The Jaguar's Children by John Vaillant

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on January 27, 2015

"It is harder to think good thoughts in the dark." Sealed inside a tanker with thirteen other Mexicans who are trying to cross the border without documents, Tito (the name by which most people address young Hector) has few reasons to think good thoughts. The truck has a broken axle, the coyotes driving the truck have apparently abandoned them, and the battery on Tito's phone is nearly dead. Soon the people welded inside the tank will be in the same condition as the truck and the battery: broken down and dying. Tito nevertheless narrates his plight (along with a variety of rants about corruption, poverty, crime, and the misery of life for an indio in Oaxaca), recording sound files on his friend's phone that he hopes will reach someone when he presses "send."

Also in the truck, although unconscious, is Tito's friend Cesar. Tito once borrowed a copy of The Savage Detectives from Cesar but they otherwise had little contact before a coincidental sets of circumstances caused Tito to join Cesar on his journey from Oaxaca to the border. Cesar is running to the border for reasons that have to do with corn (more than that I will not reveal).

The meandering stories that Tito narrates (the central story, told to him by the man he calls his grandfather, is a love story that tangentially relates to an ancient Jaguar Man carved from jade) are a mixture of reality and folklore. Tito talks about the power of icons, the power (or indifference) of saints, the history of Mexico, the desperation of Mexican life, the differences between the United States and Mexico, and the fundamental similarities of people everywhere. The story is a reminder of the things that are most important in life, the things we never think about until we are deprived of them.

The Jaguar's Children offers a heady mix of humor and sorrow. Death, Tito tells us, is the national drug of Mexico, "the god everyone worships but no one will name." Tito's ordeal would be a test of faith if he had any, but faith is more the province of his grandmother and his friend Cesar. But even as Tito faces the prospect of a horrifying death by dehydration inside a steel coffin, surrounded by others who share his misery, his story is life-affirming. It is the story of struggle, of the search for a purpose, of how different people find different purposes in different ways. It is moving, haunting, and illuminating.

RECOMMENDED

Memory Man by David Baldacci

Published by Grand Central Publishing on April 21, 2015

Amos Decker comes home to find that his mother, wife, and son have been murdered. Decker is a cop and the beginning of his story is too familiar to be promising. He also sees numbers and colors in ways that have become too familiar among fictional characters who suffer from brain abnormalities. As if that's not enough, Decker has the memory (and empathy) of a supercomputer.

When writers decide to use a prop to make a character interesting, they usually pick one. Baldacci's decision to use four (numbers, colors, memory, and loss of family to a killer) gives Amos an overdone quality that permeates the novel. Yes, it's fun to give a character some quirky traits, but Decker is quirkiness on steroids. The numbers and colors and DVD-like memory all come across as gimmicks, not as humanizing traits. Primarily because I disliked the gimmicks upon which the central character is founded, I don't regard Memory Man as one of David Baldacci's better efforts. All of the autistic-savant stuff is just too trite. And really, the fact that he's chased by menacing 3s is just silly.

The bad guys in Memory Man might as well be supervillains -- the unpowered kind, like Lex Luthor or the Joker -- given their astonishing ability to foresee Decker's every act and to greet his appearances by leaving threatening scrawls on walls for him to read. Other things I didn't believe: Why is the top cop inviting a reporter to tag along with Decker on a police investigation? Why does the FBI agree to let her fly on its government jet? Why, when time is of the essence, do Decker and the reporter drive from Burlington to Chicago when they could fly there in a couple of hours? I'll go pretty far to suspend disbelief when I read a thriller, but I just couldn't buy much of anything in this one.

The plot of Memory Man is almost as silly as the Memory Man character. Fifteen months after the killings, Decker is a private investigator. The person who killed his family remains at large. After a school shooting, the Burlington Police improbably hire Decker as a consultant (the entire police force plus the FBI not being enough), giving Baldacci a chance to prove that Memory Man is a supercop, sort of a linebacker version of Sherlock Holmes, or at least he would be if he were still a cop. Naturally, although I won't discuss how, the mystery of the school shooting (who did it, why, and how did the shooter escape undetected) quickly ties in to the murders of Decker's wife and children.

I enjoyed following Decker as he investigated the school shooting. Baldacci is a seasoned writer who knows how to move a story at a good pace. Dialog is authentic and the quality of Baldacci's prose is never a problem. It is always easy to read Baldacci to the end, but this is the first Baldacci novel I've read that I would not recommend, even with reservations. The killer's motivation (as least with regard to Decker and particularly Decker's family) struck me as preposterous. The last chapters are predictable. Since I didn't buy either the plot or the reality of the central characters, all that remains is snappy prose, and that doesn't overcome the silliness.

NOT RECOMMENDED

The Bodyguard by Leena Lehtolainen

First published in Finland in 2009; published by AmazonCrossing on December 9, 2014

Finnish bodyguard Hilja Ilveskero threatens to resign in protest if her client buys a fur coat made of lynx (an animal with which she had a childhood affinity). The client quite properly responds by firing Hilja. Soon thereafter, the client is killed in Moscow and Hilja, back in Finland, spends the next couple of chapters telling the reader "I couldn't remember what happened that night" and "I wish I could remember what happened that night."

Unfortunately, Hilja can recall her childhood, the uncle who raised her, and their pet lynx. Hilja devotes countless pages to those memories, the lynx in particular. They act as a drag on a plot that would be slow-moving even without the flashbacks. Eventually she tells us about the defining moment in her childhood. It is predictable and trite, as is a plot that revolves around the missing hours in a life during which a murder was committed.

Later Hilja is hired by a politician and begins to unravel the mystery of her former client's death. The first reveal, an information dump from an interrogated character, is more tedious than surprising. The rest of the convoluted novel leads to a final reveal that is both dull and contrived.

Throughout the novel, Hilja tells us what's on the news and the content of her dreams and what she had for breakfast and many other things that are of absolutely no interest. I'm all for setting a scene and creating a realistic background but it's possible to do that in a way that engages the reader. Leena Lehtolainen hasn't learned that trick. Lehtolainen's writing style is serviceable but uninspired. Characters tend to be caricatures while descriptions are too dependent upon clichés. The implications of Finland's dependence on Russian energy is the novel's best theme but that isn't enough to carry a thriller.

Hilja spends a good bit of the book lusting after and fantasizing about and bedding a guy while worrying that he's trying to kill her. I've heard of desperate, but seriously? This leads to cheesy sentences like "Finally he read my mind, grabbed my shoulders, and pulled me to him, smelling like a man should. His lips were hungry, his tongue searching his way into my mouth." I'm still wondering what a man with a searching tongue is supposed to smell like -- Armani Gio or axle grease? By the end, The Bodyguard just smelled cheesy.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Ryder: American Treasure by Nick Pengelley

Published by Alibi on January 20, 2015

At the conclusion of the first novel in this series, Israel signed a previously unknown peace treaty negotiated by Lawrence of Arabia, causing the formation of a new state called The Holy Land that combines Israel with Palestine. One of the plot threads in the second Ryder novel, American Treasure, follows a conspiracy to undo the peace.

The primary plot thread sends our archeologist heroine, Ayesha Ryder, on another journey to uncover the past. An American presidential candidate wants Ayesha to recover artifacts that the British stole from Washington during the War of 1812. Her search might lead to the discovery of a letter hidden by James Madison. The plot requires the reader to believe that Madison's letter would affect the outcome of the election (his ancestor is also running for president) when any reasonably astute politician understands that most voters don't care about anything that happened more than five years ago. The risks that Madison's ancestor takes to suppress the letter far outweigh the benefit of keeping it hidden.

Meanwhile, America's Secretary of State is engaging in some between the sheets diplomacy with the British Prime Minister, unaware that the CIA is following her. The soft core descriptions of the two women in bed fail to enliven a subplot that is just silly. The PM, in fact, would like to get it on with Ayesha, but Ayesha is "at the mercy of her desires," which involve a journalist who triggers her lust. All of the sex in this novel is pretty cheesy and a serious distraction from a plot that is slow to develop.

Eventually Ryder is framed for a crime and accused of terrorism (in reality, she is a reformed terrorist), notwithstanding the adoration she receives from royalty, politicians, academics, and lusty journalists. The rest of the story involves Ryder's effort to clear her name while pursuing the stolen artifacts, the missing letter, and the Ark of the Covenant.

As in the first novel, Ryder solves improbable riddle-like clues too easily. The reason for the chain of clues is never quite clear. Perhaps the person who left them, peering into the future, wanted to give Ryder something to think about other than sex. Actions scenes are fairly standard for a thriller. Ryder, of course, can quickly dispatch two or three attackers at a time. The various attacks and death traps from which she escapes are also too easy. The story just doesn't generate the suspense for which it strives.

The first novel was over-the-top but fun. The plot in this novel is also over-the-top but the behavior of the characters is way over-the-top to the point of silliness. The coincidence that drives the ending is preposterous. The novel is still fun but the first novel convinced me to suspend my disbelief. This one never did.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Rekjavik Nights by Arnaldur Indriðason

Published in Iceland in 2012; published in translation by Minotaur Books on April 21, 2015

Arnaldur Indriðason wrote a series of novels about Iceland's Inspector Erlendur. Not all of them have been translated into English. He began the series in 1997 and concluded it in 2010, but reprised the character in a new series that focuses on the young Erlendur, before he became an inspector. Rekjavik Nights is the second in the new series.

Kids discover a dead body in a pond. Hannibal, a homeless alcoholic, apparently drowned by accident, but the pond is so shallow that an accidental drowning is vaguely suspicious. A year later, the Reykjavik police have discovered no evidence of wrongdoing, not that they are giving a high priority to a vagrant's death. Erlendur, who encountered Hannibal on his beat from time to time, is troubled by the death, having brushed off Hannibal's complaint that someone tried to set fire to the cellar in which he had been staying.

As a junior traffic officer, Erlendur spends most of his time with domestic disturbances, bar fights, drunk drivers, and traffic accidents. He is not yet a detective but, due to a family tragedy, he has a special interest in cases involving missing persons. Having little else to do (life in Reykjavik seems boring, or maybe it's just Erlendur), he begins to investigate Hannibal's death. Eventually he stumbles upon a tenuous link between Hannibal and a missing woman.

Erlendur is in a relationship of sorts, and it may be time to move it to the next level, or not. That bit of domestic drama adds little to a decidedly undramatic plot. There's no suspense here and the mystery is no better than average. We are given a choice of three of four suspects, misdirection is employed, and the killer is revealed. The reveal is not much of a surprise.

The story moves quickly and Indriðason's translated prose is serviceable, but the characters and plot are just a little dull. Indridason doesn't bring Reykjavik or the characters alive. Fans of the original series might be happy to see the character in his younger days. I am new to Erlendur and would not, on the strength of this novel, go out of my way to read another, but the original series might well be better.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS