Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Out of the Ashes by Dick Couch and Steve Pieczenik

Published by St. Martin's Griffin on May 20, 2014

Early in his career, when he was still at his best, Tom Clancy wrote carefully researched, credible thrillers. Clancy co-created the Op-Center series but Jeff Rovin wrote the novels that appeared between 1995 and 2005. Although Clancy died in 2013, his name appears in the largest font on the cover of of Out of Ashes, while the names of the actual authors appear in the smallest font. If not for the Clancy name, I suspect few people would buy this lackluster book.

The Op-Center uses the same notion as Brad Taylor's Taskforce novels -- a covert unit operates with the knowledge of the president but without congressional authority, doing what it needs to do to protect the country. The difference is that Taylor's books are smart, lively, and nuanced while Out of Ashes is dull, half-baked, and preposterous.

Out of Ashes is a strikingly unimaginative story that begins with a Kuwaiti blowing up football stadiums. How he manages to carry out his coordinared attacks is glossed over, probably because the authors couldn't think up a way to make it work. How does the Kuwaiti "hack" into the PA systems of nine football stadiums to play chaos-inducing recordings at the same moment? Where does he get enough C4 to blow up four stadiums and why does nobody notice when he places it in position? We never learn the answers because the writers have none.

In any event, the president decides it is time to get the Op-Center back in business, a task that occupies the first quarter of the novel. After many "earnest discussions" which consist of characters telling each other how great they are, Chase Williams is chosen to head the revived Op-Center. His brilliant idea is to hire computer geeks to do intelligence analysis (gee, why didn't NSA think of that?). The second quarter of the novel introduces more characters and laboriously sets up the meager plot. The plot involves an obvious ploy by a Saudi prince to provoke the U.S into attacking Syria -- so obvious it's difficult to think anyone would be duped by it.

Every time a new character is introduced, we get dry biographical details that might appear on a job application. The authors are also quite concerned that we know the brand name of every article of clothing worn by American characters. Educational backgrounds and choice of clothing designers is apparently a substitute for character development, as the characters (most of whom favor Brooks Brothers) have not the slightest hint of a personality. Characters spend a lot of time telling each other things they already know, a weak writing technique that educates the reader at the expense of realistic dialog.

The terrorists who supposedly provided a justification for reconstituting the Op-Center are gone before a quarter of the novel has passed, and the Op-Center does nothing substantive for the rest of the book, making me wonder why a novel about the anti-terrorist Op-Center had so little to do with the Op-Center or with terrorism. Apparently realizing that they had written a scattered novel that isn't about anything, the authors make a belated attempt to introduce a new terrorist threat with a brand new character late in the novel. That plot thread is even sillier than the story that precedes it. Again, how the terrorist manages to acquire the things he needs to carry out his planned attack is never explained, and how the geeks tumble to the plot is explained only by the assurance that they have outstanding "system parameters."

The novel is heavy on jargon and military procedure but light on credibility. The first geek hired by Op-Center to analyze intelligence immediately figures out who is responsible for the stadium bombings. How he does this and why no one else could do it is never explained. How operatives of a Saudi prince manage to blackmail a key employee of a defense contractor to obtain security codes to a Global Hawk surveillance aircraft also goes unexplained, and we are never told why his American employer doesn't notice his comings and goings in Saudi Arabia. Just about every character in the military is portrayed as incompetent or unprofessional, from a ship's captain who disregards blindingly obvious evidence of his misjudgment to a helicopter pilot who decides to make an illegal detour over foreign air space because her friend thinks it would be a good idea. The novel's abrupt ending (Out of Ashes is apparently intended only to set up future books in the series) is just ridiculous.

A few action scenes add a spark of life to an otherwise boring story that primarily focuses on tiresome conversations among wooden characters. There are too few action scenes to redeem the novel as a whole. Terrorists manage to kill a lot of Americans during the course of the novel but story generates about as much emotion as a cricket match stirs in boxing fans. I'm sure this novel will sell since it has Tom Clancy's name on it, but I'm not sure that very many readers will be happy to have wasted their time and money on it.

NOT RECOMMENDED

The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann

Published by Other Press on April 8, 2014

Jon Dreyer is a blocked writer living in Oslo but summering in a house called Mailund. He is married to Siri Brodal, who has hired a girl named Milla to look after their two daughters, Alma and Liv. At thirteen, Alma has done some babysitting of her own for a boy named Simen who lives nearby. Siri's mother, Jenny Brodal, owns Mailund, where Siri grew up. Siri's second restaurant is nearby in the seaside community.

The Dreyer-Brodals are a dysfunctional family on steroids, a family falling apart. Early in the story, the reader knows that Jenny has a dark history, that Siri feels responsible for a drowning that occurred during her childhood, that Jon is working his way through all of the deadly sins instead of writing, and that Alma is mean and spiteful. We know that Jenny's friend Irma, a large woman who plays the role of caretaker, is unpleasant and controlling. We know little about Milla, except that she seems to crave Jon's attention. We know that the family's disobedient dog is "every dog's revenge on mankind." Welcome to Norway, land of the terminally depressed.

As The Cold Song opens, a celebration of Jenny's 75th birthday is about to take place. Jenny, who would prefer not to attend, is preparing for the event by breaking 20 years of sobriety. The story reveals snapshots of that day, then backs away to fill in scenes from the past and from the future. The reader knows, because it is one of the novel's first scenes, that two years after the party, Simen will find Milla's body buried beneath a tree. What the reader does not know is how or why Milla died. That becomes the mystery that drives the story.

Much of the novel is a history of the characters' relationships, illuminated by key scenes. Their feelings for each other are complex and always changing. We see who they are and who they pretend to be. We watch them in the present as they try to cope with their pasts. We experience Jon's untethered existence and Siri's irrational anger. As the marriage of Jon and Siri curdles, as their daughter becomes distant and uncontrollable, we feel their frustration and resignation. The story is deeply introspective, taking the reader into the depths of Jon's mind and, to a lesser extent, into the minds of other characters.

Many readers dislike books about unlikable characters. Those readers should probably avoid The Cold Song, as should readers who are looking for life-affirming stories. The characters are compelling but you would not want them as friends. Few of the characters (including Milla's parents after her death) behave admirably. Still, The Cold Song sheds light on personalities that are familiar to us all, and on characteristics that (hopefully to a lesser extent) we all share.

The Cold Song is not by any means a conventional mystery novel but it doesn't pretend to be an Agatha Christie or a thriller. This is a story about how events shape people. The last quarter of the novel isn't as tight as the first three-quarters -- it doesn't advance as briskly -- and the ambiguous ending comes as an anti-climax given the prolonged setup, although the last couple of paragraphs offer a glimpse of redemption and healing that is missing from the rest of the narrative. The reader is required to fill in some gaps (or is left wondering about certain events) but that is the nature of life. Linn Ullman dissects the lives of her characters in prose that is is as sharp and sparkling as crystalline ice. That is reason enough to read this disturbing, insightful novel.

RECOMMENDED

Suspicion by Joseph Finder

Published by Dutton on May 27, 2014

Dan Goodman is a blocked writer who long ago spent the advance on a new book that has just been cancelled. A step away from financial ruin, Goodman can't pay his daughter's private school tuition, much less the cost of the class trip to Italy. His divorced wife (Abby's mother) died from cancer, Abby's step-father has no interest in her, and Goodman feels too guilty to deny Abby the only thing in months that has made her smile. When Tom Galvin, the wealthy father of Abby's new friend, offers to front the cost of the trip, Goodman grudgingly accepts. Later, he accepts a loan from Galvin to keep Abby in school. Soon after that, Goodman is told that he is a suspect in a federal drug investigation. He has accepted money from Galvin who (Goodman is told) is suspected by the DEA of managing money for a Mexican drug cartel. Goodman protests his innocence, but his pleas are meet with threats to lock him up for 30 years if he does not cooperate by getting the goods on Galvin.

A number of plot twists ensue after the premise is established. The twists are not entirely unexpected, which is a bit disappointing, but they are well executed. Unlike so many modern thriller writers, Joseph Finder tells a plausible story. Galvin and Goodman are both likable characters. Finder manages to make the reader root for both of them, even though they are often at odds and despite Goodman's less than admirable employment. If you're looking or villains to dislike, Finder provides plenty of ruthless characters to fill that role. One of them (the "angel of death") is a stereotype of sinister villains, although Finder does make an effort to make him an interesting killer.

Suspicion incorporates the usual tricks of suspense creation. Spying on Galvin, Goodman nearly gets caught, each time creating a new reason for Galvin to suspect him. The tricks are too predictable but, again, they are capably executed. Finder writes in a "reader friendly" style, using short chapters and maintaining a brisk pace. The resolution is a little too tidy but it is nonetheless satisfying. Finder knows his craft, and while Suspicion is simpler and less surprising than the thrillers upon which his reputation is based, it is enjoyable in many ways.

RECOMMENDED

The Poets' Wives by David Park

Published by Bloomsbury USA on April 1, 2014

The Poets' Wives examines the lives of three women whose husbands have died. The husbands were poets, two of them real. Had the novel offered more meaningful insight into the literary husbands, or had it revealed something more meaningful about the wives, I would have been more taken with it. If there is an organizing theme here, it is that living with a poet guarantees an oppressive existence.

The first poet is William Blake. His wife is Kate, who begins the novel with a visit from her dead husband. Sometimes a ghost works well as a literary device but here it feels contrived. The visit prompts Kate to recall the events of her life. She spends much of that life resting in bed as she responds to domestic and external disasters with bouts of ill health. After Kate suffers a miscarriage, William takes on a domestic helper of ill-repute named Lizzie who inspires Kate's jealousy. William's poem about the pointless nature of Kate's jealousy does nothing to ward off her despair, but the context that the story provides to Blake's poem is a highlight of the novel; I wish there had been more of that. When William is accused of seditious utterings and placed on trial, Kate goes back to bed. Perhaps William would have been better suited for harlot Lizzie, who shocks Kate by advising her to perform the services depicted in the engravings that William has carefully hidden in his desk. That scene is another of the novel's highlights but it leads only to Kate's declaration that there are "two creatures living inside" her husband's brain, representatives of both heaven and hell. Chatting with his ghost gives her a clue about the direction in which his postmortem travel took him.

Quite suddenly, given the novel's languorous pace, William is old and then a ghost. The novel then moves to 1939 and to the difficult life of the wife of dissident Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, who keeps her imprisoned husband's poems alive in her memory (the best touch in this section of the novel). The story backs up to 1935 as we see Mandelstam and his wife at the end of his exile (before he again offended Stalin), but we learn surprisingly little about Mandelstam's poetry, apart from its anti-Stalinist slant. We then flash to 1947, many years after Mandelstam's death in a prison camp, only to track Nadezhda Mandelstam's memories of Osip's arrest in 1938. The story resumes in 1952 as Nadezhda contemplates "the true nature of love" and recalls (with some resentment) the love poems that Osip wrote to his mistress. Then we're back in 1934, then 1950, then 1939, then 1956. Sometimes the "jump forward, flash back" structure to a novel works well but here I'm not sure what purpose it was meant to serve. This is the lengthiest section of the novel and, I thought, the least interesting.

The final section belongs to Lydia in Belfast, the wife of an imaginary poet named Don who has just died of a heart attack. Lydia has lived a financially insecure life because poetry doesn't sell and Don, while a notable poet, was overshadowed by his betters. Lydia spends the day after his funeral cataloging Don's failings as a husband, father, and poet. Eventually her daughters join her in that task. Don has left behind an unfinished book of poems from which occasional lines are quoted, but not enough for the reader to evaluate Don's style or ability to construct a complete poem. This seems like cheating to me, simply because it is easier to write fragments of poetry than it is to write poetry. Apart from the fact that Lydia stayed with her philandering husband out of respect for his poetry, we learn very little of interest about Lydia.

David Park's prose is lush but it is also dense. Poets express ideas with an economy of language; Park bombards the reader with words, which seems like the wrong way to write about poets. Park writes beautifully crafted sentences but a third of them could have been omitted without harming the novel. All three sections contain lengthy descriptions of brooding that struck me as tedious. Park made me understand the poets' wives, and that's too his credit, but he didn't make me empathize with their self-absorbed frustration.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Bred in the Bone by Christopher Brookmyre

First published in Great Britain in 2013; published by Atlantic Monthly Press on May 6, 2014

When one of Glasgow's most notorious crime figures is gunned down in a car wash, DS Catherine McLeod is anxious to pin the crime on Glen Fallon, toward whom the evidence convincingly points. As readers of the series know, Catherine hates Fallon. Series readers also know that Fallon, apparently seeking absolution for killing Jasmine Sharp's father, has devoted his recent life to looking after Jasmine, who is now a private investigator in Glasgow and no great fan of Catherine.

The first quarter of Bred in the Bone sets up the novel's premise and reminds readers of (or acquaints new readers with) the complicated relationships among the characters. Much of the next quarter develops Fallon's backstory. Fallon is a killer, a loner, and a survivor, the abused son of a crooked cop, but there is a fundamental decency to him that makes him a compelling character (and easier to stomach than self-righteous Catherine). The novel works its way through the various grudges that people hold against Fallon and that Fallon might have reason to hold against others. It eventually develops Fallon's relationship with the gangster who was murdered in the carwash. At the same time, Jasmine delves more deeply into her own family history, much of which was hidden from her while her mother was alive.

The story eventually turns back to the parallel investigations that Jasmine and Catherine have undertaken into the carwash murder. The plot is complex -- you might need to take notes to keep track of the relationships between the various characters -- but it is entirely believable and all the threads come together without a missed stitch. The animosity between Catherine and Jasmine adds an additional undercurrent of drama to the story, as does Catherine's frustration that her superiors (as was true in earlier novels) are more interested in making deals with killers than arresting them. Catherine and Jasmine must both deal with uncomfortable truths about their fathers that add another layer of depth to the story. Toward the end of the novel, Catherine flashes back to a time when she behaved in a surprising, life-changing, and much more interesting way than she has at any other point in the series. The key scene is just a bit over the top but kudos to Christopher Brookmyre for keeping Catherine's character fresh.

In fact, all the characters are given a makeover in Bred in the Bone. The primary characters undergo dramatic changes during the course of the novel, as does the reader's understanding of the characters. The plot has plenty of twists but the story's strength lies in the evolution of its characters. The ending brings to a close a story arc that began in the first novel while charting a new direction for future books.

Brookmyre laces the story with welcome touches of humor but he also introduces relationship drama among secondary characters that lengthens the novel without adding much to it. Some parts of the story are told out of sequence, causing unnecessary confusion to no obvious purpose. Those are quibbles about a book that consistently surprised me, absorbed me, moved me, and made me think. It is the best entry to date in this strong series.

RECOMMENDED