REVIEWS FROM MICHAEL F. HENNESSEY
in CANADA
NEED YOU NOW
JAMES GRIPPANDO
HarperCollins January, 2012
By now, the name Bernie Madoff is synonymous with the words Ponzi Scheme. But while Bernie is busily occupied serving three or four consecutive life sentences, the instigator of the Ponzi scheme in this novel, Abe Cushman, has killed himself and taken his secrets with him. A similarity: the parameters of Bernie's scam run from 18-60 billion dollars, Abe's from 6-60 billion. The performances of both men are, according to author Grippando, the statistical equivalent of a baseball player batting .962 for 10 consecutive years. Even Barry Bonds, hyped on steroids, couldn't do that; no one could.
The questions are the same in both cases: How did they manage to get away with it for so long? and, Where is the money? Let's look at the fictional crime.
Patrick Lloyd is a young Wall Street financial advisor at the world's largest Swiss bank. His girlfriend and fellow bank employee, Lilly Scanlon, is tied to billions in losses to some of Cushman's shadier clients, powerful men whose dirty dealings are buried in secrecy. Soon, Patrick and Lilly are on the run from killers who will stop at nothing to recoup their losses.
Grippando's premise is that the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) knew of Cushman's scheme, but allowed it to run its course because they were operating on their own agenda. This ties in nicely with Madoff's scheme. In each case, there were over thirty red flags raised by critics. In the Madoff case, one critic, Harry Markopolis, wrote a book aptly titled, NO ONE WOULD LISTEN: A TRUE FINANCIAL THRILLER. He also did a damning analysis of Madoff's strategies and passed it on to the SEC. No one did anything.
Reading NEED YOU NOW is like reading a blueprint of what could have happened in real life. The novel has plenty of twists and turns, with assassins at work, government corruption, and double-crosses. It's a thrilling read. Grippando is a seasoned veteran with eighteen novels of suspense to his credit. NEED YOU NOW is a worthy addition. Don't dismiss his scenario too hastily. It could be true! RECOMMENDED.
THE INQUISITOR
MARK ALLEN SMITH
Henry Holt and Company April, 2012
Geiger is in the IR business. That's Information Retrieval. In other words, he's a torturer. Now there are torturers and torturers. Geiger is the type who rarely spills blood, rather talking softly to his subjects, pushing them towards the breaking point. Geiger is reminiscent of Joe Pike, Elvis Cole's sidekick in the terrific novels of Robert Crais. Like Pike, Geiger says little, hardly ever blinks, has an air of physical stillness, is lean and hard, and is a runner and practitioner of martial arts. All of this gives him an intimidating air, often putting his subjects in a confessing mood just by his presence.
Geiger has a partner, former journalist Harry Boddicker, who interviews clients seeking Geiger's services. One of Geiger's few rules is that he will not interrogate children, and when Harry brings him a client who demands he interrogate a twelve-year-old boy, Geiger must make a decision that will either earn him a big payday, or possibly cause his own death.
We learn more about Geiger when the interrogator becomes the interrogated, Geiger strapped in the chair, another IR specialist by the name of Dalton, holding the needle and torch. Unlike Geiger, Dalton is an expert in physical pain. Will he be the one who finally breaks Geiger?
Novelist Mark Allen Smith does the impossible in this debut novel: he gives us a protagonist who deals in torture, hardly a likeable trait, but with whom we can sympathize and finally, empathize. Geiger is no saint, but as his background slips out bit by bit we develop some understanding of this complicated character. In this regard, Geiger is not unlike Jeff Lindsay's serial killer, Dexter Morgan, or Lawrence Block's assassin, John Keller, or Max Allan Collins's ditto, Quarry. They win us over, usually by some weakness related to their horrible childhood, and besides it's mostly very bad people they're taking out. Dexter even has his own TV series going for him.
THE INQUISITOR is a fine psychological thriller, a good vehicle for Bruce Willis in his "Last Man Standing" mode. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
THE ACCIDENT
LINWOOD BARCLAY
Bantam pb 3/12
The knockoff business doesn't flourish only in the Canal Street area of New York City. As Linwood Barclay reveals in this stunning thriller, it's alive and well in small-town America as well.
This is the story of several couples in suburban Connecticut caught up in complicated relationships, which lead from an innocent knockoff purse party to murder. First, contractor Glen Garber's wife is killed in a freak accident which appears to be her fault. Then her friend, Ann Slocum, accidently falls into a river, hitting her head on a rock, and drowns. Then a man who has done some sub-contract work for Glen is shot and there is no doubt about this death - it is no accident. Glen, meanwhile, is acting on the assumption that the deaths of the two women are similarly no accidents, and his search for the truth leads to some startling conclusions.
The twists and turns here are many. Nobody is who he seems, and nothing is as it appears. Glen Garber is almost overcome by his number of setbacks as he struggles to solve his problems and raise his young daughter without his loving wife. Grief coupled with optimism prevail here.
Linwood Barclay has vaulted to international stardom on the strength of eight earlier novels. This one may be his best yet. Skillfully plotted, with an excellent cast of memorable characters and superb writing, Barclay peels away the layers of the suburban psyche, uncovering secret after secret, until nothing remains but the truth . If you like a suspenseful read that pulls you in and never lets go, with not one but two shocking surprises, this is the book for you. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
THE TRINITY SIX
CHARLES CUMMING
Griffin Trade pb 4/12
In the annals of spylore, the Cambridge Five - Burgess, MacLean, Philby, Blunt, Cairncross - loom large as master double agents. In Britain, they're considered traitors; in Russia they are known as "The Magnificent Five". It all depends on which side of the plate you're batting from.
A rumour persists that there has always been a sixth man who has never been caught, and author Cumming builds his novel on that premise.
A well-known English newspaper correspondent, Charlotte Berg, receives a call from an old man in a nursing home named Thomas Neame, who claims to know the identity of the sixth man. Over time, he reveals to Berg that the man is Edward Crane, and he begins feeding her information from Crane's memoirs.
Before Berg can do anything with what she's learned, she is murdered. Her work is continued by a good friend whom she has kept informed of her progress, Dr. Sam Gaddis, a university historian. While doing follow-up work, Gaddis is threatened and harassed. Three other men who have had dealings with the elusive Crane are murdered, and Gaddis realizes that his own life and that of his young daughter are very much in jeopardy.
The British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6, and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), figure prominently in this tightly-plotted novel, the outcome of which is in doubt up to the final pages.
Author Cumming has written four other novels. THE TRINITY SIX is a superior suspense novel with exceptionally drawn characters in all their complexities, and with an acute sense of tradecraft and Cold War history. The action plays out in some of the most glamorous spy locations in the world: London, Moscow, Barcelona, Vienna, Budapest.
Charles Cumming has been favourably compared to John LeCarre, and while THE TRINITY SIX is not as convoluted as some of the old master's best work, (think THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY, or TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY) it is deeper, more suspenseful, and more compelling than some of his later novels. A spy writer can't get much better than that. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.