Our Kind of Traitor

John le Carre is back with another dangerous game. Our Kind of Traitor harkens back to le Carre's classic work in telling stories about the British intelligence system, al;so known as spies. This one tells a classic tale starting with recruitment, then moving through all the opearational and human sides of an intelligence operation. Many of the characters are either unstable, which throws the few stable or grounded ones into high relief. The author leads us through the story skillfully. It's not unlike stories he's told before. This time he's not trying to shoe-horn in a tale about terrorism or grand stand politics. He plays his strengths this time out, reminding us of how powerful those strengths are.

Of course, there is no George Smiley; le Carre's greatest character is behind him and there will never be another. But Our Kind of Traitor does feature a number of very clearly drawn and quite wonderful characters. of course, there is almost nothing that qualifies as "action," in the modern entertainment sense of the word. No car chases, no gunfights, no leaping off buildings, bridges and ski-slope gondolas. The only sequence that features truly filmable action takes place off the page. What we get instead is mood, moral dilemmas and human characters that feel very real. This novel skirts around the worlds of international high finance and intelligence, but we never feel abandoned there. There is always someone to lead us through the maze until we reach the very end.

Of course, it may be that this book is best appreciated by having read all of the author's previous work. This allows us to see the stratgies of the intelligence agency as the characters are led through the various steps and stages. We can see the plotting and the scheming even when they aren't pointed out to us. We recognize the rhythm.

How does Our Kind of Traitor rank among le Carre's body of work? It is jouneryman work. leCarre is past his pinnacle, but this is a good solid work, and coming from him, that means this is a superb book. I enjoyed it and it has stayed with me. I would recommend it highly.

Other reviews can be accessed through the John le Carre website.

Hard Case Crime; Great Voices, Great Stories

I have read about 50 of the Hard Case Crime titles. This independent publisher started out by bringing back stories and authors from the heyday of noir fiction and pulp paperbacks. As they grew as a publisher they also grew in reputation, and were able to start offering brand new books by new authors as well as unpublished gems by bigger names.

Donald Westlake was one of the bigger names. His 1969 copyrighted "Somebody Owes Me Money" is a screwball comedy of a crime novel. It's also a great time-capsule picture of life in New York City as lived by the natives back in the old days.The copyright says 1969, but the only touch of the '60's is in the character of a woman who has moved from New York to Las Vegas where she lives as a single woman and works as a blackjack dealer. I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is a product of '60's feminism.

This cabbie and hos friends all gamble, too. In fact, in the early part of the book he wins $900, which he needs to collect from his bookie. He goes to his bookie's apartment and finds the man's dead body. He gets embroiled in the murder investigation and a case of mistaken identity. A number of parties are convinced he is the murderer and they all want to know why. As madness swirls all around him, he never forgets the central fact: somebody still owes him $900!

This is a great comic novel by a great storyteller. There is plenty of action, there are some great characters, and there is an ending worthy of Agatha Christie, as the murderer is revealed. The revelation takes place in a room where the suspects are gathered, all members of a twice-weekly poker game, with our hero the cabbie explaining everything to his amazed poker buddies.

The book is a madcap cab ride through a New York City that is long gone, in an epic freezing winter. There is a shootout on a train, on a fire escape, a chase scene in the snowy suburbs and several cases of mistaken identity. While the book contains almost no pop-culture reference it feels like the early '60's. All the same, it could be made into a movie today, set in present time. Seth Rogen would be great in it.

Another Hard case Crime novel I re-read recently is "Money Shot" by Christa Faust. This book could not be further away from the Westlake novel mentioned above, but it is a great story by another natural storyteller. It is set in our own time, in our world as seen by a former porn star who now runs a talent agency for porn actresses. Again, there is a strong theme of mistaken identity but this book is no comedy. An unusual set of circumstances plunges Angel Dare, the protagonist, into the world of organized crime. They are convinced Angel has a suitcase of their money and the cops are convinced she is a murderess. She must race against time and her pursuers to find the suitcase and clear her name. And get revenge. Things do not turn oput as expected and the final twists and turns make for a story that will stay with you long after the reading is done.

