Copyright 2010 by Harlan Coben. Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York.

A (very) few of you may recall that I raved about Coben’s The Woods last August, rating it as one of the best mysteries that I have ever read. Well, move over, The Woods – you are going to have to share the top shelf with Caught.

The books are similar in one important way: the central mystery in both is a long-ago incident – a murder at a teen summer camp in The Woods and an incident at Princeton in Caught. Both traumatic incidents were life-altering to central characters in the books. Both resulted, after many years, in additional deaths. I think the depth of the trauma caused by the ancient incidents provides a great foundation for engrossing stories.

The story in this case starts with a divorced do-gooder, Dan Mercer, getting caught in a pedophile sting. He claims he was set up, but his protestations fall on deaf ears. His life is ruined. Even when his case is thrown out.

The TV reporter who organized and filmed the sting, Wendy Tynes, is fired when the case is thrown out as the judge ruled that she tainted the evidence. Partly because she had some free time and partly because something about the whole thing didn’t feel right to her, she continued to investigate. She eventually unravels the rather intricate story, which includes not only Dan Mercer but also 4 of his classmates at Princeton. Her digging leads to more death and more trauma, including trauma to her. But she perseveres.

The story is complex. It moves in directions that surprised me (e.g., I really thought that divorced Mercer and widowed Tynes were headed for a romance, but I couldn’t have been more wrong). Some characters are not who they seem to be. And every character has a part to play in the deeply satisfying conclusion.

I really need to read more Coben.

9.5 out of 10.

Copyright 2010 by Splendide Mendax Inc and Preston Child. Published by Grand Central Publishing.

This is #10 in the series of mysteries featuring Aloysius Pendergast, effete FBI special agent extraordinaire. It is only the second Pendergast mystery that I have read and that first one for me was #14 in the series, so some of the references that made little sense to me in that book came into focus a bit more while reading this one. In a series like this, with some continuity between books, it is probably best to start at the beginning. I may go back and do that.

Pendergast is an interesting if somewhat unbelievable character. Preston and Child want us to believe that an active FBI agent could investigate cases while driving a Rolls Royce. And that he is perfectly free to investigate cases on his own, as in this volume, without an extended leave from the FBI. Or that he can use “unconventional” methods, like destroying a bar by exploding a propane tank, without encountering some serious official blowback.

I try to be tolerant of all of this nonsense because I do, after all, enjoy the writings of Clive Cussler, a guy who pens the most ridiculous plots this side of sci-fi. Cussler’s main guy, Dirk Pitt, is similar to Pendergast in that he is capable of superhuman feats. You can’t enjoy a Cussler story without checking your disbelief at the door.

So why do I have difficulty giving the Pendergast character a similar pass? I think it is because with Cussler/Pitt the plots are so over-the-top and Cussler is so clearly pulling my leg that I feel that I am just along for the ride. With Preston and Child I don’t get the same sense of a shared joke. They want me to take Pendergast seriously. I have a very hard time doing that.

So, beyond my problem with the believability of the character, what do we have here? An intricate plot spanning over 12 years, starting with the death of Pendergast’s wife in the mouth of a lion. Yes, she was attacked by a lion while they were on safari. Pendergast found only her disembodied hand, with its distinctive ring still intact.

Twelve years later he happens to look at the gun she was using when she was killed and finds evidence that she had been shooting blanks. He realizes that rather than a tragic accident, her death was murder by lion. The rest of the book is a non-stop chase to find the murderer. It is fun, if unbelievable.

The endgame takes place in a swamp where he and a colleague are first attacked by a group of murderous local yahoos, bitten by an alligator, shot and nearly set on fire. But despite being outnumbered and outgunned, they prevail and find the murderer. Or one of two murderers. The other, at the end of the book, remains alive and undiscovered.

I can guess the plot for the Pendergast #11 book.

Another plot complaint: throughout the book there is a major subplot involving a young woman – Pendergast’s ward – who is arrested for infanticide. I was curious, as the plot unfolded, how this plot line was going to tie in to the death by lion and the battle in the swamp. Answer: it doesn’t. Apparently this was all one big “coming attractions” subplot for #11.

So despite being entertained by the main plot and the superhuman exploits of Pendergast, I found myself annoyed at being manipulated by Preston and Child.

6.5 out of 10.

Copyright 2006 by Sandra Brown Management Ltd. Published by Simon and Schuster, New York.

Let me begin by apologizing for the preponderance of book reviews in this blog which is intended to be a diary of our full-time RV lifestyle. But in this pandemic there is darn little left to do but read. So, sorry, but this is our RV life right now.

I liked this book a lot. That makes 3 straight books that I liked a lot, which is some kind of record. Hopefully my view is not being tainted by my boredom.

First, let me mention something that I liked about this book that has nothing to do with the plot or the prose: it was a large-print edition. I think this is my first large-print novel and I have to admit that it was a pleasure being able to read it without reading glasses.

Second, let me mention something I liked about the book that had a bit to do with the plot, but not much: it was set in Savannah GA, one of my favorite cities. Many of the settings in the book were familiar to me from the times I have visited there. This familiarity made it easy to picture the scene and made it more realistic to me.

The plot. It begins in the courtroom of Judge Laird where a career criminal, Robert Savich, is on trial for murder. The lead detective, Duncan Hatcher, and his partner, DeeDee Brown, are confident that this time they had built an iron-clad case against Savich, a long-time nemesis who had skated free numerous times. This time the trial ends in a mistrial when Judge Laird rules that a juror had lied on his questionaire. Hatcher is incensed that the juror had not simply been replaced by an alternate and voices his displeasure so forcefully that the judge slaps him with 3 days in jail for contempt.

Fast forward to an awards ceremony where DeeDee is receiving a commendation for exemplary police work. Duncan goes, reluctantly, as DeeDee’s escort, and encounters Judge Laird there. He manages to be civil. Until he meets Laird’s trophy wife, Elise, who figuratively knocks his socks off. Hatcher, more than a little tipsy, gets Elise alone for a few seconds and says something wildly inappropriate. She really should have slapped him or at least walked away, insulted. But she doesn’t. And she lies to her husband about what Hatcher said to her.

Not surprisingly, much of the rest of the book is about Duncan and Elise’s incipient relationship and Duncan and DeeDee’s quest to nail Savich. These two plot lines are, of course, intertwined. There are twists and turns galore and the plot left me guessing right up to the very end. This is one of the best plots I have encountered in a long time and the ending is reminiscent of The Sting.

My complaints? Well, the book is written in the third person which give Brown the freedom to jump from scene to scene. Sometimes the jumps are jarring, with a large block left out, purely to keep the reader guessing. It works, but seemed a bit unfair.

Also, I have some problems with Hatcher’s behavior. He is a veteran detective with an exemplary record and a reputation for integrity. One thing you absolutely don’t do as a detective is form an emotional attachment with a suspect, which is what Elise Laird becomes. You also don’t break the law in an attempt to bring a criminal to justice, which is what he does with Savich. He was very out of control – and out of character – for much of the book. The ending absolves him, mostly. But not completely.

But these complaints don’t do a lot to diminish the entertainment value of this book.

8.5 out of 10.

Copyright 2007 by Lincoln Child. Published by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

This book is strongly reminiscent of the Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. That is not a bad thing. But where Crichton wrote realistic medical mysteries, this one tiptoes into the sci-fi genre. That surprised me as Child is one of Jett’s favorite authors (I stole this book from her mini-library) and I have never seen her read a sci-fi book before.

You have to be willing to believe in aliens to appreciate this book. I don’t believe in aliens – at least not the type that are central to this book – and I have a hard time swallowing some highly improbable engineering feats that are also crucial to this plot – like having a 12-story research facility operating 10,000 feet underwater in the Atlantic. An unpressurized facility. I need to find the engineers that were able to built this structure. They can probably figure out a way to make my toilet stop leaking.

The plot? Without giving away more than I already have, I will tell you that the protagonist, Dr Peter Crane, is summoned to this super-secret underwater facility to diagnose a multitude of mysterious illnesses in the hundreds of people working there. As usual, there is tension at the top between the three people running the operation: an admiral who ostensibly is running the whole operation, a general who is focused on the national security aspects and a scientist who is overseeing the scientific research. And, just to stir the pot, add in a saboteur who is intent on destroying the whole operation.

If you can swallow the aliens and the improbable engineering, you might very well enjoy this book. Child is a skilled author. The prose is lively and entertaining and the plot, though ridiculous, is engrossing. On balance, the entertainment value wins out.

8 out of 10.

Copyright 2020 by David Benjamin. Published by Last Kid Books, Madison WI.

Full disclosure: the author is a friend. A very good, lifelong friend. We met in high school, in Madison WI in 1963. That is particularly relevant because this book is set in a high school in Madison WI in 1963. It is semi-autobiographical. The protagonist, Cribbsy, a 16-year-old wiseass aspiring author is Benjamin, for sure. Some of the other characters – but not all – are identifiable as people I know and grew up with. I see myself in one of the characters and many of the places are both real and very familiar. That familiarity makes this book exceptionally interesting to me.

But I believe anyone would find this book interesting. It is a fascinating look back at the turbulent month of November 1963, when Kennedy was shot. But, despite the title, this is not about Kennedy, nor the assassination, except as a backdrop to the adolescent drama and angst of a fascinating group of teens.

The characters are complex and fully developed. Their problems are real – sometimes shockingly real – and the narrative is amusing and chock full of literary references. I laughed, I cried. I even, occasionally, had to put the book down and reflect on that period in my life. And interspersed with the witty prose are real headlines and snippets of news articles from November 1963. For those old enough to have lived through that month, it it a collage of news that I had forgotten which made me realize both how much things have changed (e.g., all the references to “Negroes”) and how much they are still the same (e.g., the overwrought reactions to social change). There are also quotes from JFK, presented in a different font, which in counterpoint to the other nonsense, make him seem like an absolute oracle of the times.

How much did I like this book? It is 568 pages and I finished it in a week. That is over 80 pages per day. I haven’t read a book that fast in… well, forever.

9.5 out of 10. Maybe I would have given it a 10 if Cribbsy had gotten the girl. But that wouldn’t have been Cribbsy. And, in a way, he did get the girl. You will see what I mean.