September Reviews
September Reviews
Reviewed this month: Critical (Robin Cook),
Heart Sick
(Chelea Cain), Illegal Action (Stella Rimington),
Bones to Ashes (Kathy Reichs), Hotel of Secrets (T. J. Joyce),
The Dead Hour (Denise Mina),
CRITICAL
by Robin Cook
ISBN 9780230532335
452 pages
Macmillan
September 3 2007
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
November 5 2007
I have to admit to a feeling of smug contentment whenever a book, whose author has a proven track record, lands on my desk. He may not be overly imaginative but when he knows his subject, I don't feel I am walking on eggshells, wondering if he is going to make an egregious error, as I read. Such an one is Robin Cook, who has a very satisfactory history with medical thrillers -- as well he might, being a medical doctor.
Series character Dr Jack Stapleton has damaged his knee during a game of basketball. He arranges an operation (somewhat prematurely, according to his wife Laurie) at a relatively new medical facility, part of Angels Healthcare.
Meanwhile, in the Angels hospital destined to receive Jack as a patient, a post-op patient dies of a particularly nasty bug, staphylococcus aureus that has developed an immunity to the antibiotics with which the victim is treated. That is only one death of a series. Laurie becomes very nervous indeed when she notes the number of cases, infected with the identical bacterium, at different hospitals, primarily Angels facilities. One would expect a doctor apprised of those facts to display a healthy sense of self-preservation and opt for a different hospital, or at least a delay for the surgery, but not Jack. He is determined to prove Laurie is worrying unnecessarily and plans to go ahead with the operation at the hands of his surgeon at the Angels hospital.
Meanwhile, the reader is made aware of bad medicine in the background. Apparently the Angels syndicate is suffering financial complications and one of their money people is kidnapped and (unbeknownst to his employers) murdered.
The tension is ratcheted up as the day of the projected surgery approaches and Laurie attempts, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Jack from the operation. Meanwhile, the approaching financial disaster gallops apace, keeping abreast of the looming medical calamity. What sort of bacterium could it be to be present, in identical strains, in so many different places?
I felt the plot was the strongest aspect of this novel. The characterisation was adequate, within certain limits, but at times I had some difficulty trying to remember who was who. In particular, the cartoonish baddies were not sufficiently differentiated. I felt they should all be wearing black hats and team colours, just to keep their orientation and individual gang affiliations apparent to the reader.
In this day and age where big business has invaded what used to be, nominally, at least, a caring profession, it is good to see a realistic approach to doctor/patient relationships, for all it is in a fictional setting, presented to the world. Dr. Cook certainly wastes precious few words on sentiment as he tosses his dramatis personae to the inexorably destructive bugs -- and the scarcely less destructive baddies.
For all the author has made a thoroughgoing success of his medical thrillers, I do hope that, in future, he pays a tad more attention to the characters that populate them.
HEART SICK
by Chelsea Cain
ISBN 9780230016033
MACMILLAN
September 3 2007
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
August 17 2007
Did you know that 18% of female serial killers are nurses? Neither did I, but in author Chelsea Cain's world, this is an established statistic. Mind, that is according to Detective Archie Sheridan, captive of serial killer Gretchen Lowell. He has been drugged by the killer, so perhaps his mind is not as retentive and analytic as it might be but we may as well give him the benefit of the doubt.
The woman psychiatrist offered herself as an adviser to the task force investigating the murder of twenty-three people. Archie led the investigation but was himself taken captive and tortured but his abduction differed from that of other victims in that he was freed and his captor imprisoned. Two years on, Archie is a wreck of his former self. His marriage has broken up and he is addicted to pain killers, the torture to which he had been subjected by Lowell necessitating the administration of the opioid. Archie's health notwithstanding his former partner wants him to return to work as head of the task force. There is a new killer on the loose.
Susan Ward is a young journalist sent to cover the investigation, or, more specifically, to write a story about Archie Sheridan. Since she had attended the school from which victims have disappeared, it seems logical that she write the story.
There is something reminiscent of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in this work. Archie, who feels a bond with Gretchen since her attack on him, feels the need to consult her about the case. After all, she is a psychiatrist as well as a serial killer, so what can he lose? His need makes a novel twist for the tale.
Apparently there are further books planned for the series. Interestingly, the series will be based on Gretchen Lowell rather than on the detective.
I liked the picture Cain painted of the only partially rehabilitated Archie Sheridan. It seemed to me to be very convincing. His teaming with the damaged Susan Ward was appropriate, his addiction to the presence of his captor perhaps a trifle less so. Somehow, were I taken prisoner and tortured by someone, I can't see me being determined to see the person who hurt me, as frequently as possible, but that's just me.
Although Chelsea Cain is an established writer, this is her first attempt
at a crime novel and she has done a good job of it. It will be interesting
to see if she can maintain a high standard in future books.
ILLEGAL ACTION
by Stella Rimington
ISBN 9780091797270
297 pages
HUTCHINSON
LONDON
September 3 2007
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
August 28 2007
ILLEGAL ACTION sees a change of position for Rimington's protagonist, Liz Carlyle. She is moved, to her annoyance, to Counter-Espionage from her customary haunts of Counter-Terrorism. When the Cold War was in progress, Liz's new task would have been a plum job of considerable esteem, but in the new, warmer climate, she sees the backwaters of the new posting as positively stagnant. Still, former MI6 officer Peggy Kinsolving will be with her, since, after being seconded to MI5 temporarily, Peggy had decided to stay there permanently.
The intelligence services are taking an interest in a Russian billionaire, a so-called oligarch, named Vladimir Rykov. President Putin of Russia has become somewhat paranoid and fears a plot is being hatched amongst the overseas oligarchs. He thinks that the only way to beat them is by striking before they can. His proposed assassination target is Rykov and MI5 decides to forestall any assassination attempt on British soil by putting an agent of their own in place for Rykov's protection. Thus, Liz is to be introduced into the Russian's household for the oligarch's protection, at his request.
No other author is as well qualified to write about the covert intelligence services as Stella Rimington since she was the head of MI5 for a number of years. She can bring the reader down to earth if said reader is likely to see those operations as wildly romantic and full of swashbuckling James Bond-like manifestations of British officialdom. Rimington injects the stark reality of the situation into her books -- the fact that a lot of the work involved is simply paper pushing. Perhaps Rimington stepped back from her own plots and realised she needed to include some overt thrills to liven the pace a bit, since she includes an attack on Carlyle by a common English thug. To prove that Carlyle is no milquetoast easily overcome by a physical threat, Liz easily proves the victor.
The MI5 and MI6 personnel are given credibility by having some of their familial and romantic aspirations made clear to the reader. Regardless, none of Rimington's people could be categorised as charismatic. Still the comparative boredom of their days serves to reinforce their reality.
Liz Carlyle is certainly a resourceful invention and moves the plot along at a realistic pace. Nonetheless, despite the addition of the mugging scene, the plot seems devoid of real, hair-raising thrills. No doubt this is seen by the author as promoting excitement for the reader but the books might be improved by incorporating a few more thrills other than the obvious add-on of Liz's mugging.
Perhaps the next outing for Liz Carlyle may have the excitement level raised rather more in order to satisfy readers' imagination about just what an intelligence operative might take in her stride.
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BONES TO ASHES
by Kathy Reichs
ISBN 9780434014620
310 pages
WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON
September 3 2007
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
August 30 2007
The opening chapters of BONES TO ASHES give readers a glimpse into the troubled childhood of Temperance Brennan. Évangéline Landry meets Tempe when the children are ten and eight, respectively. They form an intense friendship for four years, a friendship that includes their younger sisters Harry (Tempe's) and Obéline -- until the Landry girls' disappearance. Twelve year-old Tempe did her best to solve the mystery of their vanishing but gradually the lost friendship fades from her mind.
Recalled to Québec, grown-up Tempe faces the usual assortment of complicated cases, old bones, decaying corpses and similar delights to tempt her anthropological palate. Then an unusual case catches her eye -- the bones, many years old, of an adolescent female have come to light. There is also something strange about the bones themselves. Tempe and sometime love interest, Detective Andrew Ryan follow the case when they think there is the possibility that a serial killer is plying his trade on their patch.
Reichs has, as usual, constructed a puzzling mystery. She makes use of her considerable medical knowledge to enhance the complexity of her tales. She seems to have overcome her earlier tendency to wax lyrical in unnecessary lecture mode. In this latest work, any forensic detail which might, in earlier books, have been expanded into a full, rather dreary, lecture has been introduced more subtly and naturally.
Then there is Tempe's lover, Andrew. I wonder if he is essential to the tale. Certainly, a lover is a good hook on which to hang extra subplots but I had the feeling this time that Reichs might, herself, be tiring of Ryan. Perhaps I am simply projecting since I didn't find him hugely fascinating. I wonder if it might, in future books, be possible to revive Tempe's flagging love life by introducing someone fresh.
As always, there is considerable grue and bodily breakdown in this story. Again, it might have been my imagination, since I find it difficult to quantify the amount of emesis producing detail involved, but it seemed to me that there was less gratuitous gore involved in the narrative than in earlier works.
As Reichs hones her writing skills, I have to admit the news of the
release of another of her mysteries no longer has me wincing a trifle.
Instead, she is rapidly ascending the ladder of my preferred mystery authors.
HOTEL OF SECRETS
by T J Joyce
ISBN 9780908988730
384 pages
Exisle
September 3 2007
$22.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
September 3 2007
Here is a nice little volume for anyone who ever wanted to know something about living in the wilds of Papua New Guinea. Of course, since it is fiction, there is precious little real knowledge but there is enough to give a reasonable picture of the discomfort -- though I notice none of the characters seems to have any problem with the mosquitoes, which can just about drive one mad, nor any of the diseases that can attack one without warning. That would, of course, tend to pad out a not very long book to unmanageable proportions.
