Admiral by Sean Danker

Published by Roc (Berkley Group) on May 3, 2016

Four people wake up in the sleeping pods on a ship. The ship has crashed on a creepy planet. One of the survivors is wearing an Admiral’s uniform. He claims to be an honorary admiral but the others are suspicious. The ship’s only two crew members have burned to death in an airlock.

A harrowing escape from a perilous situation is followed by a series of harrowing escapes. In between escapes the four characters get to know each other.

Characterization isn’t bad, but Admiral is ultimately a “humans chased around by alien monsters” novel. I’ve read enough novels (and seen enough movies) with that plot to last a lifetime. The intriguing background (which involves a couple of recently warring groups) is more interesting than the action story that follows the setup.

I liked parts of the novel but was indifferent to most of it, so my recommendation is filled with reservations. The most interesting part of the story -- the Admiral’s identity and mission -- is too far removed from the alien monster story. Unfortunately, by the time the story reveals which side the Admiral is on, I no longer cared. Had the novel’s focus been on the backstory that is told in the last pages rather than alien monsters, Admiral might have been more engaging.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Seven Days Dead by John Farrow

Published by Minotaur Books (Thomas Dunne) on May 24, 2016

Seven Days Dead is a fun, engrossing novel. It has a peculiar, meandering plot that invites the reader to speculate about how the characters and their stories will come together. The story has the charm of a well-conceived mystery but the novel’s characters are its strength.

Alfred Orrock, the major property owner on Grand Manan, has arranged to die. Simon Lescavage is present and not happy about it. Alfred’s daughter Maddy is on her way but, as always, her father doesn’t wait for her. Shortly after Alfred’s death, a popular island resident comes to a violent end. A third death follows.

The Canadian island of Grand Manan is populated by eccentrics, busybodies, and tourists. The locals regularly set each other’s property on fire or dangle someone over a cliff to resolve a quarrel, but they draw the line at murder. Wade Louwagie, a burnt-out Mountie who has is coping with panic attacks, isn’t sure he’s capable of dealing with a disemboweled corpse. That body was discovered by Aaron Roadcap, the son of a convicted murderer whose heritage makes him a suspect in the death.

Rounding out the cast are a retired police officer, Émile Cinq-Mars, and his wife Sandra, who are attempting to vacation on the island. Sandra and Émile are trying to sort out their lives, to decide what they want and whether they are capable of change. For Émile to become involved in murder investigations seems contrary to their attempt at a fresh start, but they both know that solving crime is in Émile’s blood.

The primary characters are constantly evolving as they deal with their pasts and find the courage to address the future. Colorful background characters are drawn with the kind of quirkiness that makes them seem real. Selecting the murderer is as challenging for the reader as it is for Émile.

Seven Days Dead is marketed as a thriller but I would classify it as a crime novel. A single action scene that places Émile and Sandra at risk generates a surprising amount of suspense, but the novel focuses on solving the mystery rather than generating excitement. It is a quick and compulsive read. The story is tight; every scene has a purpose. Émile solves the crime with a Sherlockian flair. This is an old-fashioned mystery that combines an intricate yet credible plot with fetching characters, a refreshing change from the outrageous plots and cartoonish characters that dominate modern crime fiction.

RECOMMENDED

The Fat Artist by Benjamin Hale

Published by Simon & Schuster on May 17, 2016

The Fat Artist is a collection of stories that (with one exception) range from good to excellent. Starting with excellent:

“If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” follows a man who is scraping by, working two jobs with a wife and baby and a truck that won’t start, a man who can never get ahead because his bank charges him fees for having no money, a man who wants to kill his wife’s former boyfriend. The story also follows a man who wants to make artistic porn with his teenage niece. Clearly, nothing will ever go well for any of the sharply drawn characters. The story is gritty and funny and infused with the blues.

“The Fat Artist” is about a (fat) artist who has made his body into an art object. He puts himself on display as an ode to consumption. The story is written as an autobiographical meditation on what it means to live one’s art, to crave fame, to personify Oscar Wilde’s observation that all art is useless. The story can be read as an allegory of, or as satirizing, artistic creation, or as a meditation on the meaning of art. Readers who aren’t grossed out by the story should be amused, but I think the story’s best moment is a brief tribute to the life and art of Franz Kafka, whose story “The Hunger Artist” is here turned upside down as self-indulgence replaces self-abnegation.

“The Minus World” is alternately funny and gloomy as it tells of a young man who is trying, without much motivation or success, to get over his drug addiction and make something of himself. His new job -- collecting squid from fishermen for marine biologists at MIT -- gives him a chance to feel both good and bad about himself, another chance to mess up a fresh start. If only life were a video game, he could conquer it. The story has an unfinished feel, but that’s consistent with the young man’s unfinished life.

Three other stories are quite good:

The protagonist in “Leftovers” is good at rationalizing -- his affairs, his drug addicted son, his career advancing the interests of an uncaring corporation -- but isn’t good at compassion. The plot is conventional but the story is very funny in a morbid way.

A Congressman dies in the arms of his long-term BDSM provider in “Venus at Her Mirror.” Rebecca (a/k/a Mistress Delilah) then plans her response the Congressman’s death. The story is interesting, but more a character sketch than a story with a plot.

“Beautiful Boy” is another character sketch. It might also be read as a celebration of New York City drag queens, or to New York City architecture, or to the beatification of celebrities who die violently.

Only one story failed to impress me. In “Don’t Worry, Baby” stoners get stoned and fly on a plane while their baby cries. They are wanted for crimes of protest. The crying baby triggers an epiphany in the mother. If the story had a point, it eluded me.

On the whole, the stories take a bright look at the dark side of life. Benjamin Hale’s prose is creative and energetic. The stories showcase a writer of great promise.

RECOMMENDED

Widowmaker by Paul Doiron

Published by St. Martin's/Minotaur Books on June 14, 2016

I have to start with a rant about the protagonist because he’s just ridiculous. Mike Bowditch is a game warden in Maine who is paranoid about the risks that face game wardens. As far as I can tell, no game warden has been murdered in the line of duty in Maine since 1886, so when Bowditch sneaks up on a car parked outside his house in broad daylight because he fears the unknown driver wants to kill him -- and continues to keep his hand on his gun because the unarmed woman behind the wheel makes the suspicious claim that she needs to pee -- I had to think it might be time for Bowditch to retire.

Bowditch is happy that he’s been issued an assault rifle because wardens are “in serious danger of being outgunned in every firefight.” Are scofflaws who fish without a license a serious threat to get into shootouts with wardens? I guess Paul Doiron didn’t read the “North Woods Lawless” series in the Portland Press Herald about Maine game wardens who “padded evidence, provided alcohol to people who were being investigated and invented events that did not occur” in their investigations of game violations. Nothing in there about shootouts.

Bowditch also has disturbing ideas about his powers as a law enforcement officer. He seems to believe that he would have the right to kill an unconscious person who (while still conscious) tried to stab him. Even for a cop, the right to use deadly force in self-defense ends when the threat ends, but Bowditch must have skipped that class. He also believes the myth propogated by law enforcement that “Where there are drugs, there are almost always guns,” which statistically isn’t even close to being true. He has the typical moralizer’s inability to understand, or to feel compassion for, people who come out on the wrong side of his harsh judgment. Bowditch is, in short, narrow-minded, simplistic, and dull. On the other hand, he likes dogs, so he can’t be all bad.

The mediocre plot did not overcome my dislike of the protagonist. A woman wants Bowditch to find her son, who disappeared after being required to register as a sex offender because his girlfriend was a minor. Bowditch doesn’t want to play private investigator but the woman drops a bombshell on him that he can’t ignore. Eventually Bowditch tumbles to an improbable conspiracy that involves sex offender assassinations, leading to the shootout he craves.

Doiron’s prose is smooth and the novel’s mountainous setting is convincing. The plot is less convincing, but it’s not as outlandish as many modern thrillers. The novel’s steady pace makes Widowmaker easy to read. Widowmaker therefore has positive attributes, and readers who think Bowditch is interesting or heroic might like this more than I did. Still, I cannot recommend Widowmaker without significant reservations.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Polaris by Todd Tucker

Published by Thomas Dunne Books on June 14, 2016

Of all the tired plot devices that should be retired, the protagonist who wakes up with a crucial memory loss and wonders what side of a conflict he supports is high on my list. It is rarely believable, particularly when the memory loss is used a convenient means of generating suspense that would otherwise be wanting. In the case of Polaris, even that device creates little suspense, despite some fast-moving action scenes.

Polaris is set some decades in the future, after global warming, war, and an epidemic have threatened to decimate the world’s population. For reasons that are eventually explained (cleverly but not credibly), swarms of small drones are overflying the oceans, looking for targets to bomb. A target is basically anything a drone can spot, although they are supposedly programmed to look for targets at sea. No distinction between friend and foe has been programmed into the drones. If it floats, civilian or military, the drones bomb it. That’s such a remarkably useless weapon that it’s almost credible, given the history of military spending. Almost, but not quite. The poor premise undercut my interest in the story.

Pete Hamlin wakes up with a head injury and a shaky memory. He has apparently killed a friend, thus averting a mutiny, but he doesn’t recall the killing, the mutiny, or, for that matter, much of anything. Hamlin knows he is on a submarine called the Polaris and is told that they are being followed by a Typhon submarine, but the word Typhon means nothing to him.

Hamlin eventually recalls that the Alliance (which operates in cooperation with but independently of the U.S. military) is at war with Typhon, but he doesn’t know (and so the reader doesn’t know) whether he is with the military, the Alliance, or Typhon. Is he a mutineer or did he stop the mutiny? Everyone seems to think Hamlin is on their side but Hamlin can’t figure out where his loyalties lie. We are eventually given an explanation for that but the convenient selectivity of Hamlin’s memory loss struck me as an obvious plot device rather than a credible event.

Toward the novel’s middle we get an expository information dump that explains what’s up with Hamlin’s past. It includes a remarkable coincidence that’s just too coincidental to be credible. Later in the novel, we get an extended flashback as Hamlin regains his memory.

By the time it circles back to beginning, the story has become so predictable that the events triggering Hamlin’s memory loss are unsurprising -- which defeats the purpose of relying on the memory loss gimmick to carry the story. The ending is a standard action scene, mildly entertaining but far from memorable.

Some of Polaris is fun. I enjoy submarine novels and if Polaris focused on submarine warfare more than the strained development of plot contrivances, I would have liked it more. Characters are typical action figures without much depth. Diehard fans of submarine fiction might want to try Polaris, but the credibility stretches were too much for me.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS