Review Archive for author's that start with ... I

                                                                  DEAD SLEEP
                                                                    by Greg Iles
                                                              Hodder & Stoughton
                                                              ISBN 0-340-73407-8
                                                                        $29.95
                                                             September  13 2001
                                                          reviewed by Denise Wels
 

                German born American Greg Iles wrote his first novel, Spandau Phoenix  in 1992. His second book, Black Cross  was, like its predecessor, an historical work set around the time of the second World War and it too was set in Germany. Despite his success in this sub-genre, Iles switched to modern thrillers. Mortal Fear  was very up-to-date in that it concerned a killer who exploited women using chat rooms on the Internet. The Quiet Game  and 24 Hours  are set in the present as is this book, Dead Sleep.

              Iles is something of a polymath in that not only is he a writer but also a musician with an interest in drawing and painting. He has a fascination with gadgets technological so it is not surprising that up-to-date technology - such as the modern photographic methods appearing in this  book  - are a feature of his fiction. The author has justified his writing of stand alone narratives and individual protagonists by pointing out that series characters may ensure continuing popularity but limit an author in stepping over borders set down in previous work, however in this book he has re-cycled some characters who appeared in previous work.

              Iles is apparently one of those writers who realises the importance of the first sentence of a book. Is there any reader who  would not immediately be gripped by 'I stopped shooting people six months ago, just after I won the Pulitzer Prize.' ? The narrator is Jordan Iles, a war photographer. Unlike Iles' previous main protagonists, Jordan is female. She is also an identical twin, her sister Jane having been the victim of a serial kidnapper presumed murderer a year previously. Jordan walks into the Hong Kong Museum of Arts to view some Chinese watercolours but is discomfited by unwelcome ogling attention from various males within the museum. The more than usual interest even for an attractive forty year-old is explained when she enters the exhibition of Nude Women in Repose. This is a series of paintings featuring reclining women who appear to be dead. One of the paintings is of her sister Jane but the leering men had thought it to be of Jordan.

              The photographer follows her immediate impulse and flies  back to the US, using the in-flight telephone to reach FBI contacts who are involved in the ongoing investigation into the presumed serial killings. She has discovered the agent for the unknown painter and goes to visit him prior to her meeting with the FBI agents. During the visit, the studio is set alight and Jordan barely escapes with her life - and a photograph of  the newest in the Reclining Women series. Glass demands to be allowed to participate in the FBI's investigation and becomes part of the team involving psychiatrist  Arthur Lenz and special agent John Kaiser.

            Examination of some of the paintings discloses the use of a particular brand of expensive brush used exclusively by a set of four artists in the New Orleans region. and the investigation then concentrates on this group.

           The author judiciously measures driblets of information into the plot with an eye to maximum shock value from each. Jordan's obsession with her vanished father, also a war photo-journalist, is made much of together with her determination to uncover the fate of her twin. The narrative is told against a mounting body count.

            I found the story enthralling - until the latter part of the book. The present tense narrative heightens the suspense admirably and there is a masterly  acceleration of tension and pace as it draws toward the conclusion when I felt things went somewhat pear shaped. Perhaps it was that the psychological aspects were overdone,but something served to make the book, for me at least, fall apart. Iles has an admirable knowledge of diseases and drugs (one wonders if  his dentist wife could have contributed to this) and employs it faultlessly, yet still the tale is flawed, which is a great pity.

               Perhaps future books (he is contracted for one a year) will see a less flawed narrative. I certainly hope so.
                                                            SLEEP NO MORE
                                                                   by Greg Iles
                                                            ISBN 0-340-82270-8
                                                                    373 pages
                                                            Hodder & Stoughton
                                                             September 12 2002
                                                                      $29.95
                                                         reviewed by Denise Wels
 

                   Greg Iles, unlike other writers of thrillers, does not believe in writing to a formula. Not for him the same characters, albeit blessed with different names, from book to book. No two books reproduce the same plot and adventures. Each novel, for him, tends to provide new enterprisses . Iles' first novel, Spandau Phoenix was set, like the birth of the author himself, in Germany. It was historical fiction the time frame being that of World War II. His second book, Black Cross was likewise set in Germany and shared the approximate time frame of the first. Black Cross  received the Mississippi Author's Award for Fiction and also picked up the Bertelsmann award for new fiction. True to his ideals, Iles then switched genres producing, at the rate of one a year, Mortal Fear, The Quiet Game, 24 Hours and Dead Sleep. The author also tended to play around with tense and person in his narratives but Sleep No More  sees a return to a third person past tense story.

                  John Waters is a geologist who, with his partner Cole Smith, is involved in finding investors for the oil wells which Waters locates. Waters is a good family man with one daughter, seven year-old Annalise whose soccer team he is coaching at the beginning of this latest tale. A local real estate agent, Eve Sumner, appears at the field and seems to send Waters a message in the code that he and his one time love, Mallory Candler, employed. John is very shaken by this and confides in his partner, Cole. Since they are about to sink a new well the anomaly that Eve presents does not at first occupy their minds. The well, however, proves to be dry. It soon becomes apparent that Cole has been indiscreet in his dealing with both women (despite his marriage) and gambling bosses and a great deal depends, for him,, on the success of the well and the money it would provide.

                 Waters is further approached by Eve who warns him that his daughter is in grave danger at school. Her warning is proven accurate. She also asserts that she is now Mallory Candler, that the soul of Mallory Candler was released to roam when she was raped and murdered. At first she inhabited the body of her murderer then later transferred to different bodies when the host body was taken by the ecstasy of orgasm. In all that time, with each change, she was trying to get back to Waters whom she had always loved and who had unadvisedly pledged eternal love and fidelity to her. After Mallory had twice fallen pregnant to Waters and twice been coerced into having an abortion, Mallory's sanity had been, to put it politely, in question and Waters forswore himself by fleeing her. Mallory had attempted to injure a later lover of Waters.

                 The geologist is fascinated by the apparent reincarnation of Mallory and embarks upon a two week totally reckless affair with the real estate agent. Iles supplies a fairly valid excuse for this: John's wife, Lily, had miscarried and can no longer bear children. Since this has been confirmed she has lost interest in sex so Waters feels himself greatly deprived.

                  At the end of the two weeks, one night when Mallory/Eve and Waters are having sex in an hotel, Waters loses consciousness and when he wakens discovers Eve's body is dead and he is the only person who could be the killer. Waters flees the scene, goes home to his wife and child and sets out to avoid being charged and arrested. He engages a friend of his, lawyer turned author Penn Cage, whom he takes into his confidence. Cage is not very impressed with Waters' assertion that Mallory has been reincarnated and sets out a very plausible and convincing conspiracy theory involving John's partner Cole and his desperate need for money and a plot hatched in conjunction with Eve herself. Then Mallory, in another body, comes to Waters and insists he be her lover once more. She threatens Annalise and Lily.

                I enjoyed most of Iles' previous novel, Dead Sleep but found that toward the end it became seriously flawed. Not so Sleep No More. I found this book flawed from the very beginning. Unlike some of Iles' previous work there was not a great deal of flashy science and technological magic in this current work. Perhaps it would have been improved by judicious portions of that to flavour the whole. Penn gives Waters the perfect opportunity - and Iles the same - to permit the book to proceed along a logical and conventional crime thriller trail. Instead, no doubt in his search for different adventure, Iles diverts the book into the horror genre. A very great pity. Certainly Waters' actions were illogical. He had gone to a great deal of trouble to escape the clutches of the live Mallory. Wherefore, then, does he fall so willingly into the arms of the reincarnated lost soul? It certainly gives the author plenty of scope for loads of graphic and rather unpleasant sex. Perhaps he thinks his readers are used to titillation from his usual indulgence and does not wish to deprive them. This reviewer simply found it rather boring and distasteful. Iles also casts the notion of medical confidentiality to the winds when he has his partner's doctor advise him to keep a watch on his partner's activities since Cole is neglecting his health in various specific ways. I would think betrayal and disloyalty are the twin themes of this book.

                     Iles is a good writer - when he puts his mind to it. In this instance I feel he tried too hard for a different angle and in so doing sacrificed credibility and interest. Drama is replaced by melodrama and I greatly fear that the attempted horror will be met by salacious snickers. It takes the deft hand of a Stephen King to create credible horror and I am afraid that Iles does not have that particular talent. I trust that in future books Mr. Iles will discard this sub-genre and return to what he does best. A reprise of historical fiction after the time elapsed from his last such might be nice.

                                                                    DARK MATTER
                                                                        by Greg Iles
                                                                    ISBN  0340822732
                                                                           459 pages
                                                                   Hodder &  Stoughton
                                                                     September 1 2003
                                                                           $32.95
                                                                  reviewed by Denise Wels
                                                                     September 6 2003
 

Best-selling author Greg Iles was born in Germany. His father ran the US Embassy medical clinic there, which perhaps explains his interest in both Germany and medicine. Iles crashed effortlessly onto the best-seller lists with his first two novels, historical thrillers Spandau Phoenix  and Black Cross. Despite the former being published in 1992 this author has not followed the lead of others in churning out a novel a year, instead, he took time off to spend with his family when his son was born. Thus his novels, which include Mortal Fear, The Quiet Game, 24 Hours, Dead Sleep, Sleep No More  and now Dark Matter  number only eight.

