Secrecy by Rupert Thomson

First published in Great Britain in 2013; published by Other Press on April 22, 2014

"Though everything was forbidden in Florence, anything was possible." Secrecy tells the story of a man who makes sculptures from wax. It begins and ends in 1701, not in Florence, but in a convent near Paris, where Marguerite-Louise of Orleans, now 56, has reached a point where "the world starts to ignore you because it no longer believes you can have much of an effect on it." There she is visited by Zumbo, who brings news of her daughter, the one whose existence is supposed to be a secret.

The bulk of the novel is Zumbo's first person story. After leaving his hometown of Siracusa under a cloud of shame in 1675, Zumbo (then known as Zummo) makes his way to Florence where the Grand Duke, impressed with Zummo's wax figures of people who are in varying stages of decomposition after meeting death by plague, makes an offer of patronage. What the Grand Duke truly wants (but must keep secret) is a woman made of wax. During his stay in Florence, Zummo becomes obsessed with Faustina, a young woman he glimpses in an apothecary. After they grow close, Zummo learns that Faustina has a dark secret. Zummo is also in danger because of the secrets he keeps, eventually including his relationship with Faustina (which would, if exposed, cause the Office of Public Decency to prosecute them for canoodling out of wedlock). Unfortunately, Zummo makes enemies in the Grand Duke's court who have the ability to learn his secrets. Marguerite-Louise lurks in the background and Zummo's story eventually winds its way back to her.

Secrecy is about secrets but it is also about obsessions. The Grand Duke is still obsessed with Marguerite-Louise, who scorned him and whose beauty made him powerless. Stufa, the spiritual advisor to the Grand Duke's mother, is obsessed with propriety and with Zummo's lack of it. Zummo is obsessed with wax, with death and corruption, with the girl he left behind in Siracusa, and with Faustina.

As the novel's secrets are revealed, one-by-one, each revelation adds another stitch to bind the characters and their stories together. Zummo's love story is steeped in the manners and complications of a different century but the story is nonetheless timeless and it builds suspense effectively as it nears its end. Rupert Thomson creates the settings in convincing detail and gives his characters a fullness of personality. None of the characters are entirely admirable -- what does it say about Zummo that he creates "perfect forms only in order that I might damage them"? -- but their complexity allows them to shine in dark surroundings. Secrecy works as tragic love story and as a low-key novel of suspense. Fans of historical fiction might be disappointed that the historical setting is not developed in more detail, but I appreciated Thomson's spare approach to storytelling.

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Afterparty by Daryl Gregory

Published by Tor Books on April 22, 2014

Afterparty begins with a parable, which seems appropriate for a book that is about the intersection of science and God. Daryl Gregory's characters offer a variety of viewpoints about the nature of religious belief -- some have faith, some don't -- but the novel is intended to entertain, not to persuade the reader to adopt a particular viewpoint. The entertainment level is high -- humor is easy to mine from the subject matter, the plot offers the twists of a low-key thriller with a bit of near-future technology, and the characters are pleasant company -- while the underlying themes permit open minds to interpret the novel's serious side in different ways.

Afterparty's protagonist is Lyda Rose, who begins the novel as a patient in a mental health institution. Lyda's issues include a history of drug abuse, unresolved grief for her dead wife, and an invisible companion. A teenage girl is admitted to the institution who had been living rough on the street until she found God, a discovery that followed her ingestion of a piece of paper that Pastor Rudy called Numinous. Lyda holds herself responsible for Numinous and she holds Numinous responsible for a very bad moment in her life, although her memory of that moment is incomplete.

Numinous was created by Little Sprout, a research company that Lyda and her friends founded to develop a drug that would spur the brain's production of neurotrophins with the goal of correcting the conditions that cause schizophrenia. A side effect of the drug makes the user believe in some version of God. It also makes the user feel God's presence, often accompanied by a visual image -- in Lyda's case, an angel. Overdose, as Lyda did, and the visual image never goes away. Since Lyda is an atheist, a drug that induces a belief in God is supremely annoying to her, as is the sarcastic and quarrelsome angel. Tellingly, a child born to a character who used Numinous while pregnant experiences manifestations that have little to do with religion.

The engaging story requires Lyda to reestablish contact with her partners in Little Sprout. With the help of a paranoid schizophrenic (and former intelligence officer) named Olivia who befriended Lyda in the mental institution, Lyda tries to track down the drug's manufacturer. A mysterious and dangerous man in a cowboy hat named the Vincent also has an interest in Numinous. Of course, the explanation for the reappearance of Numinous is not as simple as it appears to be. Neither is the explanation of the mysterious event from Lyda's past. All the plot threads eventually weave together to create a fun, fast-moving story.

Despite its lighthearted nature, Afterparty considers serious questions. Is free will an illusion? Moral judgment aside, are we responsible for our actions? Do religions demand a belief in illusions? Is it possible for the imaginary to be real? Are illusions useful? Is religion (as Marx suggested) a metaphorical drug? Gregory allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions to questions that are not easily answered. Among its other lessons, Afterparty makes the point that the mind is capable of conjuring all sorts of realities and that we often lack the ability to decide which are objectively real, or even to understand whether objective reality exists. Perhaps the novel's most important lesson is that it is possible to disagree about profound issues -- even about religion -- without being rude.

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The Shadow Protocol by Andy McDermott

First published in the UK in 2013; published by Dell on January 28, 2014

A well trained secret agent without much personality can't recall his past. No, I'm not talking about Jason Bourne. The Shadow Protocol is about a guy named Adam who uses a machine to transfer the memories of other people into his own mind. I think the same machine showed up in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. about fifty years ago. Perhaps that was one influence upon a novel that seems to have assembled from outtakes of various thriller/spy novels, movies, and television shows.

With the help of the memory transfer machine, Adam gains the memories of assorted good guys and bad guys. This allows him to fly airplanes, to reveal the secrets of terrorist networks, and to recognize nuclear devices, depending on the knowledge he has most recently attained. Adam takes on a number of personalities as the novel progresses, which is good because he doesn't have one of his own. Why that is true becomes the story's central mystery. Adam's past has been hidden from him and so, like Jason Bourne, he must find it. And, of course, the people responsible for hiding the truth want to kill Adam before he recovers his memories.

Adam sometimes has difficulty separating his own persona from the other personas he absorbs. That conflict is the most interesting part of the novel. Rather than using it to greater advantage, however, The Shadow Protocol devolves into an ordinary action thriller. It isn't a bad action novel but it is exceedingly familiar. Andy McDermott makes action scenes easy to visualize, in part because they are standard movie fare -- running across rooftops, jumping out of a moving car, climbing down the outside of a hotel, the obligatory car chases (one of which seems to last forever). There is also a classic Bond movie scene -- the hero risking it all in a high stakes poker game against a Russian arms dealer and winning.

Supporting characters are likable and no more shallow that is typical in action novels. A woman from England who reluctantly (and for reasons that don't withstand scrutiny) takes over the job of running the memory transfer machine has a more nuanced view of national security and terrorist threats and the ethics of "black ops" than thriller characters commonly possess. She provides the novel's moral center.

The novel's key revelations are not as surprising as McDermott probably intended, despite some attempts at misdirection. Many of the events near the novel's end are particularly preposterous. Still, the novel moves quickly and McDermott's writing style is suited to the genre. The Shadow Protocol is a capably assembled novel of familiar fun but it doesn't stand apart from other action thrillers that have explored similar themes.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

What We've Lost Is Nothing by Rachel Louise Snyder

Published by Scribner on January 21, 2014

What We've Lost Is Nothing is marketed as a suspense novel. Since the story fails to generate suspense, if I were evaluating it as a suspense novel, I would call it a failure. But marketing aside, What We've Lost Is Nothing tells a good story that features interesting and (for the most part) credible characters, and it has something worthy to say about contemporary urban issues. If you ignore the marketing claims, it is a novel that merits attention.

Mary Elizabeth McPherson, having skipped school to do Ecstasy with her friend, doesn't notice that her house is being burglarized. The house of Sophea's Cambodian parents has also been burglarized, as have the houses of a French chef named Étienne, an elderly man named Arthur who is losing his vision, a newlywed of questionable mental soundness named Alicia, and other homeowners on the block. The houses are on Ilios Lane in Oak Park, Illinois, and the community's history of encouraging diversity among homeowners (perhaps coupled with gentrification of a troubled neighborhood) plays a conspicuous role in the novel.