The novel is set in the mid sixties and Part One familiarises the reader with the backgrounds of the four girls whose fortunes are followed in the narrative. Eilish is a member of the IRA, forced to flee Ireland because of her involvement in the Troubles; Rhoda, born in Kenya, moves back to England with her wealthy father but then on to Sydney in New South Wales; Maureen lives in Sydney but when her mother remarries is forced into a different sort of life at the age of fifteen; Carol, unlike the other girls, is a student but she carries the weight of parental expectations and finds university beyond her -- not the partying, but the necessity of passing exams.
All four girls see an advertisement seeking women to work in an hotel in New Guinea. They each apply and are accepted. Meeting, they accept each other although friendship does not truly form for some time. They are met by Duncan, the gentle, homosexual proprietor of the hotel but also by the local policeman who takes them back to the hotel and, later, takes them to more practical effect.
The development of the characters of the four girls is interesting to watch and quite well done. I especially liked the way Joyce depicted the girls dealing with the indigenous population in the public bar, bearing in mind the book is set around 1968, so not terribly long after it became legal for the indigenous people to drink alcohol. Thus, they would have had enough time to have become accustomed to the development and have overcome the initial teething problems of the new system. Independence, with its own set of problems, has not yet struck.
It is small wonder that the person selected to be the corpse fulfills expectations. The introduction of the sergeant, Mick, who conducts the investigation into the missing policeman is a welcome one. He is old enough to be the father of the girls so there is no question of any romantic entanglement that could distract from the investigation nor detract from the warmth of his personality.
The main interest of the book is the development of the four girls.
While the setting of the book in New Guinea is interesting, it is a shame
the author did not make the reader better acquainted with some of the towns
there. I was wondering if Ms Joyce had actually spent time in New Guinea
because if she has, it certainly wasn't at the time she depicts. Also,
she has the girls taking quinine as an antimalarial, but that had been
well and truly discarded by the sixties. One other fault I had to find
with the narrative is that the spelling of Pidgin is, in places, well,
idiosyncratic. For example, the indigenous women are meris , not maris.
This fault alone made me think the author may actually have heard someone
speaking Pidgin rather than looking it up -- which would have been beneficial.
After all, there should still be books available, including the very useful
THE BOOK OF PIDGIN ENGLISH by John J Murphy (another Irishman!)
Perhaps, having grown up in New Guinea, I am not the best person to
review this book since I think I expect too much of an author writing about
my home. Other than that, the narrative is quite good. even though the
solution is pretty obvious
THE DEAD HOUR
by Denise Mina
ISBN 9780553815603
460 pages
BANTAM BOOKS
September 3 2007
$23.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
October 4 2007
Paddy Meehan has a toehold on the bottom rung of professional journalism, having escaped the status of copy boy because of her story on her detecting work in FIELD OF BLOOD. Needless to say, her lowly status is emphasised by having to work the graveyard shift. Rarely does anything of note occur but one night in 1984, she and driver Billy visit a site in Bearsden, a wealthy area in Glasgow, arriving after two policemen. The door has been opened by a well-dressed man but Paddy catches a glimpse in a mirror of a lovely looking woman with blood running from her mouth, down her jaw and neck. With a gesture, Paddy asks her if she needs help, but the woman declines. The man tells Paddy it is important that a story, about the noise complaint which has occasioned the call to the house by both police and paper, not appear in the newspaper. He bribes Paddy with a fifty pound note and closes the door before she can protest. Paddy assumes he has treated the police in a similar fashion. Next morning the woman is dead. Instead of being an abused spouse, as Paddy assumes, the woman is a lawyer and single. The murder is the main theme of the book and the fifty pound note is important.
The secondary theme follows Kate, the sister of Vhari, the lawyer. Kate is a cocaine addict. She has stolen a large amount of cocaine from dealers and is now on the run from them. Formerly, she was a beautiful woman but now she has lost the beauty and, thin and wizened, can only be an object of pity -- for all but the criminals who are in hot pursuit of her.
This is an exceedingly pessimistic book. The action, of course, follows Paddy, who works in the dark. Her actions in accepting the bribe are motivated by the fact that she is the sole wage earner in a house containing many family members. She is also a member of the Catholic minority, a fact that does not promote social advancement for her. The paper has been taken over and is discarding staff as quickly as possible so she feels her job is in danger. Spousal abuse is condoned within her family because marriage is a sacrament and if her sister wasn't prepared to be abused, she should not have married.
The one bit of optimism in the book is the character of Paddy herself.
One gets the feeling that life, despite Paddy's mistakes -- including
a liaison with a cop -- will not get the better of her and that she will
eventually claw her way to the top by writing the nebulous one big story
she is chasing.