Chris Beakey's Blog, page 2

WRITER’S CLUB REVIEW – ROGUE MISSION by Jeffrey S. Stephens

ROGUE MISSION

by Jeffrey S. Stephens

Thriller writers can evoke different kinds of fear. There’s that boogeyman kind of fear you feel as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs heads down the stairs to the basement where Jame Gumb is waiting to cut away her skin. There’s the psychologically scary “this can’t be happening” fear you feel when Tessie from The Lottery opens the white slip with the black dot, a nightmarish moment that might forever change the way you view “normality” in your life. And then there’s the slow-burn fear you feel as you scroll through CNN headlines and realize that the terrorism that’s happening in the real world could suddenly hit right here and now.

That’s the kind of fear that crept up on me as I experienced the unfolding events in Jeffrey Stephens’ ROGUE MISSION, the latest thriller featuring CIA operative Jordan Sandor. As someone who spends a good bit of the work week in Washington, DC in a job that requires me to pay attention to politics, I’ll admit to having a certain mindset. In the hour or so before I head to my office I typically scan half a dozen headlines that have something to do with terrorism “somewhere else.” Many days I purposefully push the knowledge that it could/might/probably will happen in my beloved Nation’s Capital into the locked room at the back of my mind.

Fortunately, terrorism hasn’t happened in DC in the years since 911. Unfortunately, Jeffrey Stephens has stepped up my fear of how easily it could happen thanks to his clear and compelling understanding of geopolitics and the ease with which terrorists can infiltrate trusted financial, humanitarian and governmental sectors. Like other Jordan Sandor stories, the plot takes the CIA operative to places around the world, this time in what really is a “rogue mission” fostered by his ability to connect dots that no one else is able to see. From the opening scenes, which show how easy it could be to sneak explosives into a U.S. Courthouse (scenes I actually read while on jury duty!), you know something big and terrible is coming. You don’t learn what it is for certain until way later in the story, but that won’t stop your mind from wondering “is it this  . . . ? Or this . . . ?”

Eventually I learned the scenario was actually more hateful than an attack on my city, which hopefully is fortified and surveilled well-enough to fend off the kind of terror ROGUE MISSION’s villains are plotting to unleash. That revelation showed an extra level of depravity among the bad guys who are the architects of the death and destruction, and spurred my disgust at those who are complicit either because of naively leftist mindsets and actions, or because they have something to gain from it.

Stephens’ ability to evoke the “oh God, this could really happen?” kind of fear is just one reason why this thriller will appeal to fans of Jack Du Brul, Brad Thor, Daniel Silva and the late Vince Flynn. A few other reasons include Jordan Sandor’s wise-cracking personality, adeptness with violence, and indisputable moral code. You’re going to laugh fairly often at his snarky, snappy comebacks to assertions of authority. You’re going to marvel at the way he handles his guns, knives and fists. But what you’ll admire most is his devout loyalty to his friends and his country as the driving force in everything he does. Simply put, he’s a lot like Jack Bauer with a sense of humor, or a more realistically imaginable Jack Reacher, and ultimately the kind of friend you’d love to have in real life.

For these reasons and more, ROGUE MISSION is one of the best books I’ve read in this genre. I wasn’t just captivated by it. I believed every word of it. So much so that when I reached the last page and looked from the living room of my DC apartment toward my straight-on view of the White House I actually had to check the lock on that door to that back room on my mind and tell myself: “It won’t happen here.”

That is, unless Jeffrey Stephens decides to write it that way in his next Jordan Sandor novel, which I will have no choice but to read.

 

WRITER’S CLUB REVIEW – SON OF A GUN and FOUNDERS’ KEEPER, by Ed Markham

 

SON OF A GUN and FOUNDERS’ KEEPER, by Ed Markham

  

Based on its essential role in everything I write, buy, or watch, I expect the Internet knows me pretty well by now. Every once in a while I get a sign that that might actually be a good thing – most recently through Amazon, where a team of people behind a mysterious curtain tracks my browsing habits and online reviews to come up with books that I have a good chance of liking.

The latest recommendations are for the work of Ed Markham, author of SON OF A GUN and FOUNDERS’ KEEPER. Because the lineup I see most mornings when I log on is full of brand name authors, I hadn’t heard of him. But at some point, thanks to Amazon, I ordered his thriller, SON OF A GUN. I started it on a Sunday night with that “I’ll just read a few pages before I go to sleep.” mindset. An hour later I was a third of the way through, and completely spellbound.

SON OF A GUN is about a possibility most parents forcibly push out of their minds – the abductions of their kids. In this case they’re 13 and 14-year-old boys living in upper middle class neighborhoods with good schools and nicely tended yards – places where families are lulled into believing they’re completely safe. What the good moms and dads don’t know is that there’s a serial killer who’s obsessed with his need to hide his true nature – a need that’s manifested in his placement of white masks over the faces of the boys he murders. The masks bear no expression, conveying nothing but a blankness that shouldn’t scare you. Except that it does, especially when you realize the masks are a mental projection of the face the killer wears to blend into the regular world, right up to the point where he shoots the boys through their hearts.

This genuinely frightening narrative is underscored by the relationship between a father-son team of FBI investigators. The primary, David Yerxa, is assisted and guided by his semi-retired dad, Martin. David’s eager progress to unravel the psychologically twisted mystery that leads to the abductions and murders is supported and occasionally turbocharged by Martin’s wisdom and experience with a related case. Both characters are natural leaders – exactly the type of guys the parents of these children would wish for in investigators to the disappearances of their kids.

The ticking clock fight to catch the bad guy before he kills again becomes especially compelling in chapters from the perspective of Carson Affeldt, the latest boy to be abducted. Markham does a masterful job of getting into the head of a kid who skips school to smoke cigarettes and look “cool” to older kids, yet bursts into tears in the horrifying moments when he realizes, in the killer’s locked basement, that he’s probably going to die. Fortunately, Carson has wits and gumption, and realizes he might stand a chance when he notices something that’s not quite right about the layout of that basement room. Underlying that narrative is Markham’s keen understanding of the social politics of high school and the vulnerabilities that lead 14-year-old boys to pick and choose friends who will strengthen or propel their position on the ladder of popularity.

From the first pages to the last, I kept wondering what would happen next, and was genuinely surprised by the identity of the bad guy and thrilled with the way David and Martin Yerxa brought him into the light.

It was only then, when I got ready to post my Amazon review, that I realized Markham had another book, FOUNDERS’ KEEPER. This is an astoundingly original story that actually turns the Constitution into an instrument of terror for a serial killer. It’s also pretty scary – first because every one of the murders is vividly wrought with imagery that stayed in my mind; second because the possibility – in a world where people could actually elect a whacko to become the next president – of the possibility that the killer’s justification for the murders could happen in real-life.

In this book – which was written prior to SON OF A GUN – Martin Yerxa’s deep knowledge of American history and the Founding Fathers era becomes an essential compass in the efforts by Martin, David and another FBI agent to navigate their way toward an understanding the killer’s mindset. The trail is lined with clues based on where the murders take place, the ways in which the victims are killed, and the language of the Constitution. Along the way we meet one of the creepiest murderers I’ve seen in recent thrillers, a perfectly realized character who embodies what happens when victims of terrible childhoods grow up to wreak terror in their adult lives.

Once again I was mesmerized by the story and the characters, and sent into that wonderful place where reading becomes more important than just about anything else. I was also genuinely stunned by the ending, which was more surprising than anything I’ve read in recent months. I was also confounded by yet another mystery: why hasn’t a major publisher seized the opportunity to send both of these books right up to the tops of the bestseller lists? Based on more than 250 customer reviews, Amazon knows they’re absolute winners – and if Amazon knows this, publishers should likewise know that Ed Markham is a master storyteller who has everything it takes to become one of those brand-names who commands that first row of “recommendations” every time you log on.

# # #

WRITER’S CLUB REVIEW – CAPITAL OFFENSE, by Kathleen Antrim

 

CAPITAL OFFENSE, by Kathleen Antrim

Hey, you! Yes, you – in the dark blue suit, second row; the one who can’t stop looking down at your screen in hopes of finding a trailer for the next season of House of Cards. The one who binge-watched all of the previous seasons – twice – spellbound by the suspense and wondering all the while if you’d ever see one single honorable moment in the lives of Frank or Claire Underwood.

I’ve got bad and good news for you. The bad is that you probably won’t see any teaser trailers for the next season until at least January of 2017. The good is that Kathleen Antrim’s CAPITAL OFFENSE gives you another opportunity to be pulled into a story that chronicles the same kind of scheming, betrayals and outright charisma it probably takes to get the keys to the residential floors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

That said, there are a few key differences. First, you’ll meet a lead character who becomes First Lady with every bit of the intelligence we’ve seen in Claire Underwood but with a moral center and likability that Claire certainly doesn’t have. Second, you’ll see many more murders. That’s what happens to the individuals (and in some cases their families) who threaten a carefully laid-out plan to get Missouri Senator Warner Hamilton Lane into the White House. The bad guys behind the plan are wealthy and extremely powerful political power brokers. Their assassin is a single woman who knows how to tinker with airplane engines and fashion bullets to be fired out of high caliber rifles that disappear on impact with the victim. The bodies pile up between chapters that artfully describe the deals and deceits that enable the plan for getting Lane into the White house to fall into place.

The story is a lot of fun for people who work in Washington – and probably for anyone involved in politics at any level, particularly if their experiences have led them to become more cynical about the “calling” to serve, or whatever. The audacity of the misdeeds will also be fodder to the millions of people who rage online about “conspiracies” that will put the next president into office (none of which have been proven and most of which are fed by the mentality that saying it makes it so). In fact, when the first edition of this book was published in 2005 tens of thousands of readers found it immensely entertaining but probably doubted any of it could actually happen.

No one will feel that way now, given what actually has happened. In fact, CAPITAL OFFENSE is an irresistible story for everyone who’s interested in both the substantive elements of political discourse in our country right now, and in the family dramas of the two most interesting candidates. And if you’re really into conspiracy theories you’ll love it even more.

What you’re likely to remember and appreciate in the long run though are the two protagonists, First Lady Carolyn Alden Lane and veteran journalist Jack Rudley. As a prosecutor driven by her need to protect innocent children and win the everlasting battle against illegal drugs, Carolyn enters the story in the place where she has the most power – the courtroom. She’s immediately appealing, and you know by a few pages on that she deserves so much better than the trap her husband and father in-law pull her into. Rudley is an investigative reporter accustomed to breaking big stories. He also has a very personal stake in Carolyn’s quest to expose the bad guys and right the scales of justice.

Through a strategic alliance they mount a thrilling effort to strike back at people who believe they simply can’t be taken down. Given the powerful forces they’re up against, you might doubt Carolyn and Jack can pull it off. What they actually achieve is even better and more surprising – the perfect wham-bam ending that shows how a combination of true investigative journalism and righteous political gamesmanship can ultimately bring honor back to the highest office in the nation.

# # #