    “I like adventures I can live through!”  (pg. 578)

    In this town of soon to be more than five thousand persons there was a governor who wore a dress, a reverend who loved a prostitute, a printmaster who could crack walnuts on his forehead, a high constable who had killed a boy, a magistrate who was once a tennis champion, a laundress who collected secrets, and a coroner who collected bones.  There was a barber who owned a squirrel named Sassafras, a tailor who could identify a dead man from a suit’s watch pocket, and a black giantess who would put aside her gittern just long enough to kill you.  (pg. 638)

Kewlest New Word ...

Bloatarian (n.) : someone who consumes significant amounts of brewed alcoholic beverages.

Others: Stoggered (adj.).  (both these words are borderline “made up” ones.)

“Spoken like someone who forgot to brush their brain this morning.”  (pg. 485 )

    It's hard to find anything to quibble about in The Queen of Bedlam.  There's a fair amount of cussing, but it fits the story’s dark tone and isn't excessive.  The subject of child molestation crops up, and there’s one instance of forced sex, wherein we learn the meaning of term “the nymph’s itch”.

    The titular Queen of Bedlam doesn’t enter the story until the halfway point; I suppose purists could cavil about that.  And for those who read Robert McCammon’s novels for their paranormal horror content, well, all we have here is a pig that can foretell disasters and a girl’s who is a bad luck magnet.

    Oh yeah, two birds and one farm animal die.

    9 Stars.  I found The Queen of Bedlam to be just as good as Speaks The Nightbird, and I quite liked that book.  I've yet to read any of Robert McCammon’s “horror” novels, and I’m quite curious to see whether he can do those with equal mastery.  But I’ve got three of the remaining five Matthew Corbett books on my Kindle, so I might just as easily concentrate on this series.

The Janson Command - Paul Garrison

   2012; 436 pages.  Book  2 (out of 4) in the “Janson Directive” series.   New Author? : Yes.  Action-Adventure; Intrigue; Espionage.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    Paul Janson just landed a job, and a well-paying one to boot.  The Houston-based American Synergy Corporation (“ASC”), the largest oil company in America, wants him to “retrieve” one of their trauma doctors, Terry Flannigan, and bring him home.

    This could be quite the challenge, since the doctor has been taken hostage by rebel forces on the Isle de Foree, a small island country off the west coast of Africa, close to Nigeria.  But Janson is a former black-ops agent, so he’s well-qualified for the task.  With some careful planning and a world-class sharpshooter for a partner, things should go swimmingly.

    And they do.  Oh, there were a couple of surprises, including a bunch of Russian tanks and a fighter jet of unknown origin, but a few hiccups along the way were to be expected.  The doctor is rescued and it’s time to take him back home.  

    Alas, that's when everything goes haywire.  Terry Flannigan insists he’s not an employee of ASC, never has been, is happy where he is as he nurses the rebel leader back to health, and frankly thinks Janson’s been sent here to kill him.

    And when the doctor slips away to parts unknown, Paul can feel his “retrieval fee” slipping away as well.

What’s To Like...

    The Janson Command is the second book in a 4-book series, that appear to be completed, since the fourth one was published in 2015.  Robert Ludlum penned the first book in the series, Paul Garrison wrote #2 and #3, and Douglas Corleone authored the last one.  This is the only book in the series I’ve read.

    The action starts immediately, the pacing is fast, and the only time things slow down a tad is when Paul Garrison wants to introduce some intrigue into the tale.  There are a bunch of settings, most of which are exotic: Nigeria, New York, Cartagena in Spain, Zurich, Baghdad, Sydney and Canberra in Australia, Corsica and Sardinia, and Singapore.  The last one resonated with me, as I spent 24 hours there on business one time, and Garrison’s portrayal of it felt very “real” to me.

    I liked the “Janson Rules” that he plays by, and expects anyone work for him to abide by as well: 1.) no torture, 2.) no civilian casualties, 3.) no killing anyone who doesn’t try to kill you.  Those are difficult rules to follow when you’re doing covert espionage missions, and Janson in particular is sorely tested by them.

    You’ll learn a little bit of French (the fictitious Isle de Foree appears to be a former French colony), including a French cussword or two; and a smidgen of Spanish as well.  On a more practical note, you’ll learn how to make a smoke bomb using only items that are available in a cruise line gift shop.  There are 44 chapters plus a prologue, and the book is divided into four parts, each one signaling the main plot thread is about to become deeper and twistier, which leaves both the reader and Janson wondering just what the heck is really going on.

