REVIEWS FROM THEODORE FEIT

Ted and Gloria Feit live in Long Beach, New York, a few miles outside of New York City. For 26 years, Gloria was the manager of a medium-sized litigation firm in lower Manhattan. Her husband, Ted, is an attorney and former stock analyst, publicist and writer/editor for, over the years, several daily, weekly and monthly publications. Having always been avid mystery readers and since they're now retired, they're able to indulge their passion. Their reviews appear online as well as in three print publications in the UK and US. On a more personal note: Both having been widowed, Gloria and Ted have five children and nine grandchildren between them.

Ted's review of
GOOD AS DEAD by Mark Billingham appears in the U. K. REPORT .

OPERATION NAPOLEON           
ARNALDUR INÐRIDASON          
Translated by Victoria Cribb
Minotaur Books September, 2011

Long before there were Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli, Arnaldur Indridason wrote this imaginative novel. In fact, it was copyrighted a decade ago, and only now has been published in the United States. It is a pity we have had to wait this long for an English translation of this work, but all the more reason to be grateful that that has now been done.

Just before the end of World War II, a German bomber crashes on a large Icelandic glacier with American and German officers aboard. One of the senior German officers attempts to reach a nearby farm, while the others remain on the plane only to be buried by a blizzard and ice; then the German officer disappears as well.

Over fifty years later, after a few failed attempts to find the plane by U.S. intelligence, they are finally successful, and a secret mission is undertaken to remove the plane and its contents. Coincidentally, two young Icelanders on the glacier in a training mission spot the Americans and are captured, one killed and the other seriously injured. Before the capture, one of the men had contacted his sister, Kristin. She undertakes to discover the truth of her brother's fate, placing herself in danger in the process.

The tense plot follows Kristin as she challenges the Americans in an effort to find out what happened to her brother, leading her on an arduous journey to learn the facts of Operation Napoleon. The descriptions of the various elements of the story are overwhelming: the freezing weather; the subterfuge of the Americans; the divergent views of Icelanders vis-à-vis relations with United States authorities; and other conflicts. Written with a sharpness to which we have become accustomed from this author, the novel is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

                                                                                                  - Theodore Feit

DID NOT FINISH          
SIMON WOOD         
Crème de la Crime Trade PBO 9/11
ISBN: 978-1-78029-007-2

The advice usually given to authors (and would-be authors) is to write what you know. And that is just what ex-racecar driver Simon Wood has done. He has written a mystery with motorsports as the theme; sort of a Dick Francis novel on wheels, if you will.

It all begins the night before a big race when a nine-time champion threatens to kill his rival, who is in the lead to capture the title. When the rival actually is killed during the race under suspicious circumstances in a collision with the champion, Aidy Westlake undertakes to prove it was a case of murder. Throughout all sorts of hardships and dangers, he doggedly continues his mission, until the plot inevitably takes a sharp turn.

Filled with loads of details on the racing scene and the people and equipment that make it possible, the novel moves spiritedly apace. It is filled with suspense and startling revelations, and is RECOMMENDED.

HURT MACHINE         
REED FARREL COLEMAN         
Tyrus Books   December, 2011
ISBN (hc): 978-1-4405-3202-3
ISBN (Trade pb): 978-1-4405-3199-6

Unlike the previous six novels in the series, this book is a lot more introspective and deep since Moe Prager learns he has stomach cancer. This leads to a lot of looking at the past and present and less at the lighter side of life. But that does not stop the formidable Moe from undertaking another tough task, made especially hard by the time restraints of his daughter's upcoming wedding in a week and his own possibly limited lifespan.

After a pre-wedding dinner, Moe's ex-wife and PI partner, who left him years before, accosts him outside the restaurant asking him to look into the murder of her estranged older sister, one of two EMTs who refused to assist a dying man at a high-end bistro where they were supposedly having lunch. Moe doggedly takes on the task, and therein lies a tale.

The tone of this book is a lot different from its predecessors, necessarily so in light of Moe's serious illness. That does not, of course, take away from the plot; it only reinforces the intensity of the various elements. It is written with power and passion [albeit sometimes with too much schmaltz]. Let's hope the doctors can save Moe and that he returns to his old self. RECOMMENDED.

THE LEOPARD           
JO NESBØ          
Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
Alfred A. Knopf December, 2011

The latest Harry Hole novel presents the reader with a formidable challenge: On the one hand, the temptation is to try to read this tautly written, tightly plotted murder mystery in a single sitting. On the other hand, its 611 pages is undoubtedly a very large hurdle. Whatever the method, it's well worth the effort to read it no matter how long it takes.

After the travails he suffered at the conclusion of THE SNOWMAN, Harry was so down that he resigned from the police force and traveled to the Far East, where he lost himself in alcohol, opium and gambling. There, a female detective from Norway finds him, pays off his gambling debts, tells him his father is in the hospital dying and he, as the only officer with experience solving serial murders, is wanted back in Oslo to help in what appears to be another multiple homicide case. At first he is reluctant, but finally accedes to the request to return because of his dad.

Still refusing to rejoin the crime squad, Harry finally gives in when a third victim, a member of parliament, is killed. There are no clues and no common links between the victims until Harry discovers all three spent a night in an isolated mountain cabin together, and it becomes apparent that the "guests" are being picked off one by one.
 
From that point, the case slowly, somewhat murkily, unfolds to keep the reader in the dark as to the ultimate denouement. Sometimes Harry's insights are prophetic, others off base. But he always has his eye on the main purpose: to catch the bad guy. At the same time, he is fighting his personal demons, his separation from the great love of his life, his relationship with his dying father, the politics of the competition between elements of the department as to responsibility for murder investigations, and his disillusionment with his role as a cop. More than enough, one must say, for one man. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

FEVER DREAM         
DENNIS PALUMBO         
Poisoned Pen Press  November, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59058-957-1

In the beginning, we had Alex Delaware, psychologist and sometime police consultant. Now we have Daniel Rinaldi, psychotherapist and part-time police consultant. There, of course, the similarities end. Whereas the Kellerman protagonist is more cerebral, the Palumbo creation is more physical, in keeping with his background as a Golden Glover from the mean streets of Pittsburgh.

This novel, the second in which Rinaldi is involved in a murder mystery which endangers his life (multiple times), begins when he is called by a Pittsburgh detective following a bank robbery, to treat the sole surviving hostage (all the others were shot). From that point a series of events takes place, fast and furious. In the midst of everything, there is a gubernatorial campaign in which the D.A. is running as a tough law-and-order candidate, complicating the police efforts and raising other concerns.

The complex plot proceeds apace, with scant clues but much physical action, especially a few murders and lots of firepower. The only criticism I have about an otherwise entertaining novel is Rinaldi's omnipotence, allowing him to merely espouse solutions to the various mysteries without any preceding facts in the narrative (maybe that's the way motion picture scripts are written - - the author formerly was a Hollywood screenwriter). Nevertheless, the book is very enjoyable, and is RECOMMENDED.

THE IMPOSSIBLE DEAD         
IAN RANKIN          
Reagan Arthur Books
Little, Brown & Company  November, 2011

Ian Rankin usually lays a foundation of current and past events in his novels. And, in this second Malcolm Fox mystery, he creates a tale reaching back a quarter of a century, when agitation and violence marked efforts for a separate Scotland. Fox, who made his debut in THE COMPLAINTS, grows exponentially as a protagonist, along with his sidekicks on his Internal Affairs team, Tony Kaye and Joe Naysmith. They are worthy successors to the now retired Rebus, although more subtle in the presentation.

This murder-mystery has its beginnings in an investigation of fellow cops who may have covered up for a corrupt co-worker, Detective Paul Carter, who had been found guilty of misconduct. The original accuser was Carter's uncle, an ex-cop himself. When the uncle is found dead, perhaps murdered with a pistol that theoretically did not exist for it should have been destroyed by the police in 1985, and Carter himself is dead by drowning shortly afterward, Fox is drawn into his own inquiry outside the aegis of a Complaints review, resurrecting the turmoil of the past and terrorist threats of the present.

Rankin also demonstrates his trademark attention to character development, concentrating much of the story on the deterioration of Fox's father's physical well-being and his relationship with his sister, handling each with sensitivity and care. At the same time, the author shows his talent for integrating the setting, plot and theme, tightly intertwining the various elements. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

                                                                                                    - Theodore Feit

DEAD MAN'S GRIP         
PETER JAMES         
Minotaur Books   November, 2011

This is the seventh in the Roy Grace series, detailed police procedurals that take place in the Brighton area of Great Britain. The tightly written plots carry the reader from page to page wondering what comes next. And the nearly overwhelming [in a good way, to be sure!] detail keeps the reader from guessing the next step.

This novel begins with the gruesome death of a young man, (name), who defies his mother, the daughter of a mafia don in New York City, to study at a Brighton university and live with his English girlfriend. One day, on the way to school, riding his bike on the wrong side of the road, he is narrowly missed by a car driven by Carly Chase [who swerves onto the sidewalk to avoid him], but he is hit by a tailgating white van [which leaves the scene], then rolls under a truck's wheels and is killed.

The plot stems from this incident, with the mother hiring a hit man to torture and murder the three drivers. When two of them are found dead, it behooves Carly to attempt to protect herself and her young son. And thereby hangs a tale, a rather detailed description of the killer's movements, and the efforts of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and the entire Sussex police force to capture him.

By all means get a copy and read it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.