Below the Line by Howard Michael Gould

Published by Dutton on August 13, 2019

When a crime novelist introduces a new series and the first book is entertaining, a reader might wonder whether the success was a fluke. When the second book is just as good or even better, the series will probably go on the reader’s “gotta get the next one” list. That’s where I put the Charlie Waldo series.

Waldo is back in action in this sequel to Last Looks. Waldo is still struggling to live a minimalistic life that emits no carbons, but his relationship with Lorena Nascimento is forcing a tradeoff: in exchange for good sex, he must occasionally share an Uber with her. Lorena’s private investigation firm is struggling, even with the helpful publicity that Waldo has unwillingly generated. To earn a few bucks, Lorena agrees to help a teenage girl named Stevie locate her missing brother while her parents are on vacation. That task proves to be deceptively easy, but the investigation takes an unexpected turn when Stevie goes missing after her high school teacher (with whom she claims to have slept) is murdered. Waldo gets involved only because Stevie is a suspect and he thinks she might be innocent.

Waldo’s sympathy for Stevie is probably undeserved. Stevie is the teenage drama queen from hell. She taunts men with her flirtatious sexuality and tells so many lies that it is challenging to recognize the occasional truth she might utter. Waldo wants to believe her, a fact that Lorena attributes to Waldo being smitten by the provocative teen.

Having been sent on a wild goose chase by Stevie, Lorena soon finds herself chasing another wild goose when she is hired to prove that a woman’s husband is having an affair. That case also takes an unexpected turn. Naturally, the two odd cases are linked. Waldo and Lorena discover the link by the novel’s midway point, but they still have some detecting to do before they will understand why Lorena was twice hired under false pretenses.

More murders are committed —snotty Stevie generally appearing as the number one suspect — before the novel reaches its climax. The plot also involves designer drugs, a soap opera actress whose career has gone south, and sexting between cousins. Poor Waldo, who is the opposite of the typical macho private eye, is beaten repeatedly, mauled by an expensive dog, and tasered. It’s enough to make Waldo wonder whether he was smart to end his self-imposed exile. Doing justice and getting good sex come at a heavy price, at least in Waldo’s life.

The first novel established Waldo as a broken character who has tried to repair his life by owning no more than one hundred things. That characterization added humor to that continues in the second installment as Waldo frets about (for example) whether the sling for his broken arm should count as a new thing.

Waldo’s quirky character and his vulnerable nature makes him likeable, while his iffy relationship with Loretta illustrates difficulties that are common in relationships. At one point Waldo realizes he had “taken the depth of her investment for granted, luxuriating in his own doubts without a thought that all this time she had been harboring her own.” He understands that he isn’t the man Loretta expected him to be, but by the end, he wonders whether Loretta is the woman he wants her to be.

Below the Line blends humor and light drama in a smart plot with quirky but realistic characters. Waldo’s agreement to help a drug dealer’s daughter with a school assignment illustrates just how strange his good-hearted life has become, but that’s the kind of scene that makes me look forward to reading the next chapter of his life.

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Secret Service by Tom Bradby

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press November 5, 2019

Kate Henderson is in charge of the Secret Intelligence Service’s Russia desk. She recruits a 17-year-old Bulgarian girl named Maya, living illegally in London, to work as a nanny for the top Russian spy. She places a microphone on a yacht where the most elite agents of Russian intelligence gather to discuss a plot to replace the Prime Minister with someone in their control.

Is this a fortunate discovery of a nefarious plot or is it misinformation? Kate learned of the meeting from an old friend who is now positioned to leak Russian secrets to her. Whether he is leaking the truth is a subject of debate as the story progresses. The fact that she did not immediately reveal the source of her information to C (her boss) is viewed with suspicion by some other members of SIS. Kate’s husband, Stuart, views her renewed acquaintance with her old friend with a different kind of suspicion.

As Kate investigates the various candidates to become the next PM, one of whom works closely with Stuart, Kate develops suspicions of her own about Stuart’s fidelity. Kate isn’t sure she can trust C or the other highly positioned colleagues in the SIS. Kate really only trusts a couple of people, co-workers Rav and Julie.

But can she trust anyone, really? The plot involves a classic mole hunt. Kate knows that someone close to her work is giving information to the Russians. She narrows the field to five suspects. The reader is invited to join the guessing game.

Kate’s distrust of her husband adds a bit of domestic drama to the plot, as does her daughter’s infatuation with an older boy who wants to take her virginity. The domestic drama seems a bit forced while the relationship with the teenage daughter resolves too easily. The mother-daughter aspect of the story is probably meant to make parents feel comforted: yes, there will be shouting, but then the daughter will come to her senses and acknowledge what a wonderful mother she has. Really? The mutual suspicions of infidelity are integral to the plot but Tom Bradby didn’t make me care about either Kate or Stuart, much less about their marriage.

The mystery of the mole’s identity is reasonably good, in that the answer isn’t obvious, although neither is it unexpected. The reveal is a bit underwhelming, in part because Kate is such a self-righteous moralizer that she can’t resist delivering a tiresome lecture about how she is too perfect to betray anyone, particularly her country, and why can’t everyone be just like her? The mole's motivation to help the Russians is also forced; I just didn’t buy it. I can't discuss the election outcome without spoiling the story, but it just struck me as silly.

Stories of moles are legion in spy fiction. This one is about average. Bradby’s prose is fluid and the story maintained my interest when it focused on the mole rather than Kate’s family issues. My recommendation is lukewarm because the story builds to a climax that fizzles more than it climaxes.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 19, 2019

Angel Eyes was written by Ace Atkins, by far the most capable worker in the Robert B. Parker factory. The full title is Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes, but since Parker is dead, the novel isn’t Parker’s, even if Spenser belongs to his estate. At least Atkins' name isn't dwarfed by Parker's, although Parker's is still displayed in a larger font.

Spenser is hired to find Gabby Leggett, who has gone missing in California. Spenser is Boston-based but LA is a prime setting for noir fiction, given the darkness associated with glitz and glamour and Hollywood money. It is a place Spenser visited when Parker was still penning his adventures.

Gabby hoped to turn her good looks into an acting career. She worked her social media and hired an agent before she dropped out of sight. The agent dated her for a while and became jealous when she moved on, making him a suspect when she disappeared. And then there’s an older movie executive named Jimmy Yamashiro, whose dalliance with Gabby might also have provided a motive for foul play.

Spenser quickly finds other suspects. Gabby didn’t care much for her parents. She did care for a cult leader named Joseph Haldorn, who founded an organization called HELIOS that describes itself as an “executive success program that seeks to free their participants from the shackles of self-doubt and confusion.” It empowers women by freeing them from their money. HELIOS bills itself as a lifestyle while followers view Haldorn as Christlike. He can’t turn water into wine, but one of the characters notes that “he can turn bullshit into money.”

In addition to sorting out all the people who might be responsible for Gabby's disappearance, Spenser encounters trouble with a fellow named Sarkisov, a thug who is affiliated with a gang of thugs called Armenian Power. Sarkisov also has an interest in finding Gabby and is rather impolite when he invites Spenser to return to Boston.

Spenser’s intimate friend Susan Silverman plays a key role in the novel, making use of her skills as a psychotherapist. Other returning characters are Chollo (whose underworld connections and shooting skills are invaluable), Zebulon Sixkill (who is now a PI in LA and views Spenser as a mentor), and Bobby Horse (who teamed with Chollo in Potshot). Sixkill describes Spenser and his three LA friends as “the Three Amigos plus a white guy,” although two of the amigos are Native Americans. Throw hacker Kim Yoon into the mix and Spenser is plainly a fan of workplace diversity.

Ace Atkins has greater opportunity to stretch his creative legs in his excellent Quinn Colson series. When he writes Spenser novels, he is confined to the environment and characterizations that Parker created. He nevertheless does a creditable job of channeling Parker, employing snarky dialog, treating the reader to a good bit of gunplay, and tempering Spenser’s hard-boiled personality with tender feelings for the innocent and abused (as well as Susan).

The plot blends mystery with action and the cast of potential wrongdoers is sufficient to keep the reader guessing. A good chunk of the novel remains after the mystery is solved. Atkins fills it with enough mayhem that Spenser, if a real person, would be permanently banned from California. Yeah, he only shoots bad guys, but he shoots so many of them that one might expect the police to be more wary of his presence, even if he does clean up the dirt that otherwise darkens the City of Angels. That again is true to the Spenser tradition, making Angel Eyes further evidence that Atkins is the right author to keep Spenser alive after his creator’s demise.

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Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey

Published by Orbit on March 26, 2019

Planning a story arc that unfolds over nine books is an impressive feat. Executing the plan with the skill displayed by the writers who call themselves James S.A. Corey is even more impressive. The Expanse is one of the finest accomplishments in the history of space opera.

You need to read the last seven books in this series, in order, to have a full appreciation of the background to this novel, the eighth. That’s a lot of reading. For those who have completed the assignment (and those who have watched enough of the excellent television series based on the novels to get the drift), here’s where things stand. None of this will make sense, by the way, if you aren’t familiar with the series.

The gatebuilders apparently left a massive construct in a dead system that might be their backup drive. Maybe book nine will finally resolve the mysterious rise and fall of the gatebuilders.

The Laconians are looking for a way to protect themselves from whatever destroyed the gatebuilders, although there is no evidence that Laconian civilization is actually threatened. To that end, they plan to launch a weapon that they hope will destroy or at least “send a message” to their perceived but unknown enemy. Like all authoritarians, the Laconians are sure that fear, terror and belligerence will help them get their way. A few Laconians, as well as science fiction fans and pretty much anyone who can spark a thought, know that chucking a bomb through a gate at beings who have the ability to bend reality is just a bad idea. Sadly, authoritarians think with their mighty weapons, not with their tiny brains.

Meanwhile, James Holden is being held on Laconia, where he is not exactly imprisoned but not free to leave. Teresa Duarte, the daughter of the High Counsel of Laconia, views Holden with some suspicion, perhaps with good reason, although her dog knows that Holden is a good guy. But Teresa, being an entitled teen, is also rebellious. She develops a secret friendship with a dude who has hidden himself in a cave. The identity of the friend, and the friend’s fate, will be important to fans of the series.

The Rocinante is in storage and Alex Kamal is now piloting the Gathering Storm, a stolen Laconian warship. Bobbie Draper is leading a secret military mission using that ship against Laconia. Naomi Nagata is argumentative, as always. In the end, the plot will seek a reunification of the original crew of the Rocinante, or at least those who survive.

A theme that consistently emerges from this series is that war is stupid and that leaders and pundits who push for avoidable wars are stupid. In that regard, the Laconian leadership is monstrously stupid, as any number of characters recognize, including Elvi Okoye, a biologist who has been conducting research for the Laconians and who had a firsthand view of the results of the Laconian attempt to fight aliens they know nothing about.

Another theme that is central to the series is self-sacrifice. Characters die for the greater good. Series fans have likely come to appreciate and admire one or two characters who do not survive to the end of this novel. At least one of them dies a good death, displaying the kind of heroism that fans of The Expanse expect.

Like all the books in the series, Tiamat’s Wrath is a strong mix of action, politics, and philosophy. At times, the story is genuinely touching. Characters in the series never stop growing although they have largely settled into their personalities. In this installment, at least one of the key characters has changed in ways at which the story only hints.

I recommend the novel, but only for readers who are willing to commit to the entire series, starting with Leviathan Wakes. It is worth the investment of time for science fiction fans, but anyone who enjoys an intelligent outgrowth of pulp fiction will likely find the series to be rewarding.

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The Pelican by Martin Michael Driessen

Published in the Netherlands in 2017; published in translation by Amazon Crossing on November 12, 2019

A brief section of The Pelican relates a character’s memory of friendships based on sacrifice in World War II. The last section takes place in Germany fifteen years after the main story. The bulk of the story is set in a small town on the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia at the end of the 1980s, shortly before the onset of the Yugoslav Wars.

One of the charms of the village is that nothing ever happens there. The place has been unchanged for generations. Its historic buildings and its clock museum cannot compete with livelier tourist destinations. It has no industry or commerce and “the coastal region was, agriculturally speaking, of little consequence.” Yet Martin Michael Driessen populates the village with characters both ordinary and eccentric, the kind of people who make the best of their lives without worrying too much about politics or the outside world.

The village postman, a man named Andrej, steams open letters for lack of anything better to do with his life. Thus he learns that Josip, a war hero with a pension who now operates the funicular, is having an affair with a woman in Zagreb. Andrej decides to blackmail Josip, in part from a sense of entitlement (the world has been unkind to Andrej and he believes he is owed better). He uses the proceeds to gamble unsuccessfully but also to purchase an unhappy racing greyhound that would otherwise be put to death. The greyhound’s new circumstances do not make him a happier dog.

The story takes a comedic twist when the blackmailer is blackmailed. The comedy has a Shakespearean flavor that depends on the improbable concealment of identities. Josip and Andrej are stumped in their efforts to unmask their blackmailers, although they tend to suspect everyone. One of the blackmailers justifies his crimes with the thought that corruption has a good side — it “at least gave the unfairness of existence a somewhat more human face.”

The two blackmailers develop an unexpected friendship that leads to unexpected bouts of shame. But is a guilty conscience a sufficient motivation to change one’s behavior?

While a subtitle bills the novel as a comedy, it might be better described as a tragicomedy. It is, at least, a dark comedy of errors into which conflict and bitterness intrude. War is coming. Everyone knows it, although the villagers do their best to ignore the inevitable. After generations of stability, the village and its people are destined for disruption.

While the residents are primarily Croatian, they live in relative harmony with residents who are Serbs. An anti-Semitic character named Schmitz, who engages in spirited rants at the local café, is opposed by more enlightened characters who understand that “if Croatia wanted to be recognized as a nation, and even dreamt of future membership in the European Community, where even chickens are protected, then there was no place for this kind of talk.” Another character emphasizes the essential humanity of all people with the phrase “pumpkins are just pumpkins,” a “people are just people” philosophy that has allowed Croats to survive all “the doges and the sultans and the emperors and the dictators” who eventually bit the dust. Pumpkins, after all, thrive and reproduce without regard to political subdivisions and ethnic groups.

It is only a matter of time, however, before nationalism trumps tolerance, before artillery changes everything. As Josip realizes, years later, much of his own history as well as the region’s history was based on pettiness. Regret changes nothing while understanding one’s mistakes, even late in life, at least has personal value.

The Pelican tells a story from the perspectives of characters who balance corruption with kindness. The ending is fitting. This is a book that might leave the reader feeling happy or sad, but either way, the novel encourages a better understanding of the happy and sad aspects of human nature.

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