Ryder by Nick Pengelley

Published digitally by Alibi/Random House on September 30, 2014

Sir Evelyn Montagu has been murdered. The police turn to Montague's former lover, Ayesha Ryder, for help. A message in Arabic written in Montague's blood and translated by Ryder suggests that the killing had something to do with the Palestinian struggle for a homeland. Montague's mangled corpse stirs memories of Ryder's childhood in Gaza and the torture she endured. Given the bloody message and the fact that Montagu was a prominent Jewish intellectual, the police are inclined to blame Palestinian terrorists for his death. Ryder has her own theories but her investigation is impeded by the British government and nearly everyone else.

Ryder is a "conspiracy hidden by history" story. The conspiracy dates back to T.E. Lawrence and the early days of the Nazi rise to power. It builds upon existing conspiracy theories surrounding Lawrence's death. Lawrence has left behind an improbable coded message and even more improbably (and rather too easily), Ryder decodes it, setting the bulk of the story in motion. While the death of Lawrence conceals two events from the 1930s, Nick Pangelly delves farther into the past by adding the Knights Templar and the biblical Ark to the mix. Those aspects of the plot are puzzling as they add little to the story's development.

To solve the mystery, Ryder needs to follow a number of obscure clues that Lawrence planted -- so obscure, in fact, that I didn't buy Ryder's ability to solve them. Nor did I buy Ryder's repeated escapes from death. Those are common in modern thrillers but Ryder's escapes are too common. On the other hand, the story moves quickly and it always held my interest.

Ryder might not appeal to readers who have strong feelings about the politics of the Middle East. I think the novel takes an evenhanded approach, recognizing that both Palestinians and Israelis have a history of needless violence, but readers who are more passionate about politics than fiction might take a different view. In any event, I enjoy a good story even when I disagree with its political viewpoint, and Ryder tells a reasonably good story. Some of the novel's events are a bit farfetched and the ending is completely implausible, but farfetched plots are standard fare in modern thrillers. The story engaged me sufficiently to trigger my willingness to suspend my disbelief and to earn a modest recommendation.

RECOMMENDED

The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Published by Dutton on September 9, 2014

The Marco Effect begins with a murder in the jungle of Cameroon. René Eriksen, who heads the Development Assistance office for the government of Denmark, has been conspiring with a corrupt banker to misappropriate development funds. Their fear of exposure leads to more murders.

A second plotline centers on Marco Jameson, one of many children who beg for or steal money on the streets of Denmark for an unscrupulous man named Zola. Unlike the other kids, Marco is bright and rebellious. To avoid a disabling confrontation with Zola, Marco runs, but in the act of running stumbles upon a secret that further endangers his life.

The third plotline finally brings Carl Mørck and the other members of Department Q into the story. Carl's subordinate Rose Knudsen has little interest in the department's current case (she could solve that one in her sleep) but takes an interest in a poster that seeks information about a man who disappeared two years earlier. The same poster is of interest to Marco, providing the first link that connects the stories. Soon enough, all three storylines have woven into a cohesive whole.

Characters are the strength of the Department Q series, particularly Rose and Hafez el-Assad, the insubordinate detectives who nominally work for Carl while following their own instincts and using their own unorthodox methods to solve cases. Assad remains my favorite character in the series. He is the most perceptive, the funniest, and the most dangerous of the three, while his mysterious background adds another layer of intrigue to the novels. Carl's personal life, established as a mess in earlier novels, is even muddier in this one as he encounters new troubles with his old girlfriend and the possibility of a new girlfriend (or at least a one night shag).

Marco, betrayed by everyone he ever cared about, might be the most sympathetic character Jussi Adler-Olsen has created in the series. Much of the novel's excitement and pace comes from Marco's efforts to avoid capture. The sections of the novel that follow the conspirators and their double-crossing behavior sometimes drag, giving the impression of a novel that might be a hundred pages longer than it needed to be. For the most part, however, the pace is suitable for a police procedural that depends on characterization and sleuthing more than action to sustain the reader's interest.

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Convicted by Jan Burke

Published by Pocket Star on July 14, 2014

I was unfamiliar with Jan Burke's work so this collection of four short stories served as an introduction. The stories are more breezy than substantial, but I enjoyed them.

"The Anchorwoman" is a young woman named Cokie who spies out her window and reports neighborhood gossip to her friends. She enlists the help of the story's narrator (a new fan of Sherlock Holmes) in solving a mystery about a moving van full of singing clowns. The story is cute and clever, if not quite in the same league as Arthur Conan Doyle.

"Revised Endings" features a mystery writer who plots to do away with her demanding editor. This is again a cute story, even if it seems like a frustrated writer's revenge fantasy.

The lead character in "Devotion," forensic anthropologist Ben Sheridan, apparently appears in at least one Jan Burke novel (Kidnapped). Sheridan uses his devoted dogs to track a boy who is missing from the house in which the body of a murdered man is found. The story is a smart whodunit with a strong message about the devoted friendships that people form with each other (and with their dogs).

The longest story, "The Muse," is about a young man who is trying to be a writer. A chance encounter with a woman who drives a Rolls Royce leads to a relationship and an end to writer's block. Their mutual love of Hitchcock movies plays a key role when the woman's sister interferes with their relationship. There isn't much of a mystery here (and no Hitchcockian suspense) but the story is pleasant.

None of the stories build tension, while character development is limited by their brevity. I'm not sure this story collection persuaded me to check out Burke's novels but it certainly didn't dissuade me from doing so.

RECOMMENDED

Rose Gold by Walter Mosley

Published by Doubleday on September 23, 2014

Easy Rawlins has lost interest in being a private detective (not surprising, given his loss of interest in life that recent novels chronicle) but his daughter has a chance to go to an expensive private school so he can't turn down a lucrative offer to investigate the disappearance and potential kidnapping of Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a prominent weapons manufacturer. The mayor and the chief of police want Rawlins on the case and give him little opportunity to turn it down despite Easy's uneasy feeling about it. They need Rawlins because he's black. They believe his race will give him access to Bob Mantle, a black boxer-turned-revolutionary who has been seen with Rosemary in Los Angeles.

There are, of course, additional complications to the assignment that become apparent only after Easy's work is well underway. Patty Hearst echoes in the story, as do other events from the time in which the novel is set. Along the way Easy does a favor for his cop friend, Melvin Suggs, who is experiencing difficulties of his own. Several other series regulars return in small supporting roles.

Walter Mosely always tells a good story. This isn't the most compelling plot in the Easy Rawlins series but it is credible and entertaining. There are so many other things to like about a Mosely novel, however, that the plot often takes a back seat. Easy always peppers his first-person narrative with observations about the state of the nation and the changing world, a world that cannot change fast enough to suit him. As always, Easy's observations of racial injustice are pointed and personal. Easy is always a half step away from being beaten, murdered, or jailed because of his skin color. In his world, race is more likely than guilt or innocence to determine who will be arrested and punished.

At the same time, Rose Gold, like the other novels in the Easy Rawlins series, emphasizes the importance of family and friendships as a refuge from racism. Easy is renewed and restored by the insights he gains during his investigation, a welcome change from the darkness he's experienced in the last couple of novels. Even without the engaging characters, poignant moments, and sharp prose, Easy's renewal would be reason enough for an Easy Rawlins fan -- which I am -- to embrace Rose Gold.

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Brief Space Between Color and Shade by Cristovão Tezza

First published in Brazil in 1998 and revised in 2013; published in translation by AmazonCrossing on August 19, 2014

Tato Simmone is a painter in Curitiba who exists on the monthly allowance he receives from his mother, an art and antiques dealer in New York. He has little interest in his mother, or in his father (who resents not receiving a similar allowance), or in the half-sister he hopes never to meet again. A year earlier, he had an ambiguous encounter with an older woman who now writes to him from Italy -- pages from her lengthy melancholic "testament" appear during the novel at regular intervals -- but the only significant friend in his life, a painter who was also his mentor, has just died.

At his mentor's funeral, Tato meets Richard Constantin, an art dealer with a shady reputation. He also meets a woman Constantin describes as a vampire. She can no longer suck the life out of Tato's mentor and seems intent on latching onto Tato as a substitute. Tato gives some of his time to the woman but never bothers to learn her name, referring to her only as "the vampire."

The novel's scattered moments of intrigue begin after the funeral, when Tato discovers that someone has broken into his home. On a later occasion, an unseen burglar in his studio punches him in the eye, yet nothing is taken. Threats he does not understand are left on his answering machine. As Tato ponders that mystery, another pops up. His mother, his father, the Italian, and Constantin all have a puzzling interest in a bust by Modigliani -- or is it a fake? And if it is a fake, why are the interested parties so interested in it? I would have been happier with this novel if it had produced more satisfactory answers to those questions. Instead, the abrupt ending leaves many questions hanging in the air. The novel is like an unfinished painting (the kind that Tato most often produces).

Tato is clearly not a happy guy. Transfixed in the composition of a painting, Tato experiences "a powerful illusion of forgetting, which, if I give in to it, I would call happiness." Tato's pompous and judgmental personality is so grating that it is difficult to work up any sympathy for him. Like his Italian friend, Tato seems intent on being miserable and prefers to wallow in self-pity rather than pursuing happiness. Still, he derives a measure of happiness by engaging in pretentious discussions of art and literature and love that seem designed to impress more than to illuminate.

Brief Space is a novel of lush prose employed to tell a story that is too often tedious. Gorgeous sentences unfurl but, in the end, say too little that I found meaningful. Tato's narration of his self-obsessed life is occasionally interrupted by communications (in the same voice) from Tato's self-obsessed mother and from his self-obsessed Italian friend, but those characters made me want to kill myself. Tato at least indulges in unexpected behavior when he tries to steal the Modigliani, but there are too few of those interesting moments to offset all the tiresome angst.

On several occasions, characters in the novel compare painting to literature. If I were to make that comparison, I would describe Brief Space Between Color and Shade as surrealist. In the last several pages, the artist and works of art conflate, as if the artist is inhabiting the art. What do those pages mean? I could guess, but your guess is as good as (probably better than) mine. There are many ways to interpret a work of literature, just as there are many ways to interpret an abstract painting. If you like the kind of novel that is open to interpretation, Brief Space is a novel you might enjoy. I generally admire that kind of novel, but Brief Space left me so perplexed (not entirely in a good way) that I don't know how to feel about it. I'm therefore recommending it with reservations but with the recognition that a discerning reader might find more value here than I did.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS