Extraordinary Adventures by Daniel Wallace

Published by St. Martin's Press on May 30, 2017

Extraordinary Adventures is a romantic comedy that focuses on a social misfit. In that sense, it channels The Rosie Project, although the plot and characters are quite different. The novel is a light, pleasant beach read. It isn’t belly-laugh funny but it made me smile often enough to earn an easy recommendation.

Edsel Bronfman, at 34, has never had a social life. He isn’t sure whether he’s a virgin. Bronfman “wins” a weekend at a Florida condo, which he will be pressured to purchase if he says yes. The catch is that he must bring a companion, because couples are more likely to buy than singles. Unfortunately for Bronfman, he has no companion and not much hope of finding one before the offer expires. His best bet as a travel buddy might be the receptionist in the office building where Bronfman works — she actually had a brief conversation with him one day — but she’s a temp and has disappeared before he works up the courage to ask her on a date.

Bronfman believes he suffers from a condition that prevents him from doing anything to improve his position in the world. He is, in his mother’s words, “a second guesser of second-guesses.” But Bronfman’s mother also told him, during his childhood, that his future was “a disappointment waiting to happen,” so it is easy to understand why Bronfman turned out the way he did.

Bronfman nevertheless sees the weekend in Florida as a motivation to change his life. Bit by bit, Bronfman tries to become a part of world. He discovers that when you become part of the world, the world gives you things to do, which can be kind of a pain, but he takes it as a learning experience. His encounters leave him on the periphery while giving him the illusion of being on the inside and of bonding with the insiders who, in truth, barely notice him. But they also, bit by bit, allow Bronfman to let go of the past and to define himself in the present. As the novel nears its end, someone asks Bronfman “What do you want?” and Bronfman realizes it is a question he has never asked himself. His answer is encouraging.

The characters in Extraordinary Adventures are amusing and quirky. His co-workers are typical of cube-dwellers who are diligent in their efforts to pursue interests at work that do not include work. His neighbor is a drug dealer who probably stole all of Bronfman’s possessions (except for his promotional pen collection). Bronfman’s mother is now old and a bit addled, unless she’s just seeing the world in a different way. She’s convinced her caretaker is stealing from her and breaking things. Her kindly caretaker is justifiably convinced that Bronfman’s mother is off her rocker.

Sheila, the receptionist, is a bit of an enigma whose stories about her past and present might not be entirely reliable. A police woman named Serena might be a dating prospect, but Bronfman isn’t sure about dating a woman who carries a gun. The drug dealer’s female friend is also on Bronfman’s short list of travel companions. In their own ways, all three women appeal to Bronfman, simply because they have noticed his existence.

The ending is predictable but satisfying. In fact, a romantic comedy would probably be unsatisfying if it did not end in a predictable way. The choice Bronfman makes might not be entirely unexpected, but I suspect that most readers will simply want him to make a choice, to move his life forward. Extraordinary Adventures succeeds because Bronfman succeeds in opening himself to the world of possibility, even if his success is exactly what the reader anticipates.

RECOMMENDED

A Game of Ghosts by John Connolly

First published in Great Britain in 2017; published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on July 4, 2017

A Game of Ghosts advances and, to an extent, brings to an end subplots that have forming in recent Charlie Parker novels. Familiar names or entities relating to those subplots include the Collector, the lawyer Eldritch, and the Brethren.

There are more ghosts than usual in this Charlie Parker novel. Charlie’s daughter Sam is still visited by the ghost of her half-sister Jennifer. Tobey Thayer foresees death, sometimes in the form of ghosts. Mike MacKinnon disappeared after seeing ghosts, and now his son Alex has seen one, portending the arrival of evil in his home. Other characters see or become ghosts as the novel progresses.

Charlie Parker is now on the government payroll as a private contractor. FBI Agent Ross has assigned him to find a private investigator named Jaycob Eklund who, like Parker, is a private FBI asset. Eklund has dropped off the radar.

The Brethren have taken note of Eklund and of a man named Routh, also known as the Cousin. Routh and Thayer are both connected to Eklund. Those connections furnish Parker’s link to evil, both mortal and supernatural, as Parker and his two associates, Angel and Louis, work their way through a trail of dead bodies while trying to find a living person who might know what happened to Eklund. The mystery puts Parker in the middle of an intriguing power struggle between a widow and her son.

As always, John Connolly writes with an abundance of style and flair. The story moves quickly. The plot is a bit less engaging than some other Parker novels, in part because Connolly seems have used A Game of Ghosts to tie up some of the dangling subplots that he advanced in earlier novels. For that reason, this novel focuses less on unraveling a mystery and more on the supernatural elements that always lurk in a Parker novel.

Given that Parker’s dead daughter is a ghostly character in these novels, and that his living daughter seems to have supernatural powers, there’s little doubt that the supernatural will continue to play an important role in the series. Now that the Brethren plotline is largely resolved, I’d like to see the novels give less emphasis to supernatural elements, because I think Parker novels are best when Parker is hunting down a killer or some other evildoer. Parker doesn’t do much of anything in A Game of Ghosts as he’s usually a half step behind the evildoers, who often hog the stage. Still, A Game of Ghosts is an easy, enjoyable read, and it paves the way for fresh plots in future novels.

RECOMMENDED

The Right Side by Spencer Quinn

Published by Atria Books on June 27, 2017

Spencer Quinn is justly celebrated for his Chet and Bernie stories, which are light and amusing. The Right Side is dark and serious. About halfway through the book, however, a wonderful dog appears, although the dog isn’t Chet, who narrates the Chet and Bernie books. This dog, like the novel, is dark and serious. But she’s still a dog.

Readers who want a favorite author to write the same book over and over might dislike The Right Side. Readers who admire the ability and courage of a good writer who departs from a successful formula might like The Right Side even more than the Chet and Bernie novels.

Raised by a former Green Beret, LeAnne Hogan knows how to shoot. But she lost her shooting eye on a mission in Afghanistan and she has shrapnel embedded in her brain. Her memory is fuzzy as she recovers in Walter Reed, although she remembers the childhood that shaped her. As she recuperates, she has repeat visits from a psychiatrist and an Army intelligence officer, neither of whom she trusts.

LeAnne was in Afghanistan at the request of a female colonel who wanted her to join a team that would gather intelligence from Afghan women (on the dubious theory that women are more likely to talk to women). During the first third of the novel, LeAnne’s backstory alternates with her present, as she tries to cope with her injuries and memory loss, and with unexpected death, at Walter Reed and in her post-hospitalized life.

LeAnne’s experiences have changed her. Her injury has made it difficult for her to focus and to keep track of time. She’s become something of a bigot with regard to Americans of Middle Eastern ancestry. She’s gruff and short-tempered. She’s developed a sense of entitlement because of her military service and a sense of worthlessness because of her injury. In other words, she’s imperfect. That makes her interesting and realistic.

What happened on the mission that took her eye? LeAnne isn’t sure. The Captain from Army intelligence drops some hints, suggesting that there’s more to the story than LeAnne remembers. He keeps track of LeAnne as the story moves along, leaving the reader to wonder why he’s taking such an interest in her. And since LeAnne’s brain injury makes her a less than reliable narrator, part of the reader’s challenge is deciding whether LeAnne’s perceptions of reality are entirely accurate.

After this set-up, a dog appears. I’ll leave it to the reader to discover how that happens and the almost mythical role that the dog plays in LeAnne’s life, despite her general antipathy to dogs. Suffice it to say, it would be hard for a dog lover not to love this book.

A brief friendship at Walter Reed with a woman named Marci animates the rest of the novel, as LeAnne becomes embroiled in Marci’s past while trying to make sense of her own past and present. Other characters help or hinder Marci, but she would be largely directionless if it weren’t for the dog, who leads her in the directions that only make sense to dogs, but as dog lovers know, those directions often turn out to be the right ones.

Quinn honed his storytelling skills in the Chet and Bernie books, all of which I’ve enjoyed. He knows how to keep the story moving at a good pace without sacrificing characterizations or setting. As LeAnne moves around the country (and Afghanistan), Quinn always establishes a convincing sense of place. His supporting characters are convincing and, given the serious nature of the novel, LeAnne has more depth than Bernie (or Chet, for that matter).

A couple scenes in the book would be difficult to believe if not for the dog’s mythical quality. This is the sort of story that a reader believes because the reader wants to believe it, not because it’s particularly plausible. That Quinn made me believe the unlikely is one reason I loved The Right Side. LeAnne’s character development and the dog story are the other reasons. The twin mysteries (what happened in Afghanistan? what happened to a kid who goes missing midway through the story?) are entertaining enough, but this is a novel I admire for reasons other than the plot.

RECOMMENDED

Zero Sum by Barry Eisler

Published by Thomas & Mercer on June 27, 2017

John Rain is back in Tokyo during the Reagan years, looking for work. A Russian named Victor has monopolized the assassination business. Rain’s friend Miyamoto introduces him to Victor, with the understanding that Rain will replace Victor if he can take Victor out of the game. Rain also gets an informational assist from his cop buddy Tatsu. All of that adds up to a standard John Rain novel, focusing on Rain’s formative years, but this one is formulaic and the formula is getting stale.

Rain’s only opportunity to get close to Victor is to work for him. That unlikely scenario leads to an assignment: killing an important person, but not without first bedding the important person’s wife. That produces some conflict in Rain’s quirky moral sense, leading him to kill a bunch of other people instead of his target, but not without bedding the important person’s wife again. When he thinks he’s eliminated all the threats, of course there is another, which he’ll deal with as soon as he beds the important person’s wife once more.

The sex scenes, by the way, are more childish than titillating. Particularly the “pretending to say no when she really means yes” scene. I thought authors got over that in the 1970s. Also a bit lame is Rain’s evolving fashion sense, as he learns that Italian designers make nice clothes (who knew?). That leads to many opportunities for Rain to change his clothes, sometimes sporting Kevlar beneath his designer outfit, other times going commando.

The plot involves Victor and his silly insecurities, coupled with the CIA’s Byzantine meddling in Japanese politics, but it’s difficult to see the plot as anything other than a contrivance that allows Rain to show off his killing skills. Look ma, no gun! Earlier Rain novels built Rain’s character and gave greater purpose to his assassinations, but the formula has taken over. I didn’t dislike Zero Sum, but it feels like a book written on autopilot.

To be fair, Zero Sum isn’t a bad book, and I might have liked it more if I hadn’t read the earlier, much better Rain novels. I would recommend to readers who are new to the series that they start with the first one and read them in order. If they don’t ever get around to reading this one, they won’t be missing much.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

"Never Stop on the Motorway" and "It Can't Be October Already" by Jeffrey Archer

Some authors have started marketing short stories as ebooks. That practice sometimes makes me wonder whether the stories were turned down by magazine editors, but maybe direct marketing is the wave of the future for authors with substantial name recognition. In the case of the stories reviewed below, however, Jeffrey Archer is selling individul stories that have appeared in his earlier story collections.

Whether it makes sense to pay at least 99 cents for a short story, rather than buying a collection that includes the story, is something each reader will need to decide. With regard to the two stories reviewed here, I can only say that, while I enjoyed them, neither are so substantial that I would read them again. I would probably feel I was getting more value for my dollar if I purchased the collections in which these stories first appeared. On the other hand, the publisher provided me with free digital advance reading copies of the stories, so my concerns about value are only theoretical.

"Never Stop on the Motorway"

Published digitally by St. Martin's Press on July 3, 2017

"Never Stop on the Motorway" is included in at least two Jeffrey Archer story collections: The Collected Short Stories and Twelve Red Herrings.

Heavy traffic gives Diana time to think about her failed marriage, but when she can finally reach highway speed, her euphoria is unsettled by a thump after a small animal darts in front of her car. She stops and, soon thereafter, a vehicle begins to tailgate her. She can’t shake the driver and begins to fear that she will be the next victim of the killer who recently cut a woman’s throat on the same road, prompting police to warn motorists not to stop.

This is a fast-moving story with a mildly surprising ending. It creates tension in a predictable way and develops about as much characterization as could be expected in a relatively brief story. I was hoping for an ending that would be even more surprising, but the ending that Jeffrey Archer provides isn’t one I expected.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

"It Can't Be October Already"

Published digitally by St. Martin's Press on June 6, 2017.

"It Can't Be October Already" is included in Cat O'Nine Tales and Other Stories.

A fellow named Pat goes to jail every October. Pat is unfailingly polite to the various officers who arrest him, lock him up, and take him to court, all of whom are familiar with his annual ritual and see him as something of an old friend, or at least a harmless nuisance. Eventually the reader discovers what’s up with Pat, and Pat finally gets to finish telling the joke that everyone has already heard.

“It Can’t Be October Already” is a light, amusing short story. It isn’t particularly substantial, but it doesn’t pretend to be. Pat's joke is more interesting than the plot of the story itself, which leads to an obvious conclusion. I didn't get the impression that Archer put much effort into this one.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS