David Schwinghammer's Blog, page 19
May 26, 2014
Field of Prey
John Sanford’s PREY novels are different from other mystery thriller/suspense vehicles in that we usually know who the culprits are from the beginning. This one starts with an abduction of a woman who gets away.
Heather Jorgenson is kidnapped by two dirtballs, one of whom throws her in the back seat of his pickup. She’s tied up in a mail sack, but she’s got a knife, and she works herself free, reaches up and stabs a man named Horn in the neck several times. She doesn’t know he has a partner, but she gets away by running through a cornfield, then finds a place to call the cops.
This begins one of the subplots. What the heck is going on with Horn, who should, by all rights, be dead? We’re shortly introduced to a football player and his girlfriend who discover the dumping ground for over twenty victims. It’s an old cistern, referred to from then on as The Black Hole.
People from Minnesota will recognize the place names: Zumbrota, Red Wing, and Holbein, two small towns and a small city near the Wisconsin border. Red Wing is infamous as home to a reform school. As young people there weren’t many boys who weren’t threatened with being sent to Red Wing if they misbehaved. When Lucas Davenport is called to the scene he must contend with the Wisconsin state police who lay claim to some of the bodies, and a Goodhue County detective named Caitrin Mattson who has a very big chip on her shoulder. Also, for some reason Lucas takes his adopted daughter, Lettie, along. She’s been showing more than a little interest in her dad’s profession, and she’s already good at it. Weather, Lucas’s wife, puts a stop to that when she asks to go again later on.
Del, Lucas’s number one partner, is involved in a gun running/drug case involving some senior citizens and Virgil Flowers is on vacation, then must deal with another case in Iowa. There’s some funny interplay between that “effing” Flowers and Davenport when he learns Virgil knows Caitrin. She’s a very good looking woman. Former lech Davenport is tempted, but he’s happily married to Weather.
It’s not long before, the second string killer, R.A., targets Caitrin as his next victim, and that’s where most of the suspense lies. R.A. looks like a lump of clay, but like the senior citizens, he’s more imposing than he looks. He also seems to be getting help from Horn, who should be dead.
Davenport does not have the lead in this case. That job went to the more careful Bob Shaffer, who keep a murder book that he carries with him every place he goes; he also has a smaller notebook. Both will become instrumental later on in the story.
This is one of the better PREY novles, but Lucas drops the ball upon occasion. A little girl identifies a man who may be one of the killers as her mailman. He was sorting mail at the time, so it couldn’t be him. It takes forever and a day for Lucas to show the picture to the locals. Lucas also keeps a file of dirtballs who might know the kind of psycho who would do this sort of thing. He actually has the name of the killer before he’s distracted by Del’s case in Texas and doesn’t follow through. Doesn’t sound like Lucas Davenport.
The climax scene is riveting; usually I’m not to worried when it’s Lucas who’s in a fight for his life, because Sandford isn’t going to sacrifice his bread and brother for a twist, but in this one it’s somebody else who has us really worried.
Long time fans of the PREY series will welcome the return of Elle, Lucas’s childhood friend, now a nun and a psychologist. She helps Heather Jorgenson remember more of what happened the night she was kidnapped.
Heather Jorgenson is kidnapped by two dirtballs, one of whom throws her in the back seat of his pickup. She’s tied up in a mail sack, but she’s got a knife, and she works herself free, reaches up and stabs a man named Horn in the neck several times. She doesn’t know he has a partner, but she gets away by running through a cornfield, then finds a place to call the cops.
This begins one of the subplots. What the heck is going on with Horn, who should, by all rights, be dead? We’re shortly introduced to a football player and his girlfriend who discover the dumping ground for over twenty victims. It’s an old cistern, referred to from then on as The Black Hole.
People from Minnesota will recognize the place names: Zumbrota, Red Wing, and Holbein, two small towns and a small city near the Wisconsin border. Red Wing is infamous as home to a reform school. As young people there weren’t many boys who weren’t threatened with being sent to Red Wing if they misbehaved. When Lucas Davenport is called to the scene he must contend with the Wisconsin state police who lay claim to some of the bodies, and a Goodhue County detective named Caitrin Mattson who has a very big chip on her shoulder. Also, for some reason Lucas takes his adopted daughter, Lettie, along. She’s been showing more than a little interest in her dad’s profession, and she’s already good at it. Weather, Lucas’s wife, puts a stop to that when she asks to go again later on.
Del, Lucas’s number one partner, is involved in a gun running/drug case involving some senior citizens and Virgil Flowers is on vacation, then must deal with another case in Iowa. There’s some funny interplay between that “effing” Flowers and Davenport when he learns Virgil knows Caitrin. She’s a very good looking woman. Former lech Davenport is tempted, but he’s happily married to Weather.
It’s not long before, the second string killer, R.A., targets Caitrin as his next victim, and that’s where most of the suspense lies. R.A. looks like a lump of clay, but like the senior citizens, he’s more imposing than he looks. He also seems to be getting help from Horn, who should be dead.
Davenport does not have the lead in this case. That job went to the more careful Bob Shaffer, who keep a murder book that he carries with him every place he goes; he also has a smaller notebook. Both will become instrumental later on in the story.
This is one of the better PREY novles, but Lucas drops the ball upon occasion. A little girl identifies a man who may be one of the killers as her mailman. He was sorting mail at the time, so it couldn’t be him. It takes forever and a day for Lucas to show the picture to the locals. Lucas also keeps a file of dirtballs who might know the kind of psycho who would do this sort of thing. He actually has the name of the killer before he’s distracted by Del’s case in Texas and doesn’t follow through. Doesn’t sound like Lucas Davenport.
The climax scene is riveting; usually I’m not to worried when it’s Lucas who’s in a fight for his life, because Sandford isn’t going to sacrifice his bread and brother for a twist, but in this one it’s somebody else who has us really worried.
Long time fans of the PREY series will welcome the return of Elle, Lucas’s childhood friend, now a nun and a psychologist. She helps Heather Jorgenson remember more of what happened the night she was kidnapped.
May 16, 2014
FROG MUSIC
FROG MUSIC is a historical novel about an actual murder case, occurring in the 1870’s. It involves an eccentric lady named Jenny Bonnet who dressed like a man and drove a “big wheel” bicycle she apparently stole. The real Bonnet was also an activist for prostitutes, doing what she could to help them escape “the life”.
Bonnet is not the main character in FROG MUSIC. That would be a dancer/singer/prostitute named Blanche Beunon, who is accidentally run over by Bonnet’s big wheel while trying to cross the street. Beunon is one of three former French acrobats; her boyfriend, Arthur, was a “daring young man on the flying trapeze” until he fell and hurt his back. Ernest, his best friend, was his catcher. They move to San Francisco to try to strike it rich.
Blanche has invested the money she earned in burlesque to buy the apartment building they live in. She also supports Arthur’s gambling and speculation.
There’s also a baby involved we know as P’tit Arthur, or Little Arthur. P’tit is supposed to be living in the country with a farm family. Blanche sees him about once a month, never noticing the kid has the rickets. Jenny sticks her nose in Blanche’s business, asking why she doesn’t care for her own baby. That’s how Blanche finds out that P’tit is living in kind of a glorified puppy mill. Eventually this realization leads to a breakup with Arthur; the two women move to the outskirts of San Francisco where they think Arthur and his protector Ernest will not find them. Somebody does and Jenny is murdered with a shotgun blast, Blanche believes was meant for her. According to Afterward, the Jenny Bonney incident was a famous case similar to the Black Dalia Hollywood Murder that was still being discussed in the newspapers thirty years later.
As a reader you should know that there’s a glossary in the back to translate French words. I didn’t really look at it because you can tell fron context clues what’s being said. For instance, “micheton” is a prostitute’s trick, and a “mac” is a pimp or boyfriend of a prostitute. There’re also lots of song lyrics that were famous in the 19th century, one of the reasons the book is called FROG MUSIC (the other is that Jenny supported herself catching frogs and selling them to restaurants). Many of the songs were written by the great Stephen Foster, who died young, almost penniless because there were no copyright laws. Some will be familiar, such as “Bang, Bang, Lulu” and “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapez”.
I recognized the author Emma Donoghue, although I didn’t where until I read her credits, one of which was SLAMMERKIN, another historical novel I enjoyed a great deal. This one isn’t quite as good, mainly because most of the characters are unlikable, except for Jenny, the most original character in the book who is killed rather early. We have to rely on flashbacks to get to know her. Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly which setting we’re in.
Bonnet is not the main character in FROG MUSIC. That would be a dancer/singer/prostitute named Blanche Beunon, who is accidentally run over by Bonnet’s big wheel while trying to cross the street. Beunon is one of three former French acrobats; her boyfriend, Arthur, was a “daring young man on the flying trapeze” until he fell and hurt his back. Ernest, his best friend, was his catcher. They move to San Francisco to try to strike it rich.
Blanche has invested the money she earned in burlesque to buy the apartment building they live in. She also supports Arthur’s gambling and speculation.
There’s also a baby involved we know as P’tit Arthur, or Little Arthur. P’tit is supposed to be living in the country with a farm family. Blanche sees him about once a month, never noticing the kid has the rickets. Jenny sticks her nose in Blanche’s business, asking why she doesn’t care for her own baby. That’s how Blanche finds out that P’tit is living in kind of a glorified puppy mill. Eventually this realization leads to a breakup with Arthur; the two women move to the outskirts of San Francisco where they think Arthur and his protector Ernest will not find them. Somebody does and Jenny is murdered with a shotgun blast, Blanche believes was meant for her. According to Afterward, the Jenny Bonney incident was a famous case similar to the Black Dalia Hollywood Murder that was still being discussed in the newspapers thirty years later.
As a reader you should know that there’s a glossary in the back to translate French words. I didn’t really look at it because you can tell fron context clues what’s being said. For instance, “micheton” is a prostitute’s trick, and a “mac” is a pimp or boyfriend of a prostitute. There’re also lots of song lyrics that were famous in the 19th century, one of the reasons the book is called FROG MUSIC (the other is that Jenny supported herself catching frogs and selling them to restaurants). Many of the songs were written by the great Stephen Foster, who died young, almost penniless because there were no copyright laws. Some will be familiar, such as “Bang, Bang, Lulu” and “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapez”.
I recognized the author Emma Donoghue, although I didn’t where until I read her credits, one of which was SLAMMERKIN, another historical novel I enjoyed a great deal. This one isn’t quite as good, mainly because most of the characters are unlikable, except for Jenny, the most original character in the book who is killed rather early. We have to rely on flashbacks to get to know her. Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly which setting we’re in.
May 11, 2014
AMERICAN BRUTUS
AMERICAN BRUTUS starts with the assassination of Lincoln. Kauffman quotes just about everybody who was at Ford's theater when it happened: audience members, stage hands, actors etc. Then he moves to the initial investigations and the several law enforcement officers and detectives who were on the trail of the killers. It's hard to keep everybody straight.
Not until Chapter Five do we get a glimpse of Booth's background. His father was also an actor and seemed to get along well with the "rented" slaves he kept. Junius Booth Sr. had no problem with negroes eating at the same table. Kauffman suggests that military school may have had something to do with Booth's attitude toward blacks.
Kauffman hypothesizes that Booth saw himself as a Brutus character. According to Booth, Lincoln was a tyrant, like Julius Caesar, who had trampled on the Constitution. In the picture section, we see John Wilkes acting with his brothers in Julius Caesar, although he played Mark Antony to Edwin's Brutus. Kauffman says John Wilkes played many such characters throughout his career.
There are several other illuminating hypotheses in AMERICAN BRUTUS. One would be that Booth tried to implicate anyone he talked to about the plot, plus several other innocent bystanders. He shows how Dr. Mudd was "set up" by Booth and Surratt. He also shows how Booth tried to do this with Vice President Johnson by leaving him a note prior to the assassination.
Kauffman also works hard at exploding several misconceptions about the assassination. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton is shown taking charge after Lincoln was shot. Far from hating Lincoln, he was genuinely fond of the president. Also, John Wilkes Booth did not break his leg when he jumped from Lincoln's box. Kauffman shows that this notion came from the journal Booth kept during his flight, which was packed with other deliberate fabrications. Most surprising for me, I guess, was Kauffman's portrayal of Lewis Thornton Powell. The myth has it that Powell was insane, but Kauffman shows that Powell's lawyer used an insanity defense during the trail, which may have given historians a wrong idea; Powell was a member of Mosby's Rangers prior to the assassination and faced death bravely.
The trial segment was kind of dull. Eight people were tried by a military tribunal, including a woman. The prosecution did not have to furnish all of the evidence it found to the various defense attorneys. Some of the testimony was faked. Yet, four of the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and were eventually pardoned by President Johnson as he left office.
For me, the Coda was the most interesting part of the book as the reader gets to find out what happened to all of the principals later on in life. Henry Rathbone, for instance, who accompanied Lincoln and his wife to the play, never fully recovered from his stabbing and eventually murdered his wife.
Tons of footnotes with occasional commentary within. I'm still reading them.
Not until Chapter Five do we get a glimpse of Booth's background. His father was also an actor and seemed to get along well with the "rented" slaves he kept. Junius Booth Sr. had no problem with negroes eating at the same table. Kauffman suggests that military school may have had something to do with Booth's attitude toward blacks.
Kauffman hypothesizes that Booth saw himself as a Brutus character. According to Booth, Lincoln was a tyrant, like Julius Caesar, who had trampled on the Constitution. In the picture section, we see John Wilkes acting with his brothers in Julius Caesar, although he played Mark Antony to Edwin's Brutus. Kauffman says John Wilkes played many such characters throughout his career.
There are several other illuminating hypotheses in AMERICAN BRUTUS. One would be that Booth tried to implicate anyone he talked to about the plot, plus several other innocent bystanders. He shows how Dr. Mudd was "set up" by Booth and Surratt. He also shows how Booth tried to do this with Vice President Johnson by leaving him a note prior to the assassination.
Kauffman also works hard at exploding several misconceptions about the assassination. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton is shown taking charge after Lincoln was shot. Far from hating Lincoln, he was genuinely fond of the president. Also, John Wilkes Booth did not break his leg when he jumped from Lincoln's box. Kauffman shows that this notion came from the journal Booth kept during his flight, which was packed with other deliberate fabrications. Most surprising for me, I guess, was Kauffman's portrayal of Lewis Thornton Powell. The myth has it that Powell was insane, but Kauffman shows that Powell's lawyer used an insanity defense during the trail, which may have given historians a wrong idea; Powell was a member of Mosby's Rangers prior to the assassination and faced death bravely.
The trial segment was kind of dull. Eight people were tried by a military tribunal, including a woman. The prosecution did not have to furnish all of the evidence it found to the various defense attorneys. Some of the testimony was faked. Yet, four of the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and were eventually pardoned by President Johnson as he left office.
For me, the Coda was the most interesting part of the book as the reader gets to find out what happened to all of the principals later on in life. Henry Rathbone, for instance, who accompanied Lincoln and his wife to the play, never fully recovered from his stabbing and eventually murdered his wife.
Tons of footnotes with occasional commentary within. I'm still reading them.
April 30, 2014
THE ROMANOV SISTERS
Helen Rappaport describes the Romanov princesses--Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia--as the "Princess Dianas" of their day. Her objective here is to describe their personalities more extensively than such well-known writers as Robert K. Massie, author of NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA.
As a result such historical markers as the Russo-Japanese war and the Revolution of 1905 are barely mentioned. She goes into more detail about the Assassination of Rasputin, since one of the assassins was once a candidate for the hand of Nicholas's older daughter, Olga.
THE ROMANOV SISTERS has been criticized for not including the murders of the family. That can be explained by Rappaport's last book which describes their deaths in great detail. There is something new for me however. I was under the impression that Alexey's sailor caretaker died with the family. That was not the case. I'm thinking of the one we see in the pictures on the Standard, the Romanov yacht. He was radicalized during the revolution and was replaced by another sailor who was indeed shot, but separately from the family by the Cheka.
After Nicholas's resignation for himself and his son, we follow the family from the Alexander Palace, to Tobolsk, to Ekaterinburg, each place increasingly more depressing. Nicholas was an active man all his life and is reduced to spending most of his time chopping wood for the frigid Siberian winters.
Unfortunately most of the information on the princesses is from letters that survived that had been censored. They sound like little ever happened during their captivity. We do learn that the sisters were great nurses during the war, especially Tatiana. Tatiana comes across as the most adult and adaptable of the sisters. Olga isn't as intelligent and is more emotional. She's constantly falling in love, with soldiers mostly, and grows morose when they're sent to the front. Maria, affectionately called "the fat one," is the most amiable of the girls; she is chosen to accompany Nicholas and Alexander to Ekaterinburg ahead of the rest of the family. Anastasia, as we know from previous accounts, is the family clown. They put on one act plays, and she is always the star.
Rappaport does not spend much time on the Ekaterinburg segment. We do learn in the epilogue what happened to the major and minor players, including the kitchen boy, who was allowed to leave the house the morning of the murders.
If you're a Romanov addict, this book will give you a few tidbits you didn't know and satisfy the itch until the next one is published. Another one will be published. The Romanovs are a cottage industry.
As a result such historical markers as the Russo-Japanese war and the Revolution of 1905 are barely mentioned. She goes into more detail about the Assassination of Rasputin, since one of the assassins was once a candidate for the hand of Nicholas's older daughter, Olga.
THE ROMANOV SISTERS has been criticized for not including the murders of the family. That can be explained by Rappaport's last book which describes their deaths in great detail. There is something new for me however. I was under the impression that Alexey's sailor caretaker died with the family. That was not the case. I'm thinking of the one we see in the pictures on the Standard, the Romanov yacht. He was radicalized during the revolution and was replaced by another sailor who was indeed shot, but separately from the family by the Cheka.
After Nicholas's resignation for himself and his son, we follow the family from the Alexander Palace, to Tobolsk, to Ekaterinburg, each place increasingly more depressing. Nicholas was an active man all his life and is reduced to spending most of his time chopping wood for the frigid Siberian winters.
Unfortunately most of the information on the princesses is from letters that survived that had been censored. They sound like little ever happened during their captivity. We do learn that the sisters were great nurses during the war, especially Tatiana. Tatiana comes across as the most adult and adaptable of the sisters. Olga isn't as intelligent and is more emotional. She's constantly falling in love, with soldiers mostly, and grows morose when they're sent to the front. Maria, affectionately called "the fat one," is the most amiable of the girls; she is chosen to accompany Nicholas and Alexander to Ekaterinburg ahead of the rest of the family. Anastasia, as we know from previous accounts, is the family clown. They put on one act plays, and she is always the star.
Rappaport does not spend much time on the Ekaterinburg segment. We do learn in the epilogue what happened to the major and minor players, including the kitchen boy, who was allowed to leave the house the morning of the murders.
If you're a Romanov addict, this book will give you a few tidbits you didn't know and satisfy the itch until the next one is published. Another one will be published. The Romanovs are a cottage industry.
April 19, 2014
Snow-a-holic
Why snow is holy
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It’s snowing out today. It’s hard to imagine there are people in the South who have never seen snow. Snowflakes are tiny, marvelous, crystals full of snowmen with coal eyes and carrot noses; tiny clusters that make angel wings; tiny frozen rain drops that ball up into clumps and then well up into snow forts where children imagine themselves Caesars and Napoleons.
Thank God for snow.
Yes, thank God for snow. Some people say that God is dead. The remarkable aspect about such a statement is that God leaves clues that he’s still with us. He shows himself in the sunset, in the night when the heavens are full of millions of stars, in the huge, rolling moon which sails through the sky with a grin for one and all.
In this hustle bustle world of ours we overlook the miraculous; a tree is just a tree; grass is just grass which has to be cut; flowers are something we sent to our wives and girlfriends when they’re displeased with us. But have you ever taken a good look at an orchid? How can you contain yourself?
Snow is that squishy stuff we are forever shoveling or getting stuck in, especially if we live in Buffalo or Minnesnowta. Kids know about snow. The first flake they see they run outside with their tongues pointing toward the sky, trying to taste it. They look for the highest hill and come pellmelling down like tiny Mario Andrettis. The most astute put snowballs in their freezers so they’ll have some for the humid summer months.
You may be wondering why I’m such a snow-a-holic. It’s just that I saw a show the other night on one of those news magazines where a mother gave her son a bus ticket, fifty dollars and a phony address in Nevada. When he tried to call, she wouldn’t answer the phone. He had to sleep in the trees in a
Park. The woman just never got enough snow.
The most worrisome part is that some people seem to get the same satisfaction out of pharmaceuticals that I get out of the white stuff. I’ll admit I have had a few beers in my lifetime, but I’ve never tried marijuana or cocaine. Whatever for, when you’ve got snow?
Some say certain drugs illuminate the mind. LSD, peyote, methamphetamine (There’s a good one). I know meth rots your teeth and there's such a thing as a bad LSD trip (Whatever happened to Ken Kesey?) Indians use peyote in some of their ceremonies so I guess that’s okay; Christians use wine. But there’s just nothing like a good snow ball fight. There’s a reason why Eskimos live in igloos, and they seem a lot more laid back than we do.
Dave Schwinghammer's novel, SOLDIER'S GAP,is available at Amazon.com, new and used. Please check the revies. Give a snow-a-holic a break.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s snowing out today. It’s hard to imagine there are people in the South who have never seen snow. Snowflakes are tiny, marvelous, crystals full of snowmen with coal eyes and carrot noses; tiny clusters that make angel wings; tiny frozen rain drops that ball up into clumps and then well up into snow forts where children imagine themselves Caesars and Napoleons.
Thank God for snow.
Yes, thank God for snow. Some people say that God is dead. The remarkable aspect about such a statement is that God leaves clues that he’s still with us. He shows himself in the sunset, in the night when the heavens are full of millions of stars, in the huge, rolling moon which sails through the sky with a grin for one and all.
In this hustle bustle world of ours we overlook the miraculous; a tree is just a tree; grass is just grass which has to be cut; flowers are something we sent to our wives and girlfriends when they’re displeased with us. But have you ever taken a good look at an orchid? How can you contain yourself?
Snow is that squishy stuff we are forever shoveling or getting stuck in, especially if we live in Buffalo or Minnesnowta. Kids know about snow. The first flake they see they run outside with their tongues pointing toward the sky, trying to taste it. They look for the highest hill and come pellmelling down like tiny Mario Andrettis. The most astute put snowballs in their freezers so they’ll have some for the humid summer months.
You may be wondering why I’m such a snow-a-holic. It’s just that I saw a show the other night on one of those news magazines where a mother gave her son a bus ticket, fifty dollars and a phony address in Nevada. When he tried to call, she wouldn’t answer the phone. He had to sleep in the trees in a
Park. The woman just never got enough snow.
The most worrisome part is that some people seem to get the same satisfaction out of pharmaceuticals that I get out of the white stuff. I’ll admit I have had a few beers in my lifetime, but I’ve never tried marijuana or cocaine. Whatever for, when you’ve got snow?
Some say certain drugs illuminate the mind. LSD, peyote, methamphetamine (There’s a good one). I know meth rots your teeth and there's such a thing as a bad LSD trip (Whatever happened to Ken Kesey?) Indians use peyote in some of their ceremonies so I guess that’s okay; Christians use wine. But there’s just nothing like a good snow ball fight. There’s a reason why Eskimos live in igloos, and they seem a lot more laid back than we do.
Dave Schwinghammer's novel, SOLDIER'S GAP,is available at Amazon.com, new and used. Please check the revies. Give a snow-a-holic a break.
April 16, 2014
THE REDEEMER
Except for a short journey to Croatia, Nesbo's THE REDEEMER sticks pretty much to Norway. It's also more of a traditional mystery.
The big surprise is what Nesbo seems to be saying about overtly religious people, primarily those who run the Salvation Army. If Nesbo sticks to reality, the Salvation Army would seem to have much more influence in Norway than it does here. I had never heard of officer training school for Salvation Army leaders for one thing. Norway also tolerates drug abuse but specifies one small area of the city of Oslo for their nefarious doings. The Salvation Army tries to provide food and shelter for them.
Okay, so here's the theme: Salvation Army leaders are pretty much just like the rest of us. They have their faults, too. They are also capable of pride, envy, sex abuse, and even murder. There are two brothers that play vital roles in the story; both are very much misunderstood.
At the beginning of the story a Croation hit man murders one of the brothers, Robert Karlsen. Almost immediately he realizes he got the wrong brother, and he sets out to find the other one, John. John is in line to become the new territorial commander of the Salvation Army. At first, our hero, Harry Hole, who's on the wagon for a change, thinks Robert hired the hit man and was hoisted on his own petard. So to speak.
Harry must also learn to live with a new boss, Gunner Hagen, a former member of special forces with his own ideas about how to run the homicide department. Harry pretty much had the run of the place prior to Gunner. But Gunner isn't stupid; he realizes Harry's the best detective he's got; he just wants him to keep up to speed on the case and follow orders once in a while. He's also more hands on than Harry's previous boss.
Harry's girlfriend, Rakel, is currently dating a doctor, but one of the Salvation Army workers, Martine Eckhoff, the daughter of the current territorial commander, has the hots for him. She is a much younger girl, but seems to like older men, especially macho, sensitive types like Harry.
I've read two previous Nesbo mysteries, and I liked this one the most. Harry stays on the trail of the killer; there aren't that many subplots where Harry goes on a coke binge or whatever. He does get drunk once, but it doesn't stop him from finding the killer and making a questionable moral decision, as he does in most of Nesbo's books.
The big surprise is what Nesbo seems to be saying about overtly religious people, primarily those who run the Salvation Army. If Nesbo sticks to reality, the Salvation Army would seem to have much more influence in Norway than it does here. I had never heard of officer training school for Salvation Army leaders for one thing. Norway also tolerates drug abuse but specifies one small area of the city of Oslo for their nefarious doings. The Salvation Army tries to provide food and shelter for them.
Okay, so here's the theme: Salvation Army leaders are pretty much just like the rest of us. They have their faults, too. They are also capable of pride, envy, sex abuse, and even murder. There are two brothers that play vital roles in the story; both are very much misunderstood.
At the beginning of the story a Croation hit man murders one of the brothers, Robert Karlsen. Almost immediately he realizes he got the wrong brother, and he sets out to find the other one, John. John is in line to become the new territorial commander of the Salvation Army. At first, our hero, Harry Hole, who's on the wagon for a change, thinks Robert hired the hit man and was hoisted on his own petard. So to speak.
Harry must also learn to live with a new boss, Gunner Hagen, a former member of special forces with his own ideas about how to run the homicide department. Harry pretty much had the run of the place prior to Gunner. But Gunner isn't stupid; he realizes Harry's the best detective he's got; he just wants him to keep up to speed on the case and follow orders once in a while. He's also more hands on than Harry's previous boss.
Harry's girlfriend, Rakel, is currently dating a doctor, but one of the Salvation Army workers, Martine Eckhoff, the daughter of the current territorial commander, has the hots for him. She is a much younger girl, but seems to like older men, especially macho, sensitive types like Harry.
I've read two previous Nesbo mysteries, and I liked this one the most. Harry stays on the trail of the killer; there aren't that many subplots where Harry goes on a coke binge or whatever. He does get drunk once, but it doesn't stop him from finding the killer and making a questionable moral decision, as he does in most of Nesbo's books.
April 14, 2014
CARTHAGE
I’ve always enjoyed Joyce Carol Oates’s short stories, but the only novel I remember reading was FOXFIRE, about a girl gang. I know how versatile she is, so I thought I’d give her another trial.
CARTHAGE starts out sounding like a “48 Hours” episode. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her sister’s fiancé, a soldier suffering from PTS, is the principal suspect. But this is Joyce Carol Oates, so I knew there was a twist coming. It took 100 pages but it finally did.
As a reader you have to be wondering if Cressida Mayfield was really murdered or is still alive. This is a book about sibling rivalry. Cressida considers herself the ugly duckling of the family, and Juliet Mayfield is prom queen beautiful with a personality to match, but Cressida is the smart one, and she likes to pretend she doesn’t care what people think of her. Secretly she plays tricks on her older sister, messing up her computer, then fixing it for her to cover up her duplicity.
Then there’s Brett Kincaid, the soldier with PTS, who also has a heart of gold, which proves to be his undoing in more than one way. Cressida crushes on him because he rescued her when she wandered into a bad part of town. There’s more than a suggestion that Brett Kincaid wasn’t blown up by the Taliban. Oates includes what sounds like something out of the Vietnam War, with soldiers taking “trophies” like ears, fingers and toes. Brett balked at that and went to his superiors.
He returns a changed man who doesn’t want to saddle Juliet with his problems; they break up and Cressida makes her play at a time when Brett is drunk and confused as to what actually happened. He’s also having flashbacks to what went on in Afghanistan, and it gets all confused with the Cressida incident. There’s blood in his truck and he has scratches on his face. He confesses.
Zeno Mayfield is the father of the two girls; he’s a former mayor of Carthage, a real take charge kind of guy. What happened to his daughter changes him. His wife resorts to community service, going so far as to forgive Brett and visit him in prison.
The second half of the novel could be a different book, concentrating on a covert prison reform project carried out by an old liberal professor, who’s written several best sellers on various societal pitfalls. He has a young intern assistant, who takes care of the mundane stuff for him, like drive his car, pay his bills, do research etc.
I was expecting a humdinger of a climax, but the book just sort of fades away, with a lot of loose ends, like what happened to the old professor who seemed to have a special fondness for the young intern.
CARTHAGE starts out sounding like a “48 Hours” episode. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her sister’s fiancé, a soldier suffering from PTS, is the principal suspect. But this is Joyce Carol Oates, so I knew there was a twist coming. It took 100 pages but it finally did.
As a reader you have to be wondering if Cressida Mayfield was really murdered or is still alive. This is a book about sibling rivalry. Cressida considers herself the ugly duckling of the family, and Juliet Mayfield is prom queen beautiful with a personality to match, but Cressida is the smart one, and she likes to pretend she doesn’t care what people think of her. Secretly she plays tricks on her older sister, messing up her computer, then fixing it for her to cover up her duplicity.
Then there’s Brett Kincaid, the soldier with PTS, who also has a heart of gold, which proves to be his undoing in more than one way. Cressida crushes on him because he rescued her when she wandered into a bad part of town. There’s more than a suggestion that Brett Kincaid wasn’t blown up by the Taliban. Oates includes what sounds like something out of the Vietnam War, with soldiers taking “trophies” like ears, fingers and toes. Brett balked at that and went to his superiors.
He returns a changed man who doesn’t want to saddle Juliet with his problems; they break up and Cressida makes her play at a time when Brett is drunk and confused as to what actually happened. He’s also having flashbacks to what went on in Afghanistan, and it gets all confused with the Cressida incident. There’s blood in his truck and he has scratches on his face. He confesses.
Zeno Mayfield is the father of the two girls; he’s a former mayor of Carthage, a real take charge kind of guy. What happened to his daughter changes him. His wife resorts to community service, going so far as to forgive Brett and visit him in prison.
The second half of the novel could be a different book, concentrating on a covert prison reform project carried out by an old liberal professor, who’s written several best sellers on various societal pitfalls. He has a young intern assistant, who takes care of the mundane stuff for him, like drive his car, pay his bills, do research etc.
I was expecting a humdinger of a climax, but the book just sort of fades away, with a lot of loose ends, like what happened to the old professor who seemed to have a special fondness for the young intern.
ANITA'S PIANO
ANITA’S PIANO is an original Holocaust story told from a nine-year-old’s point of view (fourteen at the end). It also includes pictures of Anita and her family as well as such mundane information as a recipe or two.
At the beginning of the book, Anita lives in Czechoslovakia; Hitler is just about to claim the Sudetenland for Germany. Such well-known events as Kristallnacht begin to portend a cataclysmic future for Anita’s family; the requirement that all Jews wear a five-point yellow star occurs, and Anita is shocked that her old friends seem to be avoiding her.
Family history is intermixed with the above. Anita’s grandmother tells her about a suicide in the family. Anita (married name Schorr) has a little brother Michael whose spirits she attempts to keep up, even if she has to lie to do it.
Eventually Anita’s family must surrender their home; they’re moved to a ghetto where her father is mustered into the ghetto guard. They are given little food. As more people arrive, more of the original newcomers are moved, and that’s how Anita and her family arrive in Auschwitz.
Several other surprising anecdotes are included such as when Anita is waiting in line to be vaccinated for hepatitis by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. She begins to cry and a Nazi nurse takes pity on her and gives her cocoa.
Anita life is saved when her mother suggests she volunteer for a work detail. She’s supposed to be eighteen, but somehow she qualifies; the food gets better, and she meets a Wehrmacht lieutenant who gives her part of his sandwiches and lets her go swimming in the ocean. But she’s separated from her family and has no way of knowing what has happened to them.
Anita is a likable character; the reader really cares what will happen to her, but the book starts with her in a refugee camp, so we already know she survived the war. The only suspense is what happened to her father, mother, brother and the rest of the family.
Author Marion A. Stahl includes “historical highlights” at the end of the book, starting with the Sino-Japanese war in 1939, ending with the surrender of the German Army Group Center in Czechoslovakia in May of 1945.
At the beginning of the book, Anita lives in Czechoslovakia; Hitler is just about to claim the Sudetenland for Germany. Such well-known events as Kristallnacht begin to portend a cataclysmic future for Anita’s family; the requirement that all Jews wear a five-point yellow star occurs, and Anita is shocked that her old friends seem to be avoiding her.
Family history is intermixed with the above. Anita’s grandmother tells her about a suicide in the family. Anita (married name Schorr) has a little brother Michael whose spirits she attempts to keep up, even if she has to lie to do it.
Eventually Anita’s family must surrender their home; they’re moved to a ghetto where her father is mustered into the ghetto guard. They are given little food. As more people arrive, more of the original newcomers are moved, and that’s how Anita and her family arrive in Auschwitz.
Several other surprising anecdotes are included such as when Anita is waiting in line to be vaccinated for hepatitis by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. She begins to cry and a Nazi nurse takes pity on her and gives her cocoa.
Anita life is saved when her mother suggests she volunteer for a work detail. She’s supposed to be eighteen, but somehow she qualifies; the food gets better, and she meets a Wehrmacht lieutenant who gives her part of his sandwiches and lets her go swimming in the ocean. But she’s separated from her family and has no way of knowing what has happened to them.
Anita is a likable character; the reader really cares what will happen to her, but the book starts with her in a refugee camp, so we already know she survived the war. The only suspense is what happened to her father, mother, brother and the rest of the family.
Author Marion A. Stahl includes “historical highlights” at the end of the book, starting with the Sino-Japanese war in 1939, ending with the surrender of the German Army Group Center in Czechoslovakia in May of 1945.
April 6, 2014
BROTHERS
BROTHERS by George Howe Colt is an unusual book in that it jumps back and forth between the doings of the four Colt brothers and other celebrity type brothers. Although they're extremely likable, perhaps the Colt segments are too long.
Some of what Colt discovers about brothers in general is old hat. The oldest brother tends to bond with his parents, tends to be more successful, seems more like a little adult. The youngest is more creative and has a tendency to take more chances. The poor guy or guys in the middle don't get as much attention from their parents and don't have as much self confidence.
Although he covers several dozen brother groups, Colt concentrates on the Kelloggs (think breakfast cereals), The Boothes, The Marx brothers, The Van Goghs , and Henry and John Thoreau.
Maybe it's because I have five brothers and no sisters, I found this book fascinating. For instance Edwin Booth suffered from depression most of his life despite being the greatest actor of his day. The two older Booth brothers, June and Edwin, were also loyal to the Union, while John was a loyal rebel. John was also spoiled rotten by his older sister while Edwin acted as a "dresser" for his father, Junius Brutus Booth, (also considered the greatest actor of his times). The father was also mentally ill, although Colt suggests this may have been an act to draw crowds.
Perhaps the most interesting brothers (predictably I suppose) were the Marxes. Colt explains how they got their names. Their mother Minnie, whose younger brother was a vaudeville star, put them on the road at an early age and they got the names from a fellow performer while playing poker. Harpo because of the instrument he played; Groucho because of his disposition, Chico because he chased women constantly, Gummo because of his gum shoes. Zeppo became Zeppo because he imitated another performer named Zippo who was an exercise nut. Gummo is the least known because Minnie had him enlist in the army during WWI to save the stars of the act, Groucho and Harpo, from the draft. He did perform with his brothers for nine years prior to this however. Colt never explains why he never rejoined the act. The happiest of the brothers was Chico, despite gambling away his money as fast as he got it; ironically the unhappiest was the most successful, Julius "Groucho" Marx, who was, you guessed it, a middle child.
Back to the Colt brothers. Most were travelers; Ned became a foreign correspondent for NBC and in his youth spent time on a cattle ranch in Argentina. George, himself, went to Paris trying to imitate the stereotypical poet. Harry became a doctor and worked for a time on a Zuni reservation. Only Mark, the youngest stuck to home, but he worked as the recycling manager at a school for the blind. Ned wasn't the youngest, but there are several years between him and Mark, which made him fit the baby of the family role.
Some of the other brothers touched upon are Jesse and Frank James, Henry and William James, Saul Bellow and brothers, The Kennedys etc., etc.
Some of what Colt discovers about brothers in general is old hat. The oldest brother tends to bond with his parents, tends to be more successful, seems more like a little adult. The youngest is more creative and has a tendency to take more chances. The poor guy or guys in the middle don't get as much attention from their parents and don't have as much self confidence.
Although he covers several dozen brother groups, Colt concentrates on the Kelloggs (think breakfast cereals), The Boothes, The Marx brothers, The Van Goghs , and Henry and John Thoreau.
Maybe it's because I have five brothers and no sisters, I found this book fascinating. For instance Edwin Booth suffered from depression most of his life despite being the greatest actor of his day. The two older Booth brothers, June and Edwin, were also loyal to the Union, while John was a loyal rebel. John was also spoiled rotten by his older sister while Edwin acted as a "dresser" for his father, Junius Brutus Booth, (also considered the greatest actor of his times). The father was also mentally ill, although Colt suggests this may have been an act to draw crowds.
Perhaps the most interesting brothers (predictably I suppose) were the Marxes. Colt explains how they got their names. Their mother Minnie, whose younger brother was a vaudeville star, put them on the road at an early age and they got the names from a fellow performer while playing poker. Harpo because of the instrument he played; Groucho because of his disposition, Chico because he chased women constantly, Gummo because of his gum shoes. Zeppo became Zeppo because he imitated another performer named Zippo who was an exercise nut. Gummo is the least known because Minnie had him enlist in the army during WWI to save the stars of the act, Groucho and Harpo, from the draft. He did perform with his brothers for nine years prior to this however. Colt never explains why he never rejoined the act. The happiest of the brothers was Chico, despite gambling away his money as fast as he got it; ironically the unhappiest was the most successful, Julius "Groucho" Marx, who was, you guessed it, a middle child.
Back to the Colt brothers. Most were travelers; Ned became a foreign correspondent for NBC and in his youth spent time on a cattle ranch in Argentina. George, himself, went to Paris trying to imitate the stereotypical poet. Harry became a doctor and worked for a time on a Zuni reservation. Only Mark, the youngest stuck to home, but he worked as the recycling manager at a school for the blind. Ned wasn't the youngest, but there are several years between him and Mark, which made him fit the baby of the family role.
Some of the other brothers touched upon are Jesse and Frank James, Henry and William James, Saul Bellow and brothers, The Kennedys etc., etc.
April 1, 2014
PITY THE BILLIONAIRE
Some might think Thomas Frank, author of WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS, might be writing from a liberal perspective. To a degree he is, but he saves some of his best barbs for the Obama administration.
Frank starts out trying to explain what led to the mortgage meltdown. He is especially struck by the similarity between what happened today with what happened in 1929. Three Republican presidents did everything they could to deregulate Wall Street. It was a boom period. People were buying stocks on margin and when the banks called in the loans, everything collapsed. Our margin provocation was sub prime loans and derivative hedge funds. Because the market crashed and unemployment climbed to 25% the democrats pretty much had their way for the next 40 years. Thomas Frank expected pretty much the same thing to happen in 2008, but it didn't and Frank tells us why.
Some of the language from the Twenties is even the same. Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon wanted to liquidate almost everything: "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate." He wanted to "purge the rottenness out of the system." Here's where he sounds most familiar: "let the downturn take its course, let the failures fail, let the weak be purged, and have confidence that the strong will emerge stronger than ever."
Frank argues that the democrats didn't go on to right the ship because the GOP blamed the crisis on the TARP bailouts. Everybody hated Wall Street at the time, especially the AIG bonuses. And that was a big government solution that cost billions. Suddenly it was big government that had caused the problem and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's sub prime mortgages had cost us almost a trillion dollars, despite the fact that Fannie and Freddie were mostly independent at the time, led by the same people who were running Goldman Sachs. They also disowned Bush, claiming he was in league with the big government liberals. So they'd pulled a real bait and switch. Frank thinks Obama should have been more Roosevelt like and broken up the big banks. Of course the democrats left themselves even more prone to big government criticism with the stimulus plan and Romneycare. Frank is again disappointed that the new plan catered to health insurance companies, but he doesn't mention the role the Blue Dog democrats played in the compromise. Frank feels that with the large majorities in both the House and the Senate, Obama should've been able to get single payer health care.
Frank tries to trace the origin of the Tea Party movement which led to the "shellacking" the democrats took in the 2010 elections. Rick Santelli's speech on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade was definitely a stimulus if not the main culprit. His Howare Beale like tirade went viral on You Tube. His reference to the Boston Tea Party may have given the movement its name. Santelli is a journalist, not a trader, but he had a problem with paying for the TARP requirement that banks modify mortgage terms which would have made payments more affordable, avoiding foreclosures. Banks refused to cooperate anyway, which may be why housing prices haven't recovered as of yet.
There are a few other "villains" in Frank's book. Glenn Beck supposedly hides his intelligence behind mismatched clothes and an overall disheveled look. Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan's hero, had this thing against the poor. In her book, ATLAS SHRUGGED, the rich go on strike to show those mouthy worker bees what life would be like if they just took off. Even Bill Clinton takes a few shots for moving too far toward the center. According to Frank, Larry Summers, treasury secretary under Clinton, eliminated banking rules that may have prevented the present debacle. Frank is unhappy that Obama kept Summers in his administration.
Frank goes to extremes in the last several pages. He predicts that if the GOP owns the presidency, The House, The Senate, and the Supreme Court, they would eliminate bank deposit insurance, claiming, "The lazy man down the street should no more get his money back when his bank fails than when the housing market fell apart." Now that would definitely start class warfare and get a few people hanged from the nearest light pole.
Frank starts out trying to explain what led to the mortgage meltdown. He is especially struck by the similarity between what happened today with what happened in 1929. Three Republican presidents did everything they could to deregulate Wall Street. It was a boom period. People were buying stocks on margin and when the banks called in the loans, everything collapsed. Our margin provocation was sub prime loans and derivative hedge funds. Because the market crashed and unemployment climbed to 25% the democrats pretty much had their way for the next 40 years. Thomas Frank expected pretty much the same thing to happen in 2008, but it didn't and Frank tells us why.
Some of the language from the Twenties is even the same. Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon wanted to liquidate almost everything: "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate." He wanted to "purge the rottenness out of the system." Here's where he sounds most familiar: "let the downturn take its course, let the failures fail, let the weak be purged, and have confidence that the strong will emerge stronger than ever."
Frank argues that the democrats didn't go on to right the ship because the GOP blamed the crisis on the TARP bailouts. Everybody hated Wall Street at the time, especially the AIG bonuses. And that was a big government solution that cost billions. Suddenly it was big government that had caused the problem and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's sub prime mortgages had cost us almost a trillion dollars, despite the fact that Fannie and Freddie were mostly independent at the time, led by the same people who were running Goldman Sachs. They also disowned Bush, claiming he was in league with the big government liberals. So they'd pulled a real bait and switch. Frank thinks Obama should have been more Roosevelt like and broken up the big banks. Of course the democrats left themselves even more prone to big government criticism with the stimulus plan and Romneycare. Frank is again disappointed that the new plan catered to health insurance companies, but he doesn't mention the role the Blue Dog democrats played in the compromise. Frank feels that with the large majorities in both the House and the Senate, Obama should've been able to get single payer health care.
Frank tries to trace the origin of the Tea Party movement which led to the "shellacking" the democrats took in the 2010 elections. Rick Santelli's speech on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade was definitely a stimulus if not the main culprit. His Howare Beale like tirade went viral on You Tube. His reference to the Boston Tea Party may have given the movement its name. Santelli is a journalist, not a trader, but he had a problem with paying for the TARP requirement that banks modify mortgage terms which would have made payments more affordable, avoiding foreclosures. Banks refused to cooperate anyway, which may be why housing prices haven't recovered as of yet.
There are a few other "villains" in Frank's book. Glenn Beck supposedly hides his intelligence behind mismatched clothes and an overall disheveled look. Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan's hero, had this thing against the poor. In her book, ATLAS SHRUGGED, the rich go on strike to show those mouthy worker bees what life would be like if they just took off. Even Bill Clinton takes a few shots for moving too far toward the center. According to Frank, Larry Summers, treasury secretary under Clinton, eliminated banking rules that may have prevented the present debacle. Frank is unhappy that Obama kept Summers in his administration.
Frank goes to extremes in the last several pages. He predicts that if the GOP owns the presidency, The House, The Senate, and the Supreme Court, they would eliminate bank deposit insurance, claiming, "The lazy man down the street should no more get his money back when his bank fails than when the housing market fell apart." Now that would definitely start class warfare and get a few people hanged from the nearest light pole.