Hard Case Crime produces paperbacks and they are proud of their lurid painted covers, as they should be. Each cover is a work of pulp fiction art, and they grace the covers of some of the best genre titles being written and published today.

Review of "Gunsights" by Elmore Leonard

I have never read a bad Elmore Leonard book. First published in 1979, this is one of his Westerns. Leonard started out on Westerns; when he was a fledgling novelist the Western was the leading genre for several media. He distingquished himself early and often.

The title of Gunsights is pretty lame. This book could have had any number of titles that would have served it better, but that doesn't seem to mattter in the long run. This is still a good book, the characterizations, plotting and settings perfectly and economically depicted. Leonard does everything he can to keep the story from getting too exciting or action-packed. He opts instead for a naturalistic tone and while there are shootouts and romances and adventures, he keeps knocking the pace down into an everyday reality of American life in the 1880's. It is one of the most amazing things about the book; he knows when to build and when to tamp it down.

The last one-third of the book focuses on the main events, a showdown that excites the media. The media, represented here by newspapermen, photographers and even a Wild West showman, are busy mythologizing the Wild West as fast as it happens. The protagonists of the book started out as tough honbres, resourceful, brave and deadly good shots. They are larger than life. By the time the final scenes are getting underway they come across as relics of a previous time. Larry McMurtry has mentioned that the Old West and the epic cattle drives and buffalo hunts all happened within a couple of generations and that one long life could have encompassed all of the Old West time period. Many of those who lived through it also saw it fade away in front of their eyes. That's really what this book is about, and it turns a genre book into a history lesson and leaves us with a couple of vivid characters that we wish we could have spent more time with.

Note to Self

Proofread!

Tin Roof Blowdown

This is by James Lee Burke, who written many fine books about police detective Dave Robicheaux who lives in a small bayou settlement in Louisiana, not far from, but worlds away from, New Orleans. Dave is a great character; he has a lot of problems, a lot of baggage and a few sturdy virtues. He's not somebody you'd want to know in real life. Dave's a violent man.

Tin Roof Blowdown is about living in south Louisiana when Katrina destroyed the city. There is a whole crime-book plot, or several, really, to keep the book moving but it's largely about living with that kind of destruction. It's at a bit of a remove, though. It's not exploitative, the book doesn't constantly hit you over the head with the tragedy of New Orleans, but that tragedy is expertly woven into the fabric of the book just like it is now woven into the fabric of all our lives.

As a long time music fan and someone who got married in New Orleans, I was heartbroken when the city went under. That heartbreak runs through this book.

In a more objective literary sense, the plotting in this book is outstanding, the dialogue is great and the characterizations are vivid and believable. There are people in this book you'd never want to be, and some of the characters and events are downright disturbing. James Lee Burke has a lot in common with Dennis Lehane; an unshakable sense of place and a willingness to dig deep into both the place and the souls of the characters. Recommended.

Coming Soon; review of Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke

How do you know it's good? It's by James lee Burke.

Book Review: Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry

In many ways this is a terrible, cheesy book. A young woman moves to the Old West during its brief heyday and meets or falls in love with every famous person you ever heard of. She is smart and organized and horny as only a male author can write of a woman. She is a sort of Forrest Gump, appearing at famous places, dealing with famous people. None of it is the least bit believable.

Except. Except this is Larry McMurtry we're talking about. Even with a corny heroine and a hackneyed excuse of a plot, nobody knows the reality of the West like McMurtry. Every detail of the life at the time, and every incidental character, is completely true. And McMurtry has the voice to carry you along right through it so that you don't even mind, really, when the heroine witnesses the shootout at the OK Corral shortly after leaving the employ of Bufalo Bill Cody.

By the time the book was over I was pretty disgusted with the cheap plot, and yet I wanted to stay in the world a little bit longer. I wasn't quite ready for it to be over.