    The ending is suitably exciting, although not particularly twisty.  Everything goes according to Janson’s well-contrived plans, and despite their numerical superiority, the bad guys seem to be outmatched.  Some of the secondary plot threads, such as who’s really behind all this, remain unresolved, presumably to be addressed in the next book.  Nonetheless, The Janson Command is a standalone novel, and I didn’t feel I was missing anything by having not read the first book.

Excerpts...

    “The downside I see to working with a woman is that in the clutch, when the lead is flying, it’s only natural that you’d be distracted, worried about her getting hurt.  Particularly if she’s your protégée.  Devoted followers have a habit of getting killed in our line of work.  I’ve lost them; so have you."

    “Jessica is predator, not prey.”  (pg. 40)

    “Isle de Foreens dislike Nigerians.  They accuse us of being overbearing.  It is relatively typical of small nations to dislike big nations.  As many nations hate America, so many hate Nigeria.”

    “To have Nigeria as a neighbor is to sleep with a hippopotamus.”

    “My nation and your island are separated by two hundred miles of open gulf.”

    “Hippos can swim.”  (pg. 310)

“What’s our Coast Guard doing six thousand miles from home?”  (pg. 78 )

    There’s not a lot to nitpick about in The Janson Command.  There’s a fair amount of cussing, but I didn’t feel it was overdone.  There’s one instance of sex, and one instance of sexual abuse; but both are handled deftly.  A bunch of acronyms crop up in the story, so you might want to keep notes about what things like SR, Cons Ops, ASC, GRA, and FFM stand for.

    Judging from the Amazon reviews, the biggest gripe seems to be the book cover itself.  Glance at the image above.  What jumps out at you?  Robert Ludlum and Jason Bourne, right?  Well, the first one didn’t write this book, and the second one doesn’t appear in it.

    Some readers apparently were duped and irked by this, but honestly a second glance should have told them who the actual author and protagonist were.  Further, it should be noted that utilizing a replacement when a well-known author of a series passes away is not an uncommon practice.  It’s been done for Tony Hillerman, Lawrence Sanders, and Robert Jordan, just to name a couple right off the top of my head.  Yes, it’s a marketing ploy, but I think it’s more savvy than misleading.

    In closing, I enjoyed The Janson Command, mostly from the aspect of being an “airport novel”.  Is it as good as the Bourne series?  No, but how many other action-adventure stories are, including ones penned by Ludlum himself?  I expected to be entertained from the first page to the last, and didn't care if the writing wasn't elegant and deep.  By those standards, The Janson Command measured up quite well.     

    7½ Stars.

The Spy in the Ointment - Donald E. Westlake

   1966; 207 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Satire; Amateur Secret Agent Thriller; Intrigue, Pulp Fiction.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

    Acronyms can be confusing.  Sometimes a single letter can make a huge difference.

    For instance, Gene Raxford is the National Chairman of the organization CIU, which stands for Citizens’ Independence Union.  That’s not as impressive as it sounds: because although they boasted 1400 members in 1952, that number's now shrunk to only 17, and 12 of those are on the “inactive” list.  CIU-ers are confirmed pacifists.  Mahatma Gandhi would pick a fight you sooner any of them would.

    Then there’s the WCIU, which stands for World Citizens’ Independence Union, which has a radically different philosophy.  They like to bomb things, mostly people and places.  They’re just one of a bunch of small like-minded extremist groups in the greater New York City area.

    Gene has just been invited to a tip-top super-secret meeting for violent subversive groups.  The people who invited him are confusing the WCIU and the CIU.  They’ve given him the time and place for the meeting, and Gene probably should skip it and let them know of their mix-up.

    But then what?  Maybe the bad guys will see him as a security threat and send someone to kill him.  If only someone could tell Gene the safest thing to do.

    Like the FBI agents that have bugged his phone, his table lamps, and his toilet tank.  Or the one hiding out in his basement.  Or the ones that empty his wastebaskets every day, in hopes of finding incriminating evidence.

What’s To Like...

    The Spy in the Ointment was published in 1966, and can perhaps be best described as an “amateur secret agent satire”.  The story is told in the first-person POV, Gene’s, as he muddles through the training and execution of an undercover sting on behalf of the FBI.   He’s accompanied by his current squeeze, Angela, who’s blonde, rich, and said by Gene to be “as healthy as a horse.  But better-looking.  But not quite as bright”.

    It was fun to be immersed in pre-computer technology again.  Your copier is a mimeograph machine, presentations are done with an easel and big poster cards, and telephone numbers are given as 7-character alphanumeric combinations such as: “CHelsea 2-2598”.

    I liked Donald Westlake’s portrayal of 1960’s radicals.  The bad guys want to merge all the extremist groups (whether radical left or radical right; it doesn't matter) for strength in numbers, but their squabbling at the kick-off meeting is simultaneously hilarious, self-defeating, and sad.  I sat in a couple such meetings in the early 70’s, and watched each group wanting its own personal agenda to take precedence over everybody else’s.  It’s a wonder any demonstration was ever successfully carried out.

    The plotline is sustained by Gene’s caustic wit and the mutual ineptitude of all involved parties: the FBI, the radicals, and even Gene and his friends.  You can put Gene through a grueling training program (but only for five days), and give him lots of super-neato spy gadgets (like James Bond gets at the start of each mission), but in the end you still have in incompetent civilian and a plan that has no chance of succeeding.

    The ending is a mixed bag.  Donald Westlake throws in a couple twists, and our protagonist has to decide whether his self-proclaimed pacifist philosophy is worth compromising for the greater good.  Disaster is averted (well, you knew that was going to happen so it's not a spoiler), but not without some over-the-top action to make it so.  And just when you think everything's about to settle down, the Epilogue shows up with a fresh round of unexpected mayhem.

Kewlest New Word ...

Cess (n.) : luck, usually used in the phrase “bad cess to you”.

Others: lagniappe (n.); hortatory (adj.); patroon (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Take this.”

    I said, “Why?”

    “Bottoms up,” he said.  “We’ve still got lots to do.”

    So I put the capsule in my mouth, downed it with water, gave him the glass back, and said, “Is it all right if I know what that was?”

    “Certainly,” he said.  “A microphone.”

    “A who?”

    “You will excrete it,” he said, “in approximately three days.  In the interim, you will be able to record and broadcast all conversations held in your presence.”  (loc. 1521)

    “Try to relax.”

    “Sure.  The cops are after me, I’m on my way to join an organization of lunatics and bombers, I’m wired for sound, my necktie turns into a smokescreen, my handkerchief will make you throw up, my Diner’s Club card explodes, I’m the leader of a subversive terrorist organization composed entirely of undercover federal agents, newspapers all over the country are saying I killed my girl, and I’m on my way to meet a twenty-five-year-old Nazi built like Bronco Nagurski.  If relaxed means limp, don’t worry about it.  I’m relaxed.  I’m relaxed all over.  (loc. 1803)

“The thought of a lot of pacifists protecting me from a lot of terrorists … just somehow doesn’t fill me with confidence.”  (loc. 581 )

    Not everything about returning to the 60’s is positive.  Racial pejoratives were both common and acceptable back then, and several of them show up here.  I recognize that Donald Westlake can’t be blamed for using such words in The Spy In The Ointment, but it’s still feels like fingernails-on-a-chalkboard when I read it.

    Also, in 1966, Women’s Lib was either barely around or nonexistent.  Angela’s role is basically to be a ditzy dumb blonde female sidekick, and Gene is thoroughly happy with this.

    Finally, as intriguing as the overall storyline is – hapless Gene infiltrates a terrorist cell and thwarts their evil plans – there really isn’t a lot of action.  If not for Donald Westlake’s writing skills, this book might have been a trudge.

    But the Westlake wit saves the day, and since I grew up in the 1960’s, none of these quibbles were surprising.  Indeed, the book gives me an appreciation for just how far we’ve come in the last 50 years in race-relations, feminism, and satire novels.  I am a big Donald Westlake fan, mostly due to his Dortmunder books, but it’s a nice change-of-pace to read some of his other stuff every so often.

    6½ Stars.  Donald Westlake (1933-2008) was a prolific writer whose career spanned a jaw-dropping 50 years (1959-2009, plus three more books published posthumously).  A Spy In The Ointment is #35 out of 115 books, if I counted right at Wikipedia and if their list is comprehensive.  It would be another four years before the first Dortmunder novel was published, and IMO that’s when he really began to hit his stride.