Greg Iles has been quoted as saying he never wanted to fall into the trap that claimed other best selling authors by writing the same novel over and over again. He has certainly succeeded in this aim. After writing two historical novels set in Germany, he changed genres and with Dark MatterÝ he has hurdled the sub-genre barrier once again. His novels have few things in common although suspense is a predominating attribute. Of course, his fine characterisation is also a distinguishing feature of his books.

Dark Matter  begins in the first person - a favourite with Iles - although it alternates with the third person. David Tennant is a medical doctor and an ethicist. He has been foisted on Project Trinity by the President of the United States himself, much to the dismay of some of the people working on the undertaking. The aim of the experiment is to build a self aware computer, an artificial intelligence, and the President, on the basis of his having met Tennant and knowing Tennant's late brother well, has decided David is the man for the job to ensure an adherence to high moral principles.

The scientists working on Project Trinity have been subject to intense MRI scans but all have suffered side effects from the procedure. David's is narcolepsy during which episodes he sees visions. He has insisted on being seen by a psychiatrist not employed by Trinity, Dr. Rachel Weiss, a follower of Jungian theory.

Tennant's best friend on the project, Andrew Fielding, has died of a stroke. Tennant is certain the death is murder and, after receiving  a mysterious  parcel from Fielding, decides to flee in order to protect his life. Rachel, however, forces him to let her accompany him and the two decamp, Tennant, the while, attempting to contact the President in order to warn him of what is going wrong at Trinity.

The duo's flight is complicated by many things. Their pursuers seem prescient in their knowledge of Tennant's movements and Tennant himself continues to be subject to attacks of narcolepsy in which he sees visions in which he relives memories of being Jesus as he draws inexorably toward Golgotha and crucifixion.

It is very difficult to categorise this novel. It most certainly is a thriller, with the tension pegged high. It is crime fiction to be sure since crimes are commissioned and performed, yet there is a healthy dollop of science fiction (the  genres have never been seen as mutually exclusive - remember Isaac Asimov's work) but what to make of the portion of mysticism thrown in? There is, too, the romantic aspect included, just for the hell of it.

Iles has produced what is bound to be another best seller. He has an amazing knack for maintaining tension and breathlessness in the reader. Readers can hope he keeps this facility as he is bound to retain their loyalty with this opus.
                                                    VOICES
                                        by Arnaldur Indridason
                                       translated by Bernard Scudder
                                                      313 pages
                                                ISBN 184343301X
                                                     Harvill Secker
                                               September 1 2006
                                                            $32.95
                                           reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                September 11 2006

Award winning author Arnaldur Indridason shows, in his 2003 novel VOICES, just why he is so popular in Iceland. It's a shame that non-Icelandic speakers have had to wait three years before being able to read the latest in the adventures of Erlendur, that unfortunate detective of the frozen north.

It is nearly Christmas, a season which Erlendur is not anticipating with any degree of joy, unlike his assistant Elinborg, who tends to throw herself heart and soul into the preparations. Both detectives perceive some gloom when they are called to an up-scale hotel in order to investigate the death of a Santa, more usually employed as doorman/handyman for the establishment. Not only was Gudlauger Egilsson deprived of any joy he might derive from entertaining hotel guests at the Christmas party, a condom, empty of bodily fluids, attached to the man, bears witness to the fact that Gulli has been disappointed by the withholding of more than one Christmas treat. He has died from multiple, savage stab wounds to his chest.

In another case, Erlendur and Elinborg are looking into a horrible assault on a young boy. They suspect the injuries have been inflicted by the child's father but the lad refuses to speak. The father, naturally enough, protests his innocence despite others testifying that he is unusually strict with his son.

The author presents us with a somewhat strange cast of characters. The family, father and sister, of the dead man make no bones about the fact that they have not seen Gudlauger for thirty years and do not regret that fact. They appear to hate the man and Erlendur gradually uncovers the doorman's sad history, how he was once a famous treble, a child star but how his voice broke during an important performance and he became an abomination unto the father who had previously adored him.

Another person of interest is Henry Wapshott, a British record collector who proclaims his adoration for the choirboy Gulli used to be. When certain films are discovered in the Englishman's room , one wonders at the nature of the adoration .

Less than adequate treatment of children is the main theme of the novel. Erlendur himself is not totally innocent of this sin, or so he is told by his daughter, drug addict Eva Lind. She disapproves of her father's taking a room in the hotel as Christmas approaches, unable to fathom the man's distaste for  celebrations in his unhappy apartment.

There are several thought provoking topics in this engrossing book, not the least being child abuse and the reaction of people to gays. Prostitution and its  promotion by otherwise respectable seeming hotels does not escape. Drug addiction and the lengths to which addiction drives desperate people also comes under Indridason's scrutiny, all told against the sadness that afflicts so many at Christmastide.

An absorbing, if not terribly long, story which, perhaps, should not be read with the intention of  bringing joy to the Christmas season.