PAPERBACK PAGE

Books reviewed on this page are current paperback releases that were reviewed in
                                                             when they were released in hard cover.

THE SECRET SPEECH           
TOM ROB SMITH           
Grand Central Publishing Trade pb 5/10

In Smith's best-selling debut, CHILD 44, we learned that in Stalin's Soviet Union there was no crime. It was the perfect socialist society and thus there could not possibly be criminals. Dissidents, yes. Enemies of the state? Lots of those. But no criminals. The serial killer that state security officer Leo Demidov pursued had to fit into some category other than criminal, or it could have meant Leo's life.

Cut to three years later. Stalin is dead and Khrushchev has taken over. Nothing has really changed too much in the USSR, although Leo was reluctantly made the head of a new and independent Homicide Bureau. It seems that there might be crime in the Soviet Union after all. But, for the most part, things are no different than they were under Stalin.
That is, until a Secret Speech made by Khrushchev is widely distributed; a speech in which he names Stalin as a tyrant and his apparatus of terror as criminal. Although not published, the speech is printed and tens of thousands of copies are scattered throughout the country and suddenly the agents once charged with arresting dissidents find themselves targets of revenge. Leo included.

All at once everything has changed. Enemies are now patriots, patriots now enemies. Old school warriors are protecting their territories, criminals are organizing and the world is viewing the USSR in a whole new light. Danger stalks the streets of Moscow.
Leo has been struggling to raise his two adopted daughters, orphaned when Leo and his squad killed their parents during a mission. Young Elena doesn't remember enough to care, but Zoya is a teenager and hates Leo for killing her parents. Little does she know that her hatred is nothing compared to that of another, but when she is kidnapped she finds out soon enough that there are a lot of people who would like to see Leo dead.

THE SECRET SPEECH has a different feel to it than did CHILD 44. That first book fairly reeked of paranoia, as befits a book set in Stalinist Russia. This one, however, moves much faster, there is more action, more dialogue, a freer feel that is ideal for a Soviet Union where the people have a moment to take a breath. Leo is faced with enemies on all hands, some of whom he doesn't know, and must face his past to secure his future.

THE SECRET SPEECH is a different but equally compelling book. As with all great fiction, it teaches while it entertains. Where else can you find a white-knuckle thrill ride that features a leaky prison ship plying the waters of Russia's far eastern coast, the inside of the gulag, the sewers of Moscow or the rooftops of Budapest during the Hungarian uprising?
Let's put this simply: THE SECRET SPEECH is one massively entertaining thriller.

                                                                                                    - Bill Webb

THE LORD OF DEATH         
ELIOT PATTISON           
Soho Crime Trade pb 6/10

It is a convention in modern mysteries, dating back to Conan Doyle and Poe, that there is a linear progression to solving the case. Isolate the facts, establish the truth and the mystery is solved, QED. In Eliot Pattison's Shan Tao Yun Tibetan investigations, this convention is severely strained, if not simply thrown off a cliff. Monks reincarnated as mules, murder victims who aren't dead, and an angry mountain goddess all share narrative space with Chinese bureaucrats and security police, long distance truck drivers, a prison psych ward nicknamed the yeti factory, and Western mountain climbing expeditions.

Pattison's protagonist, Shan, is an exiled Beijing investigator consigned to the Tibetan gulag for investigating the wrong high-level corruption case. He has no identity papers, no connections and potentially no reason to be allowed to live. He is named by a village fortune-teller as favored by the mountain goddess Chomolongma (Mount Everest) to remove corpses from the mountain for proper burial. While leading a corpse-laden mule down the slopes, Shan witnesses a traffic accident that turns into a prison break and a double murder. To appease the goddess, Shan must learn the truth and quiet the ghosts of the mountain.

THE LORD OF DEATH is the sixth installment in the Shan series and one of the best. Skillfully blending past Tibet with modern, Pattison doesn't sugarcoat the new realities but makes clear that the struggle for the hearts and minds of Tibet continues, being fought as much with trucks and tourists as with the People's Militia and forced loyalty oaths. The situation is not hopeless and the historical resilience of Tibetan Buddhism shines through the pages of this offbeat and compelling mystery. Not one to be missed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

                                                                                                   - W. J. H. Reed

TREASURE OF THE GOLDEN CHEETAH          
SUZANNE ARRUDA          
Obsidian Trade pb 6/10

It's the 1920s and Jade del Cameron, photo journalist and all-around Africa hand, is hired by a local guide to be second in command of a safari to Mt. Kilimanjaro. The group they are leading is made up of movie actors and crew from Hollywood who are on a film shoot. The trouble starts even before the safari has left Nairobi, when the movie's producer is killed in a bizarre incident. When a native mystic predicts Jade's death on the trip, her native protégée Jelani decides to tag along to protect her.

Once they get started, nothing goes right. Several more people die under strange circumstances and another native puts a curse on Jade. She must deal constantly with the actors' outsize egos and a director who frequently changes his plans in order to include every new exotic thing he encounters. The closer they get to the mountain top, the more goes wrong. Jade begins to wonder whether the director is less concerned about his movie than finding an ancient treasure rumored to be buried in the Kilimanjaro crater.  Meanwhile, Jade is reconsidering her decision to marry Sam Featherstone, and Sam realizes the danger Jade is in and attempts to rush to her rescue.

TREASURE OF THE GOLDEN CHEETAH is exciting and suspenseful from first page to last. Scenes alternate between Nairobi and the safari camp, with nice, subtle parallels such as deference given to a tribal elder in a jungle village and also to a titled British patriarch in Nairobi. The exotic locale is a major character in the book, with wonderful descriptions of scenery and the rigors of a safari. Native religious beliefs, legends, and a ghost leopard give the story a pervasive mysticism. A bonus is the insider's look at the pragmatism involved in filming silent movies.

The best thing of all in this 5th Jade del Cameron adventure is the starring role given to Biscuit, Jade's wonderful pet cheetah, who accompanies Jelani when he stows away on the safari. The lithe, loyal cat behaves like a well-trained dog and time after time comes to his owner's rescue. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

                                                                                                      - Verna Suit

SMOKE & WHISPERS          
MICK HERRON          
Soho Constable Trade pb 6/10
ISBN: 978-1-56947-564-5

Zoë Boehm was one of those women who have an air of intrigue about them, who live a more free-spirited life than the norm and whose lives have an underlying sense of adventure. Shocked upon being notified that her friend's body has been pulled from the river Tyne in Newcastle, Sarah Tucker leaves behind her live-in lover and rather complacent life to identify Zoë.

Sarah can't believe that her independent friend would ever feel despondent enough to commit suicide, as the police seem to think. Zoë had been working as a private investigator and had been obsessed with finding a man known as Alan Talmadge. By her account, he is a very nondescript individual who worms his way into lonely women's lives and then kills them, but in a way that looks as if the death were natural. Sarah wonders if Talmadge has murdered Zoë.  Among her effects at the morgue is a jacket that he had stolen from Zoë years earlier.

Sarah stays at the same run-down hotel as Zoë did and starts to piece together Zoë's last days. Shortly after her arrival, she runs into a former acquaintance, Gerald Inchon, a successful businessman, who she discovers has Zoë's business card. This is far too coincidental for Sarah's liking, and she works to uncover the truth about the situation. At the same time, she feels that Talmadge may be in the picture, perhaps right under her nose. The suspense continues to rise until the focus moves from Zoë and the mysterious Talmadge to whatever is going on with Gerald Inchon. Although that plot line isn't totally removed from the main thread, it served to measurably decrease the tension that was building. The suspense balloon deflated.

The manner in which the Talmadge plot resolved was a disappointment. It didn't seem connected to much of what had gone on before, and the character didn't have the menace that had been associated with him throughout most of the book. I felt that the way things transpired was a stretch.

Herron excels at building suspense, to the point where I was afraid to read this book at night while traveling for business. If he had been able to maintain that level of tension, SMOKE & WHISPERS would have rated highly with me. As it is, I did enjoy the book but felt that the secondary plot and resolution didn't quite work.

