REVIEWS FROM
MADDY  VAN HERTBRUGGEN

Maddy Van Hertbruggen is what we call a mystery addict.  She is the owner of a mystery book discussion group with the appropriate name 4 Mystery Addicts.  For her contributions to the mystery genre, Maddy has received both Lefty and Anthony Special Services Award nominations.

In 2010, Maddy was Fan Guest of Honor at Bouchercon in San Francisco. 

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E-mail Maddy: maddy van @ sc. rr. com. 
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1222         
ANNE HOLT         
Scribner   January, 2012

A train on its way from Oslo to Bergen, Norway, derails in a remote northern region during a horrific storm. Amazingly, only one person, the driver, is killed. The remaining two hundred sixty eight passengers are transported by local rescue teams to an old tourist hotel, Finse 1222, so named because it is 1222 meters above sea level. The stranded passengers stay in one of the hotel's two buildings. The storm rages and becomes so fierce that even the most experienced local guide is unable to go outside, and all rescue attempts have been thwarted.

At first, the situation is an inconvenience to the travelers; but it soon turns dangerous as several of them are murdered. In the group is a retired detective inspector, Hanne Wilhelmsen, who gave up her career several years earlier after being shot in the spine. Confined to a wheelchair, she wants nothing more than to be left alone. But the situation begs for her intervention. She bands together with a few of the local men and the owner of the hotel to stop the killings and find the perpetrator. Another mystery involves a group of people, including armed guards, who were on the last car of the train. They were spirited off separately, and there are many theories about who they are - members of royalty, terrorists, escaped prisoners, and so on.

1222 is a classic locked room mystery, albeit with a great many more suspects than is usually the case. It was fascinating to see the impact of the isolation on the group. It was equally interesting to see Hanne shed her aloneness and become involved with people other than her immediate family for the first time in years. The secondary characters in the "inner group" were also quite intriguing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book until its conclusion. It felt to me like Holt just wanted to end the story. The reader was not privy to all the details that led Hanne to identify the killer. In addition, the red herring suspects were dealt with quite summarily. It was disappointing to have what was an excellent read conclude so unsatisfactorily.

That being said, I look forward to the translations of Holt's other works becoming available in the US. Holt has been very well received here, as evidenced by the recent nomination of 1222 for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, winner to be announced in May of 2012.

AGENT 6         
TOM ROB SMITH          
Grand Central Publishing   January, 2012

AGENT 6 is the final installment in the Child 44 trilogy, which features Soviet secret police agent Leo Demidov. It is a wonderful conclusion to a series that is epic in scope. AGENT 6 opens in 1951, in Moscow, where the young agent, Leo, is assigned the prestigious duty of escorting a black American singer, Jesse Austin, around Moscow. Austin has espoused the Communist cause; the Russian government hopes to use his visit to popularize their cause in the US. When Jesse asks to deviate from the planned itinerary, Leo takes him to the school of a woman he met on the subway. Thanks to their visit, Leo reconnects to Raisa, who later becomes his wife.

It's several years later, and Leo has left the secret service. He and Raisa have two daughters, Elena and Zoya. Raisa has been assigned to direct a children's choir who are scheduled to visit the United States to perform jointly with an American group. The performance in New York goes exceptionally well, until a political assassination ruins the spirit of accord that has been achieved. Elena had been asked to meet with Jesse Austin, who has been a recluse for some time due to the shabby treatment he has received in his home country. She convinces him to speak outside the event. He is still revered in the Soviet Union; however he and Elena have unknowingly become pawns in a deadly political game. The result is that Leo loses one of his loved ones, and he vows to avenge that death, despite the fact that he no longer has any power.

Leo's attempts to go to New York end up with him being placed in exile in Afghanistan, where he teaches young men and women to become secret agents. In an effort to escape his grief, he becomes an opium addict and floats through life. Seven years go by. It isn't until one of his female students, Nara Mir, faces extreme danger that he is able to shake his torpor and come back to life. Ultimately, they end up in the United States; and Leo is able to complete his quest, sixteen years after the murder.

AGENT 6 is an amazing achievement, its major flaw being that it is overlong. The section that takes place in Afghanistan could have been reduced significantly without any real loss to the plot. Overall, Smith has done a masterful job of creating a narrative that spans more than thirty years. Although the plot is extremely complicated, its various threads are woven throughout like a beautiful tapestry. The revelation of the killer was surprising, yet made perfect sense, leading to a satisfying conclusion.

AGENT 6 is a thriller, a historical treatise and a love story all in one. Along with the other two books in the trilogy, CHILD 44 and THE SECRET SPEECH, Smith has created a real tour de force. I am in awe of his accomplishment.

THE PROFESSIONALS         
OWEN LAUKKANEN         
G. P. Putnam's Sons   March, 2012

In this economy, finding a job is tough, especially if you a twenty-something without a lot of experience to offer. There are four friends who find themselves in this situation when one of them, Arthur Pender, has a brilliant flash of inspiration. Why not take advantage of what the wealthier segment of the population has to offer? The plan is to research each potential victim extensively, kidnap them, and then ask for a minimal ransom. Traditionally, ransoms for the rich are in the millions of dollars; instead, our creative group seeks one hundred thousand dollars or less. Pender feels that the victim's family will easily be able to put together that kind of money and won't feel the need to involve the police for such a paltry sum. That's their five-year plan - low risk, no violence and then live happily ever after.

The plan works perfectly for two years when something goes wrong and they abduct a victim whose wife just happens to be involved in the Mob. When one of the team actually kills someone, the game changes entirely. Pender, his girlfriend Marie, Mouse and Sawyer now have a hit man on their tail, as well as FBI agent Carla Windermere and a Minnesota state investigator, Kirk Stevens. The stakes get higher and higher, with Mouse grievously injured and Sawyer and Pender turning vigilante. Marie has taken a brief respite from the group but is soon tracked down by the authorities, who use her for bait to capture the trio, who have been joined by another young woman who is a bored rich girl. Knowing that their options are running out, the group decides on one last job with a ransom demand of five million dollars to fund their future.

I really enjoyed the book up until the time that the group went on the run. Their kidnapping idea was clever, and it was interesting to see how they prepared for each abduction. Once things turned bad, though, the book went downhill for me. Here was a group of young people who, without any prior experience, were able to use automatic weapons and actually gun down professional assassins. It was quite implausible to me that Pender was able to dictate the terms of releasing the latest victim and call all of the shots. Would the authorities really act this way?

The book showed a lot of promise until the narrative spun completely out of control. THE PROFESSIONALS is a debut novel; the intention is to build a series featuring Windermere and Stevens, each of whom has their own modus operandi which doesn't necessarily mesh with the other. I'm having a hard time envisioning how this partnership would work. However, Laukkanen definitely shows potential; it will be interesting to see what direction he takes with future efforts.

TRESPASSER         
PAUL DOIRON          
Minotaur Books Trade pb 4/12

Mike Bowditch is a game warden in Maine and a very conflicted young man. He's still dealing with the aftereffects of a case involving his father, a poacher, and at the same time attempting to rebuild his relationship with his girlfriend and repair his professional reputation. Unfortunately, he isn't doing very well with any of this. He's very self destructive and self absorbed and seems intent on acting in the worst possible way, both in his career and his personal life.

Mike is called to the scene of an accident involving a deer. When he arrives, the deer has vanished. The car that hit it is nearby, but its owner is nowhere to be found. He discovers that the vehicle is owned by a young woman named Ashley Kim. Supposedly, she called for a tow and then went on to a friend's. Something about the situation troubles Mike, but he leaves the investigation in the hands of the state trooper who reports to the scene, since it is not within his job scope to take on the case. Despite the fact that he has no authority, Mike continues to look into Ashley's background and to pursue the answers to the questions that are raised.

Eventually, Mike finds Ashley's body and things become even more complicated. The way that she was killed brings to mind an older murder by a man who is now in prison. Is it possible that Erland Jefferts was wrongly convicted? Bowditch is like a dog looking for a juicy bone; he can't stop what he is doing even though the result is that he is neglecting his girlfriend and alienating everyone he meets. Mike isn't a very likeable character; his bullheadedness and lack of consideration for others makes him quite unsympathetic.

Although Bowditch is a game warden, there is almost nothing about him doing that job in the book other than the initial call about the dead deer and a situation involving off-road vehicles destroying property. Instead, Mike operates in detective mode, which is clearly outside of his job responsibilities. I wondered why Doiron made that choice. Why have a lead character who is a game warden and then totally abandon what that profession involves? Why not make him a detective in the first place?

Doiron is a very talented writer. His prose is elegiac, and he does a masterful job of describing the various Maine settings. I wish that he had made Mike a more sympathetic character and that he had kept him in the game warden framework. I very much enjoyed the first book in this series, THE POACHER'S SON, but TRESPASSER irritated more than entertained me.

FORCE OF NATURE         
C. J. BOX         
G. P. Putnam's Sons   March, 2012

Joe Pickett is a Game Warden in Wyoming who has taken on just about every threat imaginable over the course of twelve books. He is a moral family man who has often been aided by his off-the-grid friend, Nate Romanowski. Nate has been an enigmatic character throughout the series, and FORCE OF NATURE is a book that is dedicated to telling his story.

At one time, Nate was in a Special Forces unit in Central Asia. He was hand-picked to join this group by the commanding lieutenant and master falconer, John Nemecek, who had heard of Nate's falconry skills. Nate joined the secret unit, known as "The Five". At times, Nemecek ordered them to do questionable things. To this day, Nate regrets going along with some of these orders. Nemecek is on a mission to eliminate anyone who knew about the worst of these activities and has sent a group to terminate Nate. Nemecek is not the least bit hesitant about doing whatever is necessary to catch his prey, much like the falcons that he trains, including going after the families of Nate's friends, one of whom is Game Warden Joe Pickett.

Nate goes to ground and begins to seek out some of his closest Special Forces friends, finding some of them dead or in grave danger. Meanwhile, Joe is training a new warden, Luke Brueggemann, and trying to aid Nate surreptitiously. Joe has a strong moral code and finds it difficult to cover for his friend. He does an admirable job of it, despite the fact that Nemecek has threatened his family and they are planning to vacate to California for a while.

Nate Romanowski has long been an enigma, and Box does a great job of revealing Nate's past and his motivations. It's essential to understand the art of falconry in order to really know Nate; the fact that he is able to kill without remorse is not a sign that he is a sociopath; instead, he has a falcon's way of looking at things. This outlook may be tough for the squeamish reader to handle. I did find it odd that Nate confided deep dark secrets to a female he met along the way; he is normally an extremely wary man and doesn't trust anyone easily. I also had a hard time with the "big secret" part of the plot; it was an anticlimax to finally have it revealed and it wasn't very believable. Despite that, I found FORCE OF NATURE to be an excellent read. I was pleased to see a deeper level of development of one of the major characters of the series, as well as the depth of friendship and loyalty between Nate and Joe.

It hardly seems possible that FORCE OF NATURE is the twelfth book in the Joe Pickett series. The first book, OPEN SEASON, was published in 2001. I remember how much I delighted in reading it. It's great to find that my enthusiasm for this series has failed to wane in all this time.

THE AFFAIR         
LEE CHILD         
Dell Premium pb 3/12

THE AFFAIR is the sixteenth book in the extremely successful Jack Reacher series. Most of those books deal with Reacher's life after leaving the military. He is basically a drifter who travels around the US, encounters trouble and deals with it. Back in 2004, Lee Child wrote a prequel (THE ENEMY) which was set during the time that Reacher was still in the military. THE AFFAIR is also a prequel book, which follows him during the time immediately prior to his leaving the Army.

It's 1997. There is a secret Ranger training school in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. When a local woman is savagely murdered, Major Duncan Munro is the military policeman who is assigned to go to the base and conduct an investigation to determine if the killer is in the service. Jack Reacher is sent undercover to make sure Munro and the local authorities are doing the right thing. Of course, the military is hoping that one of the locals is to blame. Shortly after his arrival, Reacher is made by the local sheriff, a former Marine named Elizabeth Deveraux. Wary at first, she begins to trust Reacher and they work together on the investigation.

They soon find that there is a pattern of killing involving at least four women. The evidence points to the fort's commander, Reed Riley, who also happens to be a Senator's son. Of course, Reacher isn't afraid to rattle things around in the military establishment, which causes him career damage. Child keeps things quite suspenseful, and the question of who-dun-it is a moving target. Even Deveraux falls under suspicion.

One thing that I thought that Child did extremely well was to set up the framework of the post-military Jack Reacher persona. We see where the beginnings of some of his trademark activities, such as traveling with just a folding toothbrush and no clothing, or the phrase "he said nothing" originated. Child has also sketched out the beginnings of the situation which is the main plot point for the first Reacher book, THE KILLING FLOOR.

I thoroughly enjoyed THE AFFAIR. Elizabeth Deveraux was a great character. It was fun to see Child incorporate elements and people that appear in the other books, such as Francis Neagley and Leon Garber. I found the book to be one of the best in the series.