What have the residents of Ilios Lane lost? Mary's dad, Michael, happy that his daughter was unharmed, tells the press they've lost nothing, while secretly believing he's lost something (his manhood?) that he can't quite define. His comment is refuted by a blogger who suggests that neighborhood residents have lost their sense of security. The Cambodians lost the sense that they were safe in America from the wrathful spirits of their homeland. Arthur lost notebooks that contained years of work and might be in danger of losing his independence. Alicia and her husband were on vacation but what they lost might be their marriage. Étienne lost his carefully cultivated illusions, including the façade that he has built for himself. By the end of the novel, the reader wonders whether Michael and some other characters have lost their minds.

The novel's best moments are found in the contrasting perspectives and lifestyles of the neighborhood residents. The Cambodians (invited for the first time into a neighbor's house) are puzzled by the lack of formality in the family pictures. When Mary reads to Arthur, the books that remind him of his past seem like ancient history to her. Nobody likes Étienne, who seems overly French for his neighbors' taste. Nearly all of them fear young people from outside the neighborhood, who are unfairly regarded as thugs and criminals.

The occasional appearance of overwrought posts by a semi-literate Oak Park blogger and entries in the Oak Park Moms Listserv add a nice comic touch to the story. The Moms are very concerned about "outsiders" in their neighborhood, despite the absence of any evidence that outsiders burglarized the Ilios Lane homes. Many of them are openly hostile to the "diversity" that was at one point the neighborhood's proudly defining characteristic. A more intelligent blogger, capable of subtle thought (and who loses her job because of her blog posts), points out that diversity is more than a question of who lives where; it is also a question of how people live and whether they are treated equally. The perceived conflict between diversity and security is the novel's best theme.

For the most part, the characters are developed with subtlety, although there are so many of them that a few central characters seem superficial. Michael is a jerk but he's kind of a crazy jerk and his craziness is not well explained. Arthur is underdeveloped and a neighborhood resident named Paja Coen, who pops up to act as a peacemaker from time to time, isn't developed at all. The other significant characters are strong and believable.

While I was reading What We've Lost is Nothing, I kept wondering where the story was going. It eventually leads to two key events involving Michael, Mary, and Susan, both more artificial than the story that precedes them. They seem displaced, as if they belong to an entirely different novel. Still, so much of this story is compelling that I recommend it despite my disappointment with the resolution.

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Duke City Split by Max Austin

Published by Random House/Alibi in April 8, 2014

If you like to root for the good guys or identify with the hero when you read a crime novel, you might want to give Duke City Split a pass. Good guys are in short supply and there is a distinct shortage of heroism. On the other hand, if you enjoy reading crime novels that focus on crime and criminals, Duke City Split is a fast moving, captivating story about a crime's unforeseen consequences.

Johnny Muller tells Mick Wyman about an armored car that delivers money from a casino to a small branch bank in strip mall just outside of Albuquerque. Mick tells his partner, Bud Knox. It seems like an easy score, although Bud prefers not to commit crimes near his Duke City home. Bud is married with children and (except for robbing banks) has settled down. Mick has less to lose. Mick and Bud have never involved a third person before but Johnny wants to participate and they need an extra set of hands to carry all the money. Complications ensue and by the end of the novel, a fair amount of blood has been shed.

In addition to Mick, Bud, and Johnny, the primary characters include a crooked security guard and his crooked wife, a Chicago mobster, and two losers who are briefly mistaken for the actual bank robbers. All of them would like at least a piece of the stolen money, if not the entire score. The only significant characters not motivated by greed are two ineffectual FBI agents, but until the story's end they are relegated to a less significant role, mostly coming on the scene after various acts of mayhem have already been completed.

Duke City Split works because the story is believable and it is told without a wasted word. While the key characters are criminals, at least one of them is portrayed in a sympathetic way. A reader might not root for him, but Max Austin (a pen name of crime novelist Steve Brewer) makes it easy to understand and empathize with him. In the end, like many criminals, he's just a regular guy who makes poor choices. It's trickier to put a reader inside the heads of the bad guys than it is to make a reader cheer for the good guys. Austin does it well.

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