                                                                                 - Maddy Van Hertbruggen

THE DARK HORSE           
CRAIG JOHNSON           
Penguin Trade pb 5/10

When a woman is housed in his jail, Sheriff Walt Longmire is not convinced she is guilty of the murder of her husband. Even though the murder took place in an adjoining jurisdiction and she confessed, with the murder weapon in her lap, something doesn't smell right to Walt, who decides to conduct an undercover investigation.

Walt goes to the small town in which the incident took place in the guise of a representative of an insurance company because, in addition to the murder, a barn with six horses and the house in which the murder victim was found lying in his bed burned down. He encounters a diverse set of unusual characters, as well as a series of dangerous adventures. Along the way he comes to the conclusion that nearly everyone in town wanted the victim dead.

The plot, as usual for this author, unfolds against the rugged Wyoming landscape, and is written in the sparse style of the previous four novels in the series. After twenty-four years as Sheriff, Walt is running for another two-year term, but is too busy to campaign. The story flashes back and forth between Walt's efforts to get the accused to help him learn what happened, and his actual investigation. The casual humor of Walt's under-deputy, together with their sharp repartee, provides a light touch to the otherwise grim tale. As the story progresses, the reader is kept guessing right down to the final chapter. RECOMMENDED.

                                                                                             - Theodore Feit

THE LAST EMBER           
DANIEL LEVIN          
Riverhead Trade pb 5/10

Here are all the ingredients of the currently popular thrillers based on Biblical themes: a scientist driven by his interest in the religious world of two thousand years ago, joined by a lovely woman researcher in much the same field; a hidden archaeological treasure to be found only after a lengthy and harrowing scavenger hunt; multiple clues scattered in disparate locations ranging from floor mosaics to the tattoo around the navel of a young woman preserved in embalming fluid in an ancient Roman column. Of course, there's the requisite mysterious secret society (this time a Moslem one) along with a homicidal killer involved in the same quest as the two scientists. The object of the complicated search is the solid gold menorah which the Roman conquerors thought they had captured at the fall of Jerusalem, but which the historian Josephus had hidden and replaced with a decoy. One distinctive feature of THE LAST EMBER is that it's largely set underground in various locations around Rome, as well as beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In addition, explosions abound, as the villains engage in their own brand of archaeological excavation. Ultra-modern devices more typical of spy thrillers - such as a silent jackhammer and novel laser techniques for searching out underground antiquities - are also featured. Levin maintains a frantic pace for over four hundred pages, as the couple and their rivals risk life and limb while scrambling through tunnels from one clue to the next. It's hard to decide whether this book is intended as satire, but if the 007 novels have been lucrative grist for the Hollywood mill, who's to say that this one isn't as well?

                                                                                             - John A. Broussard

THE DEAD OF WINTER             
RENNIE AIRTH          
Penguin Trade pb 6/10

A young woman is brutally murdered during a World War II London blackout and Scotland Yard is on the case, but have few clues with which to work. Happily for the cause of justice, Rosa Novak worked as a "land girl" in the English countryside for John Madden, former Inspector at the Yard. A Polish immigrant fleeing the Nazis, Rosa had only worked at the Madden's farm for a few months, but Madden feels compelled to aid with the investigation because of his emotional ties to the girl, and finds that this superficially motiveless murder has a history and rationale that are terrifying in depth. Watching the Scotland Yard team dig methodically into Rosa's last hours makes for an engrossing read, but it's left to Madden to make the linkages to the past to find the connections that led inexorably to the young girl's death. Madden and his former colleagues at the Yard all seem exhausted - worn down and out by the War and by its grim effects on England's citizenry. And this third entry in the Madden series leans heavily on the investigators' narratives of what they've found, rather than on the real-time account of their research; because of this, the minute-by-minute drama is missing, and the book stylistically emulates the fatigue shown by all of the hard-working cops. Madden and his doctor-wife are still splendid protagonists, but the tension and suspense of RIVER OF DARKNESS is only a faint memory.
 
                                                                                                   - Carol Howell

FREE AGENT           
JEREMY DUNS          
Penguin Trade pb 6/10

Spy novels are supposed to be paranoid, claustrophobic affairs. Who do you trust? Who is lying, who isn't? When is the author misleading you? Half the fun is trying to figure out what's really going on. At least, that's how spy novels unfold when they are done right. And so, it's quite the compliment to say that with Jeremy Duns' first novel, FREE AGENT, it's quite a while before the reader has a clue to what is really happening.

Paul Dark is a young and eager officer in MI6 when World War II comes to a close; his father is also an officer, and while no longer young he is certainly eager to keep killing. When he recruits his son to help it seems like a straight forward proposition: assassinate Nazis before they can escape, a top secret assignment no one must ever know about. Then the father is killed, murdered, and Paul finds himself being recruited by the Russians.

Twenty-five years later, a Russian KGB officer wants to defect, offering details of a British officer recruited by his forerunners right after the end of World War II. Is Paul the double agent? It certainly seems so, and in short order he is running from both the KGB and MI6.
Paul Dark is no knight in shining armor, however. He can kill without compunction, even those he has known and liked for years. And he does. Like the best of his predecessors, the author knows that in the shadow world of spies and counter-spies, no one is ever wholly good and no one wholly evil. So it is with Paul Dark. He's the protagonist, but calling him a hero might be stretching things.

The author's style is fast, dialogue clipped. The characters' internal realities are all strictly maintained, meaning that the reader who pays attention will pick up small details that reinforce the reality and move the story. It's a fast, well thought out debut. And fortunately there are more on the way.

                                                                                                   - Bill Webb

DEAD MEN'S DUST           
MATT HILTON          
Harper pb 5/10

Move over Jack Reacher, you have company in Joe Hunter, a former counterterrorism expert who hunted down the worst people in the world, killed them, and then moved on to the next case. Retired from this work, Joe now helps women and children who are the prey of the vilest types of predators. Using his background, Joe tracks down these people and let's them know he will be watching who they go after. This is the premise of Matt Hilton's first book, DEAD MEN'S DUST.

When several members of an English mob decide to threaten Joe's sister-in-law, Jenny, he goes after them. Then they try to take Joe out by running him down; however, Joe has a few surprises of his own, and this gang ends up in bad shape. Afterwards, Jenny gives him a letter she received from Arizona, where Joe's half-brother John Telfer was living until he went off and has not returned.
 
Joe heads to the U.S. to track John down. He calls on his friend, Jared "Rink" Rington, to help with this personal case. After arriving in Arizona, Joe and Rink learn John was driving for a mob, so they decide to see what it was John was delivering for this group of gangsters. As they progress, Joe and Rink learn that John has headed to California to make a sale of stolen goods. Both head off that way, not knowing what is about to happen will concern the nation; and possibly end their lives.
 
Tubal Cain is a murderer. When Cain stops in the middle of the desert to help someone in distress, little does he know, he will end with his latest victim, John Telfer. However, John pulls a fast one on Cain, takes his car, and heads off to California, leaving Cain to survive in the desert. The chase is on as Cain begins stalking John, while Joe and Rink are tracking John. As events occur, the body count rises, John is referred to as the Harvestman, a killer who dismembers his victims, taking the body parts along with him to a hidden area in the desert.
 
DEAD MEN'S DUST is a first novel that shows promise. Though the main character does seem like a comic book superhero, there are elements of personality, emotion and feelings for his victims that other types don't have. Yes, there are plot holes, but overall this book should be favored by those who like thrillers with a touch of mystery, and fight scenes that are dramatic and fatal, both at the same time. Overall, I liked this book, and HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to readers who like lots of action.

                                                                                                - Steven Sill

RELENTLESS           
DEAN KOONTZ          
Bantam Books pb 5/10

RELENTLESS has all the tools you would expect from a Dean Koontz novel. It has a smart-alecky first-person narrator, a quirky significant other, a smart kid and, most importantly of all, a special dog. In this case, a non-Collie dog named Lassie.
What else is missing? The topical bad guy. In this case, a book critic. But not just any critic. It is Shearman Waxx, one of the most acerbic book critics out there who has destroyed the careers of best-selling authors. Now, he is targeting our hero - Mr. Cubby Greenwich - after a "chance" meeting in a restaurant bathroom. Waxx is not someone one wants to mess with, and he has an agenda. The Greenwich family is in for a wild ride against an unstoppable force, but that is all readers are looking for. A fun time and Koontz delivers here.

Koontz goes a bit over the top in this story with a narrator who may or may not be reliable, and his family as they try to outsmart a critic who has it in for them. It is an interesting look as to how authors might see some book critics, and it is entertaining throughout. The story focuses on the action, the suspense, and the family without going pedantic as has happened with some of his previous novels. RELENTLESS is a stimulating joy ride where the author can do no wrong.

                                                                                                  - Angel L. Soto

I CAN SEE YOU           
KAREN ROSE           
Grand Central Publishing pb 5/10

Eve Wilson is used to living in the shadows. After being attacked by a serial killer and having her face scarred, Eve never thought she would be able to climb out of the darkness. However, she made herself and even decided to go back to school for her Masters Degree. Her thesis is interesting and involves people who have grown addicted to online communities. While Eve is worried about her participants, she never thought bodily harm would come to them. What looks like a suicide turns into a string of murders targeting Eve's study and her participants. Homicide Detective Noah Webster knows what it is like to be addicted to something and is determined to find out who is behind this madness. Now, Noah must save Eve all the while trying to save himself in the process.

I CAN SEE YOU is the newest in Rose's line of thrillers. With each book, Rose ratchets up the tension. She is an expert at handling the large amount of characters while giving each character enough time to become real to the reader. While I felt the killer's identity wasn't that hard to figure out, the suspense was still there waiting for Eve and Noah to catch their killer. It was also great to see past characters from other books pop up to play secondary or smaller roles. I CAN SEE YOU is a complex book with a wonderful conclusion.

                                                                                                   - Robyn Glazer

UNDONE            
KARIN SLAUGHTER           
Dell pb 5/10

Sara Linton has suffered a horrible loss and, as a way to try and ease her pain, she decides to leave her home in Grant County, Georgia, and move to Atlanta. In Atlanta, Sara becomes an emergency room doctor rather than the pediatrician she was back home to distance herself from her patients. That seems to be working until a woman is brought in almost dead and obviously tortured. The abuse goes beyond anything that Sara has seen before, even with her past job as coroner. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in and Special Agents Will Trent and Faith Mitchell are determined to find out what has happened to this woman, especially when they find out that she was not the only victim; nor will she be the last.

UNDONE is a pivotal book in the Sara Linton series. Not only does it bring together Slaughter's two series but it also allows the reader to grieve and move on from the explosive decision made in FAITHLESS. While I was unsure that I liked the direction that Slaughter was going in, I knew that I would keep reading because her writing is breathtaking. She constantly keeps the suspense alive while creating characters that you believe down to your core. While UNDONE is extremely graphic, it is an electric read with just the right type of energy between these character's worlds colliding. UNDONE is a necessary and welcome addition to both of Karin Slaughter's series.
 
                                                                                                  - Robyn Glazer

THE NIGHT MONSTER           
JAMES SWAIN           
Ballantine Books pb 5/10

Do you remember reading about the youngster who was kidnapped eighteen years ago and found recently hidden in a backyard tent? This story, THE NIGHT MONSTER, gave me such an eerie feeling as I read it. It certainly has many similarities, as readers will see.

As a new young cop, Jack Carpenter failed to stop the kidnapping of a college girl by a giant of an assailant. Naomi Dunn has never been found again. That incident has haunted Jack for all these years and it seems to be happening all over again when a young athlete from his own daughter's basketball team is kidnapped. Once the head of Broward County's Missing Persons Unit and now a private investigator specializing in finding lost children, Jack Carpenter is called upon by his daughter Jesse, who reports some weird stalkers bothering the Florida State girls team as they practice.

Soon Mouse and Lonnie [the giant whose face has haunted Jack for eighteen years] kidnap Sara Long, one of the Seminole's best players. Sara's father Karl, who is a wealthy businessman, becomes involved in the search for his daughter. The FBI is also called in. Sara's boyfriend, Tyrone Biggs, is arrested, but Jack knows that he is not guilty. Jack soon realizes that he is dealing with serial abductors who prey on young, athletic nursing students.

I loved reading this book. It is written in the first-person and is action-packed. The "Dragnet" style narration is certainly gripping. Jack's narration of this story is very fast moving. Jack and his dog Buster follow a fresh path to find Sara Long, while the nearly twenty year old unsolved mystery of the disappearance of Naomi Dunn still haunts Jack.

Chatham village, the home of Mouse and Lonnie, holds a ghastly secret. Jack must go to Chatham to find the secret as he closes in on the kidnappers. What is Sheriff Morcroft hiding from Jack?

I found THE NIGHT MONSTER to be a fascinating story. I could almost hear Jack Carpenter as he tells us, "just the facts, Ma'am." Swain's style is my favorite style. The action is the most important part of this tale. Character development is not emphasized, because the actions of the characters reveal so much.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE NIGHT MONSTER. It is an exciting and quick read. Swain has several other books that I plan to add to my must read list.
 
                                                                                        - Maureen Bouffard

SWORN TO SILENCE           
LINDA CASTILLO           
St. Martin's Minotaur June, 2009

In the small town of Painters Mill, in the middle of northeast Ohio's Amish country, the body of a naked woman is found in the January snow. A Roman numeral is carved into her body, just as there was sixteen years ago when the "Slaughterhouse Murderer" raped and killed four local women. Everyone says he's returned and is on the rampage again. Everyone, that is, except Chief of Police Kate Burkholder, because she knows that she personally killed the murderer sixteen years ago. Her Amish family hushed up that 'crime' and secretly buried the body. Kate was only fourteen at the time and trusted that her family knew best. Later, she was afraid to mention the killing for fear of prosecution. Now, as she insists that the current killer has to be a copy-cat, but won't explain why, local council members doubt her abilities.

SWORN TO SILENCE is a gripping thriller whose story will stay with you a long time. Cultural aspects of the Amish way of life are a big part of the story, particularly the importance of being apart from 'the English,' or non-Amish. Kate's guilt over her long-ago crime and its cover-up helped her to decide some years ago to leave the Amish life. Now she is officially shunned by Amish residents, yet still able to do her job. In fact, her Amish background was one of the reasons she was recruited to the police chief position in the first place.

Another thread that adds to the book's appeal is the inclusion of John Tomasetti, a detective with the Ohio Bureau of Investigation. In an earlier case gone bad, his wife, children, and partner were all killed, leaving Tomasetti psychologically fragile. His superiors assign him to help out with the Painter's Mill case in order to get rid of him. With little to lose, Tomasetti becomes a bold and invaluable ally to Kate, another law officer haunted by the past.

SWORN TO SILENCE does have its share of gruesome scenes. As a warning that this is not a story for the faint of heart, a prolog describing a sadistic torture/murder opens the book,. Descriptions of autopsy procedures also seem unnecessarily detailed. But these sections can be skipped over if they're not to your taste - or relished, if they are.
It's hard to believe this great thriller/police procedural with its quaint Amish country flavor is a debut novel. Excellent pacing and clue-dropping keep suspense and interest high. Characters are believable and mostly sympathetic and the setting is described so well it feels like you're there in the snow with Kate. After a certain point, you'll let supper burn rather than put this book down. For once, the cover hype is right. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

                                                                                                      - Verna Suit

STONE'S FALL           
IAIN PEARS           
Spiegel & Grau/Random House Trade pb 6/10

Young journalist Matthew Braddock is drawn into an elaborate maze when he is asked by Lady Ravenscliff to locate the missing and heretofore unknown child of her deceased husband. Lord Ravenscliff was a wealthy industrialist who apparently died in a bizarre accident, tripping on a rug and falling out of a window. His widow is entrancingly attractive, and Braddock cannot resist either her entreaty or the generous money that will lift him from bare subsistence into relative middle-class comfort. What begins as a confusing search for a child, that seems akin to the proverbial needle in a haystack, becomes a fascinating tale involving: violent deaths; international finance and the inner workings of capitalism and industrial growth; political intrigue and spymasters; the demi-monde - both high and low; and, above all, great passion. Three narrators contribute to the tale, each revealing the truth as he knows it, and each unaware of crucial pieces of information. By the time the book ends, the reader has traveled back in time from mid 20th century, when Braddock attends a funeral to turn of the century London where his quest began; then to a decade earlier in Paris, and finally to 1867 Venice. Ultimately, all of the linkages that have been obliquely hinted at are revealed in detail, with a final return to the starting point of the narrative in 1953, completing the circle. The journey through time is utterly mesmerizing, and Pears has once again seduced me into reading a book in excess of 800 pages, the physical size of which is simply daunting. But it was worth every page, and his wonderful Dickensian storytelling skills kept me enthralled up to the finale, when the final loose end was knotted and I felt not an ounce of regret for my stiff back and tired eyes. I did, of course, regret deeply that it was over.
 
                                                                                                      - Carol Howell

GET REAL           
DONALD E. WESTLAKE           
Grand Central Publishing pb 6/10

The good news is, John Archibald Dortmunder is back.
 
The bad news is, this is probably his last appearance. His creator died on New Year's Eve, 2008. And I can't imagine anyone foolish enough to think they could carry on his unique, wonderful kind of storytelling.

In GET REAL, Dortmunder and his misfit gang of thieves are approached to star in a new reality television series. The pitch is that they will do what they do -- that is, commit a robbery -- and the TV people will film them, and put it on the air. The idea is frankly ludicrous, so Dortmunder and his crew come up with a better idea: they'll pretend to go along with the reality-TV thing, while at the same time planning and carrying out an entirely different robbery, right under the TV people's noses. But then some of the guys get bitten by the acting bug, and Dortmunder watches glumly as his well-laid plans get waylaid by his crew's dreams of small-screen stardom.
 
There have been other mystery novels set in the world of reality television. Some of them, like Ben Elton's excellent DEAD FAMOUS, skewer the genre, stab it right through the heart. Westlake, on the other hand, pokes gentle fun -- acknowledging, for example, that some so-called "reality" programming is plotted out in advance, but without making a big deal about it. He's not writing an anti-reality-TV diatribe here.
 
Westlake, in everything he wrote, was always focused on the story he was telling. The Dortmunder novels -- there have been fourteen of them -- seem to be effortless light comedies, but if you look at them closely, you see that they're intricately plotted mysteries posing as light comedies. They are as intricately plotted as Westlake's novels about the professional thief called Parker (written under the "Richard Stark" pen name), and, or so the story goes, the first Dortmunder, THE HOT ROCK, was originally going to be a Parker.
 
The Dortmunder novels are, when you come right down to it, procedurals: we watch the gang select their target, plan the operation, and carry out the robbery -- usually it goes hilariously wrong, but that's not the point. The point is, Westlake's Dortmunder novels are as compelling, in their own way, as Ed McBain's 87th Precinct procedurals.
 
They are also very, very funny. Nobody writes comic mysteries like Westlake, who combined offbeat characters with hysterical plot twists and impish wordplay. The characters, who've been around for nearly forty years, are so well written, so eccentrically engaging, that they seem to exist outside the page: we know them so well that we can anticipate what they are going to say. We even know how they would react, what they would say in situations that don't actually come up in the books. (Does this mean we could write our own Dortmunder stories? Well, aside from the obvious copyright-infringement issues, I personally think we'd be insane to try. Donald Westlake was Donald Westlake, and, no offence, we're not.)
 
Reading a new Dortmunder is like catching up with some old friends -- reading this new Dortmunder is a bit of a different experience because we know it's the last time we're going to see these old friends. I read it, loved every minute of it, but oh boy did I hate to see it end.
Westlake will be missed.

                                                                                                       - David Pitt