Snow Wolf by Glenn Meade

First published in 1995; published in trade paperback by Howard Books (Simon & Shuster) on May 19, 2015

Jakob Massey died in 1953 while working for the CIA. His son William was told that Jakob committed suicide. Decades later, William finds hidden documents referring to an operation called Snow Wolf that cast doubt on the date, place, and circumstances of his father's death. William travels to Russia in the hope of learning the truth. He hears the story from Anna Khorev, a woman who blamed Stalin for her father's execution, her mother's suicide, and the ugly turns her life took as she entered adulthood.

Without giving anything away, I can safely say that Snow Wolf incorporates the ingredients of a fast-moving thriller. A fellow named Alex Slanski (a former OSS assassin who used the code name Wolf) is dropped into Russia by parachute. He has a mission. Anna goes along as his cover but is not told the details of his mission. Of course, half the Russian army chases Slanski and Anna through Estonia and Russia as they try to evade capture and carry out their mission. Those scenes are all fast-moving and credible.

A key player in the novel's second half is a KGB major named Lukin, personally charged by Lavrentiy Beria with finding Slanski and Anna. Lukin is a surprisingly admirable character, given the nature of his employment. Beria keeps a secret from Lukin that Lukin and reader discover late in the story. Another plot twist involves a decision by President Eisenhower to abort Slanski's mission after it is already underway. That decision sends Jakob Massey to Russia.

Snow Wolf is all about plot. The characterizations are nothing special. The writing is surprisingly tight given the novel's length. Although we learn the ultimate fates of Massey and Anna (as well as the mission's outcome) in the novel's early pages, Snow Wolf manages to generate a satisfying amount of suspense. Most of the intrigue involves Slanski and Lukin as they work toward their respective goals.

Some aspects of the story are not entirely convincing but I found it easy to suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoying a good story. The novel's core surprises are plausible and its internal logic is consistent. The ending -- Slanski's completion of his mission -- is a bit too easy, which is the novel's greatest weakness. This is nevertheless a strong, fast-moving thriller.

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Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds

Published by Tachyon Publications on June 9, 2015

After a capture, an escape, and a blackout, Scurelya Shunde finds herself on a transport ship that is adrift in space. Shunde is a soldier. Others who have been cocooned in the ship are fellow soldiers, enemy soldiers, war criminals, civilians, and crew. Now they have awakened to a reality they do not quite understand.

The ship has apparently been adrift for a long time. For reasons that the ship's occupants do not immediately understand, the world they are orbiting, once thriving, is now empty. Nor do any beacons respond. They appear to be alone. Worse, the ship's memory is decaying. In a thousand days, all of human history will be lost.

What should they do?

A couple of other plot threads develop the story. One involves an intruder who boarded the ship before its occupants woke up. The other involves a war criminal who tortured Shunde with a slow bullet before she escaped. Soldiers carry a more benign slow bullet in their bodies that contain their service record and other biographical information.

Alastair Reynolds addresses a number of interesting ideas in this story. One has to do with how information should be preserved when much of the accumulated knowledge of mankind is about to be lost. Another has to do with the value of redemption, or even the possibility of redemption, as an alternative to punishment. Lesser themes concern the nature of individual identity and what should be done about religious conflict in a confined society.

Slow Bullets will probably disappoint fans who want everything a favorite author writes to be just like their favorite novels by that author. Fans sometimes have little patience for writers who stretch, explore, or depart from their own formulas. This isn't a Revelation Space novel -- it isn't even a novel, but a novella length story. It isn't action-filled. If you approach Slow Bullets with an open mind, however, those are not sensible reasons to dislike the work. While the characters in Slow Bullets do not the depth that a longer story would permit, the ideas are intriguing and the length of the story is perfect for the development of those ideas.

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Invasion of Privacy by Christopher Reich

Published by Doubleday on June 16, 2015

Invasion of Privacy is an old-fashioned conspiracy thriller that is updated with modern technology. In the past, the bad guys had to break into the good guy's home to manually erase answering machine messages or steal compromising photographs. These days, they remotely erase text messages and photographs from smart phones.

Joe Grant is an FBI agent who specializes in electronic surveillance. He is in Austin, working on Operation Semaphore, which has something to do with a wealthy and somewhat batty CEO named Ian Prince and a supercomputer called Titan. As the operation goes sideways during a meeting with an informant, Joe manages to call his wife, Mary, and leaves her a message that the FBI would prefer she didn't have. Why he leaves a cryptic voicemail for Mary instead of, for example, calling someone with a gun who might be able to help him is something I never quite understood.

When the message disappears from her phone, Mary understands that she can't trust the FBI. She is one of two individuals who want to get past the FBI's cover-up. The other is a drunken ex-journalist named Tank. The drunk who manages to pull himself together long enough to do battle against the forces of evil is a stock character in Thrillerworld. Tank is likable but far from unique.

Every family in Thrillerworld has a kid who happens to a superhacker. Mary's daughter Jessie fills that role in Invasion of Privacy. She is such a trite addition to the story that she's really a subtraction from it. Her contribution (apart from teenage angst) consists of jetting off to a hacker's convention to engage in activities that are both predictable and impossible to believe.

Too much of Invasion of Privacy has the familiarity of a thriller written on autopilot. Christopher Reich made his reputation as an author of complex financial thrillers, but Invasion of Privacy only gives a passing nod to the world of finance while focusing on chase scenes, high-tech surveillance, stereotypical hackers, and more chase scenes.

In addition, too much of Invasion of Privacy is contrived. The cryptic message Joe leaves for Mary is so cryptic that he could not possibly have expected Mary to figure it out -- except she does because otherwise, the plot would grind to a halt. No FBI agent would take valuable evidence of a criminal investigation home and leave it in a "gadget box" but Joe does because if he didn't, the plot would grind to a halt.

Here's what's really shocking: I enjoyed reading Invasion of Privacy even while I was rolling my eyes. The ending is something of an anti-climax but it's reasonably satisfying. The story moves quickly which, given its lack of depth or complexity, is a good thing. The characters are shallow but likable. Invasion of Privacy is an undemanding, predictable novel but it's fun. Still, I expected more from Reich.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child

Published by Doubleday on May 12, 2015

Jeremy Logan is called upon by a think tank named Lux to investigate a computer scientist's oddly gruesome suicide. Logan was once kicked out of the same think tank because his academic specialty -- ghost hunting -- was not viewed as an intellectually rigorous pursuit. Can you imagine?

Before he died, the suicidal scientist had been acting batty -- talking to himself, behaving with uncharacteristic rudeness -- behavior that started after he was assigned the task of overseeing the remodeling of a wing of the mansion in which the think tank is housed. Other residents in the think also reported hearing voices and perceiving strange phenomena.

The dead scientist stumbled upon a hidden room before he died, hence the novel's title. Logan's task is to figure out how the forgotten room relates to the scientist's death.

The Forgotten Room tells a decent story, although one that lacks a "WOW factor." The story is based on impressive research that ties brain chemistry to Renaissance church music -- at least, it impressed me, which is not difficult given my lack of knowledge about either subject. The plot is reasonably clever, but it failed to excite me. The novel's surprises are not very surprising and the ending is predictable. Almost no attempt was made to develop characterizations or motivations regarding the novel's villains.

My reaction to The Forgotten Room was more "HUH" than "WOW," meaning I was interested but not absorbed in a plot that left me wanting more. The Forgotten Room is an easily forgotten novel that nevertheless has modest entertainment value.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Wisdom of Perversity by Rafael Yglesias

Published by Algonquin Books on March 24, 2015

Too many novels that address the impact of child molestation on adult life turn into weepy, melodramatic stories that have all the depth of a Jerry Springer interview. The Wisdom of Perversity offers a lucid and subtle view of the subject, recognizing that lives are shaped by many experiences, not just one; that similar experiences affect different lives in different ways; that different people adopt different strategies for moving past the past; and that undoing damage often requires creative thinking that you won't get from Dr. Phil.

The Wisdom of Perversity takes place in two time settings. The first, beginning in 1966, involves two kids: Brian Moran and his friend Jeff Mark. Jeff's family is (to use Jeff's expression) weird. Jeff's wealthy cousin, Richard Klein, is an executive at NBC. Klein rudely introduces Brian to the adult world while Jeff's mother manipulates family members for Jeff's benefit.

A third child, Julie Mark, eventually enters the 1960s story, but she makes her first appearance in 2008. She is married to Gary Rosen and has a son named Zach. Gary is a legal analyst who is covering accusations that Sam Rydel, a former NBC page who worked under Richard Klein, is a child molester. Julie reconnects with her cousin Jeff, who is now the most beloved director in Hollywood, and with Gary, who is now a screenwriter/playwright, after learning that ugly secrets they have all been keeping for 40 years might soon be exposed. Or, if not, it might be time for all of them to expose their secrets to the world.

A number of Rafael Yglesias' characters are "scarred veterans of a nearly invisible trauma whose aftereffects had no true experts." They confront substantial questions: When should the past stay buried? Should private horrors be made public long after they have ended? Is exposing the truth worth the price of exposure? Which is worse: a child molester or an adult who enables a child molester? Can we judge people for what they become when they have no control over what they become? Is it possible to make something healthy out of desires that were kindled by "perversion"?

By being honest without becoming cheap and maudlin, The Wisdom of Perversity tells an emotionally affecting story. Yglesias changes pace with humor at unexpected moments. The humor serves to keep the drama from becoming oppressive. It works because, after all, life is pretty funny during the moments when it isn't tragic.

The Hollywood glitz takes a bit of edge off the story, which I view as the novel's primary weakness, but Yglesias makes it possible for the reader to feel compassion for Jeff despite the fact that Jeff's woes are softened by his fame and fortune. Some of the secondary characters (including Zach, Gary, and Sam Rydel) are underdeveloped, but that is a small quibble. This is one of the smartest, most engaging novels I've read that focuses on issues of child sexual abuse.

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