Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
In the last novel written before his death, the preeminent chronicler of the mafia concludes his mob trilogy with the depiction of yet another memorable, aging chieftain. Don Raymonde Aprile, the Mafia leader in Omerta, is the latest in a long line of Mario Puzo’s characters who have tried to put centuries of vendetta behind them and become upright pillars of the American community. Unlike Vito Corleone, from Puzo’s The Godfather, or Domenico Clericuzio, from The Last Don, Don Raymonde meets with some success by keeping his three children away from the family business at the expense of his adopted nephew, Astorre Viola.
As he did in the two earlier novels, Puzo manages to imbue his less-than-savory characters with a sense of nobility by highlighting their redeeming qualities and downplaying their amorality. The crimes Viola commits during the course of the novel are portrayed as acts of justified vigilantism rather than misdeeds motivated by money. Although Puzo once again focuses on the complex relationship of loyalty and betrayal, the actual violence and bloodshed are more restrained in this novel, which was completed shortly before the author died in July, 1999.
Another new feature in Omerta is the character Kurt Cilke, an FBI agent who was responsible for bringing down many of the leaders of the Mafia in the years immediately prior to the novel’s action. The novel follows the quasi-legal dealings of Don Raymonde’s family and an attempt by a corrupt South American syndicate to take over the family banks for their own illicit purposes.
Puzo’s plot moves quickly as Cilke, Viola, and the syndicate work to gain the advantage on their opponents. Viola’s faction seems outnumbered, yet his sense of honor forbids him to break omerta, a code of conduct which forbids informing about crimes. The fact that Viola is willing and able to live by this ethical code, no matter how strange it might seem, is what distinguishes him from his antagonists.
By championing character whose ways of life are both traditional and reprehensible to modern civilization, Puzo forces the reader to consider the underpinnings of the larger society.
In the last novel written before his death, the preeminent chronicler of the mafia concludes his mob trilogy with the depiction of yet another memorable, aging chieftain. Don Raymonde Aprile, the Mafia leader in Omerta, is the latest in a long line of Mario Puzo's…
At what point in a relationship does love become obsession? Or are all relationships degrees of obsession? Alice Loudon finds out in Nicci French’s new book Killing Me Softly. A research scientist for a major British pharmaceutical corporation, Alice leads a quiet life with a considerate, loving boyfriend, Jake. She has an interesting and entertaining circle of friends and a challenging, satisfying job.
Then one day her eyes meet those of a handsome stranger on the street, and when he is still there waiting for her later that day, she goes with him back to his place, where they make love first and exchange names later. She discovers that she has fallen (an apt expression) for Adam Tallis, a famous mountain climber and guide, and she finds herself giving up her lover, her friends, and the life that she knew in exchange for this tall, handsome stranger.
Yet when she marries him, doubt begins to creep in: just who is it that she has married? Adam Tallis has gained fame for saving several lives in the course of an expedition, but perhaps things aren’t as they seem. There are mysterious notes, and questions about dead women in Adam’s past. For her own sanity, Alice must learn the shattering truth about the man she married. If you’re a fan of romantic suspense, you’ll love this book.
At what point in a relationship does love become obsession? Or are all relationships degrees of obsession? Alice Loudon finds out in Nicci French's new book Killing Me Softly. A research scientist for a major British pharmaceutical corporation, Alice leads a quiet life with a…
In Donor, the latest paperback from wizard plotter Charles Wilson, the author delivers another voyage inside the world of medicine that reads more like today’s headlines than fiction.
Wilson returns again to Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in this spine-tingling book. Donor is a mixture of thriller, action-adventure, and mystery, which is only one of the many reasons why Wilson’s readership is growing rapidly across genre lines.
Too many patients are dying inside the huge public hospital where the idealistic young doctor Michael Sims works as an emergency room doctor. When Sims watches a little girl’s life ebb away despite the best that modern medicine can deliver, he becomes depressed about his choice of careers.
Across town, a popular and prominent Congressman dies, his skull shattered, but police investigators determine the death to be a suicide. Despite what they say, the Congressman’s beautiful young daughter, Shannon Donnelly, stubbornly refuses to believe that her father took his own life.
With the stage set, Wilson skillfully plots to bring Donnelly and Dr. Sims together to uncover the truth about a medical experiment that utilizes nerve regeneration and organ transplants.
Along the way, Dr. Sims becomes the top contender for the dead Congressman’s seat, thanks to a computer billionaire who wants to organize a group of national politicians to back his dream of a nationwide chain of medical research centers. And Shannon Donnelly finds herself on a path not only to find her father’s killer but to save Dr. Sims as well. That path takes them into the deepest and darkest secrets of government and medicine where there are no volunteers, no donors, and where the pair discovers that death isn’t the worst thing they have to fear. Being chosen is.
Wilson’s next hardback book, Game Plan, will be released in January. ¦ Alice Jackson Baughn is a freelance writer in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
In Donor, the latest paperback from wizard plotter Charles Wilson, the author delivers another voyage inside the world of medicine that reads more like today's headlines than fiction.
Wilson returns again to Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in this spine-tingling book.…
Archy McNally, Lawrence Sanders’s sleuth in McNally’s Dilemma, takes the call one minute before he turns off his machine at midnight. It is his old friend Melva, with some bad news. Geoff Williams, erstwhile tennis pro, four-flusher cad, and husband to Melva, has met an untimely end a bullet through his chest. Melva has called Archy to report the murder and to confess that she did it. Of course, Archy and we have been around murder mysteries long enough to know that the murderer is never, never, the one who claims she did it at the beginning of the book. But unraveling the plot takes us through Sanders’s special domain, the Palm Beach cafe society set, and the parasites who live off of it.
Archy’s first job is to find Melva’s daughter and fetch her back to the murder scene. She turns out, of course, to be the requisite gorgeous twentysomething. And, of course, she finds Archy irresistible, even though he is older. In the end Archy finds the real murderer, returns to his long-term girlfriend, and enjoys his gibson at the Pelican Club, ready for the next adventure.
It may be a formula, but this book is packed with charm. There is, for one thing, Archy himself: sardonic, sartorially challenged, the son of the best society lawyer in Palm Beach, booted out of Yale Law, and now a private eye. Think Travis McGee in an ascot. He is fond enough of unusual hats that he has berets custom made in Connecticut in puce, among other colors. He also has enough quirky wise cracks to rival a Groucho Marx movie: The music was pure disco, the beat of which has always reminded me of how the ogre’s heart must have sounded when he chased Jack around the beanstalk. Even the minor characters especially the minor characters are loaded with the eccentricity and texture that make you think Sanders just can’t be making this up.
Americans, I’m told, love to read about rich people. If that is true, then Sanders has hit his market, but with a delightful band of villains and friends in this picaresque, charming whodunit. ¦ John Foster is an attorney in Columbia, South Carolina.
Archy McNally, Lawrence Sanders's sleuth in McNally's Dilemma, takes the call one minute before he turns off his machine at midnight. It is his old friend Melva, with some bad news. Geoff Williams, erstwhile tennis pro, four-flusher cad, and husband to Melva, has met an…
One hallmark of a good writer is the ability to follow a very successful first work with one that surpasses it. April Smith has done just that with her latest suspense thriller, Be The One. This new book reflects the same originality and thorough research as her North of Montana, which was widely praised by critics and readers. This time, Smith reveals her life-long fascination with baseball when she takes the reader behind the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers to meet the club’s fiercely competitive scouts, who are charged with finding and signing the league’s future all-stars.
Cassidy Sanderson is the daughter of legendary pitcher Smokey Sanderson and the only female scout in major league baseball. Like her male counterparts, Cassidy is a hard-living, hard-drinking, passionate follower of the game; her life revolves around the young men who struggle to make it to the minors in the hope of a shot at the big time. She is constantly on the lookout for that rarest of diamonds, The One, a player who will carry the day and lead his team to victory.
A well tended network of friends and coaches alerts Cassidy to promising prospects. Although nominally assigned an area in the United States, she is drawn to a call from Pedro Padrillo, her father’s teammate and a close family friend, who reports observing Alberto Cruz, a young player in the Dominican Republic. While in Santo Domingo observing Cruz’s play, Cassidy begins a torrid affair with Joe Galinis, a flamboyant Greek developer from Los Angeles, who owns one of the city’s plushest casinos.
Cassidy confirms Pedro’s instinct that Cruz has the talent to reach the majors and convinces her bosses to fly him to L.
A. for a closer look. Soon after he arrives at the Dodgers’s training camp, Alberto begins receiving blackmail letters, voodoo warnings, and a gruesome video all threatening to reveal the details of a fatal hit and run accident in Santo Domingo that might have involved him, Cassidy, and Joe Galinis. The blackmail threats evolve into violence when Cassidy advises Alberto not to pay; she is attacked in a nightclub parking lot and survives only because of the timely arrival of other customers.
Cassidy turns to Joe Galinis in an effort to sort out the pressures that seem to be crashing in on her usually hectic life pressures that jeopardize Alberto’s chances. The police suspect an underlying drug connection behind the violent intimidation.
Cassidy herself becomes a suspect and feels her declining influence with the club as she pushes to elevate Alberto in the upcoming player draft.
Only a true insider could include the details that flesh out Smith’s absorbing yarn as she brings all these strands to a stunning ending certain not only to make readers ask for more, but also help them appreciate the rocky climb from barrio sandlots to the majors.
John Messer is a writer in Michigan.
One hallmark of a good writer is the ability to follow a very successful first work with one that surpasses it. April Smith has done just that with her latest suspense thriller, Be The One. This new book reflects the same originality and thorough research…
Battle Born may be fiction, but it is not beyond the realm of fact which makes it all the more chilling to read. The story involves the two Koreas, China, and the United States in a political scenario that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.
Dale Brown’s favorite hero is Patrick McLanahan, a Brigadier-General in the Air Force who is now facing a formidable challenge. McLanahan is back in the air again, with a squadron of B-1 bombers belonging to Nevada’s National Guard. From this motley crew he must put together a team of combat pilots who are aggressive, young, and thoroughly skilled at pushing airplanes through the skies at supersonic speeds.
Nevada’s squadron of the B-1B Lancers is commanded by Lt. Col. Nancy Cheshire. Her major problem is keeping the pilots from battling each other. She is relatively content with her job until General McLanahan enters her life.
Meanwhile, there is a joint U.
S.-Japanese-South Korean mock bombing exercise underway. To the astonishment of the other participants, the South Korean pilots fly across the border into the North to support a revolt of the starving people of North Korea. Much to the dismay of U.
S. President Kevin Martindale, South Korean leaders declare that a United Korea exists. With that declaration the world’s newest nuclear power emerges. (The South has captured Chinese nukes which China wants back to the extent that it invades the now-unified Korea.) At this point, General McLanahan enters the conflict to try to avert World War III, bringing with him top-secret technology and his band of brazen fly-boys.
If there is a drawback to this techno-thriller, it is that Brown is so concerned with realism that he writes almost too many detailed descriptions of flying, from bomber avionics to targeting by radar. Even so, Battle Born is a gripping and entertaining novel that is hard to put down. ¦ Lloyd Armour is a retired newspaper editor in Nashville, Tennessee.
Battle Born may be fiction, but it is not beyond the realm of fact which makes it all the more chilling to read. The story involves the two Koreas, China, and the United States in a political scenario that will leave readers on the edge…
It is not unusual for a political thriller to possess a far-fetched plot, with America’s military and diplomatic power laid low through some foreign threat against the President or the Congress. What is different with Vince Flynn’s latest effort, Transfer of Power, emerges in its sense of authenticity, depth of research, and almost seamless dramatic scenario. In this post-Cold War environment, every nation with an intelligence operation poses a menace to the more powerful military nations. A group of Middle Eastern terrorists put together a sinister plan to seize the White House and the President, and demand the return of the vast amounts of money confiscated from Iran during the Shah’s overthrow.
While President Robert Hayes, a former U.
S. Senator and political bridgebuilder between the warring parties, is alerted to the possibility of an armed terrorist act against the Executive Mansion, there is almost nothing that can be done to stop it. At the same time that this plan is underway, a covert mission by an elite counter-terrorist team pushes ahead to snare a major Iranian figure involved in terrorism throughout the region. The snatch of the terrorist is accomplished without a hitch but the clock is ticking at the White House as the siege is about to commence.
One of Flynn’s finest skills as an up-and-coming young master in the genre of political thrillers is his ability to create a cast of compelling characters, from President Hayes to super operative Mitch Rapp to the resourceful Rafique Aziz. Each one is drawn in a few eloquent strokes, giving readers just enough substance to make them full-bodied.
The battle to capture the White House gets a top rating for its intensity and realism. The combat, like the plan to infiltrate the White House, reveals the wealth of research used in constructing the novel. None of the events leading to the entrapment of the President rings false. As the President waits nervously for the resolution of the crisis, the true nature of Beltway politics rears its ugly head, with both his allies and enemies suddenly jockeying for positions of power and advantage. Alternating views of the action from both captors and captives raise the heat. And through its unforgiving depiction of lawmakers, cabinet personnel, and government agencies, Transfer of Power says much about the take-no-prisoners attitude of American politics.
It is not unusual for a political thriller to possess a far-fetched plot, with America's military and diplomatic power laid low through some foreign threat against the President or the Congress. What is different with Vince Flynn's latest effort, Transfer of Power, emerges in its…
Battle Born may be fiction, but it is not beyond the realm of fact which makes it all the more chilling to read. The story involves the two Koreas, China, and the United States in a political scenario that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.
Dale Brown’s favorite hero is Patrick McLanahan, a Brigadier-General in the Air Force who is now facing a formidable challenge. McLanahan is back in the air again, with a squadron of B-1 bombers belonging to Nevada’s National Guard. From this motley crew he must put together a team of combat pilots who are aggressive, young, and thoroughly skilled at pushing airplanes through the skies at supersonic speeds.
Nevada’s squadron of the B-1B Lancers is commanded by Lt. Col. Nancy Cheshire. Her major problem is keeping the pilots from battling each other. She is relatively content with her job until General McLanahan enters her life.
Meanwhile, there is a joint U.
S.-Japanese-South Korean mock bombing exercise underway. To the astonishment of the other participants, the South Korean pilots fly across the border into the North to support a revolt of the starving people of North Korea. Much to the dismay of U.
S. President Kevin Martindale, South Korean leaders declare that a United Korea exists. With that declaration the world’s newest nuclear power emerges. (The South has captured Chinese nukes which China wants back to the extent that it invades the now-unified Korea.) At this point, General McLanahan enters the conflict to try to avert World War III, bringing with him top-secret technology and his band of brazen fly-boys.
If there is a drawback to this techno-thriller, it is that Brown is so concerned with realism that he writes almost too many detailed descriptions of flying, from bomber avionics to targeting by radar. Even so, Battle Born is a gripping and entertaining novel that is hard to put down. ¦ Lloyd Armour is a retired newspaper editor in Nashville, Tennessee.
Battle Born may be fiction, but it is not beyond the realm of fact which makes it all the more chilling to read. The story involves the two Koreas, China, and the United States in a political scenario that will leave readers on the edge…
It’s still a dangerous world out there. Despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, or perhaps because of it, there are plenty of powder kegs across the globe, waiting to be lit. Some of them are due to the dispersal of the weapons of a cash-poor U.S.
S.
R.; some, like the Middle East, the horn of Africa, and Northern Ireland, will be with us always. Without doubt, the biggest threat to freedom worldwide is Communist China, a country seemingly capable of doing anything to further its aims, from stealing secrets to brutally repressing dissent within its borders.
It is into this mix that writer Patrick Robinson sends his latest protagonists over 100 of them the crew of the nuclear submarine U.S.
S. Seawolf. Assigned to a covert reconnaissance mission in the South China Sea, routine quickly becomes deadly, and following a tragic mishap, the Seawolf and its crew fall into the hands of the Chinese. It quickly becomes apparent that their captors have no intention of letting them go ever. What’s worse, a member of their crew harbors a secret that, if discovered, would make the sub’s capture pale in comparison.
The Seawolf’s command crew knows they must hold their crew together until help arrives if it ever does but with personnel dying at the hands of the Chinese, they don’t know how long they can hold out. It’s up to a no-nonsense admiral, a disgraced colonel, and a crack team of Navy Seals to get the crew of the Seawolf out of their isolated prison before they are tortured into giving up the Seawolf’s secrets. And what about the sub herself? Full of detail, U.S.
S. Seawolf will please the Tom Clancy/Technothriller crowd; its rousing climax coupled with a shocking ending will leave Robinson’s fans hungry for his next book.
It's still a dangerous world out there. Despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, or perhaps because of it, there are plenty of powder kegs across the globe, waiting to be lit. Some of them are due to the dispersal of the weapons of a…
No one does an art thriller quite like B.A. Shapiro, and with such as novels The Art Forger and The Muralist, she’s carved out quite the niche by blinding literary thrills with questions of authenticity, value, museum politics and the inner workings of various historical art scenes.
Shapiro’s next novel, Metropolis, arrives this spring from Algonquin Books, and BookPage is delighted to reveal its cover and an exclusive excerpt!
First, read a bit about Metropolis in the official synopsis from Algonquin:
This masterful novel of psychological suspense from the New York Times bestselling author of The Art Forger follows a cast of unforgettable characters whose lives intersect when a harrowing accident occurs at the Metropolis Storage Warehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
But was it really an accident? Was it suicide? A murder? Six mysterious characters who rent units in, or are connected to, the self-storage facility must now reevaluate their lives. We meet Serge, an unstable but brilliant street photographer who lives in his unit, which overflows with thousands of undeveloped pictures; Zach, the building’s owner, who develops Serge’s photos as he searches for clues to the accident; Marta, an undocumented immigrant who is finishing her dissertation and hiding from ICE; Liddy, an abused wife and mother, who re-creates her children’s bedroom in her unit; Jason, who has left his corporate firm and now practices law from his storage unit; and Rose, the office manager, who takes kickbacks to let renters live in the building and has her own complicated family history.
The characters have a variety of backgrounds: They are different races; they practice different religions; they’re young and they’re not so young; they are rich, poor, and somewhere in the middle. As they dip in and out of one another’s lives, fight circumstances that are within and also beyond their control, and try to discover the details of the accident, Shapiro both dismantles the myth of the American dream and builds tension to an exciting climax.
Metropolis hits bookstores and libraries on May 17, 2022. While you wait, we’re delighted to reveal the cover from designer Sara Wood and art director Christopher Moisan. Plus, an exclusive excerpt after the jump!
BOSTONGLOBE.COM, JANUARY 7, 2018. Cambridge, MA—Rescue workers were dispatched to the Metropolis Storage Warehouse at Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar Street in response to a 911 call at 11:15 this evening. At least one person was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with critical injuries after a fall down an elevator shaft. Details are limited, and neither police nor hospital officials identified the victim. Questions were raised about what people were doing at the self-storage facility at that hour, and police are investigating other violations concerning the building. This is a developing story. It will be updated.
ONE
Zach
May 2018
It’s Rose’s fault. It’s Aetna’s fault. It’s Otis Elevator’s fault. All of the above and none of the above. Zach Davidson hovers at the edge of the crowd, but at six two it’s tough to blend into the background. The auctioneer doesn’t know Zach is the recipient of the money from the forthcoming sales, and he wants to keep it that way, although he doesn’t know why this matters. He isn’t even sure why he’s come, unless as some perverse form of self-flagellation.
“Most of you know the rules,” the auctioneer begins in her booming voice, “but I’m going to go over them quickly. Due to foreclosure of the building, the contents of twenty-two abandoned storage units are up for sale. The minimum bid is one hundred dollars. Cash only. I’ll open the door to each unit, and you’ll have five minutes to see what’s inside, and then I’ll start the auction. You may not cross the threshold. You may not touch anything. You may not ask me any questions, because I don’t have any answers. You take it all or you leave it all. Then we move on to the next unit. Is this clear?”
There’s a murmur of acceptance, which echoes off the concrete walls and floor, the steel-reinforced ceiling. They’re standing outside Rose’s old office, the woman Zach shouldn’t have relied on. Every direction he looks pisses him off. Rose’s empty desk, the dim bulbs, the peeling paint. He turns his back on the yellow police tape stretched across the elevator.
It’s been almost four months since it happened, and still no one knows for sure if it was an accident, a suicide attempt, or a murder attempt. Could be any of them, but it doesn’t make all that much difference. He’s screwed any which way. Damn elevator. Damn Rose. Damn hard luck.
He follows the auctioneer as she marches down a corridor lined with heavy metal doors, each imprinted with a round medallion containing a large M intertwined with a smaller S and W. Metropolis Storage Warehouse. One hundred and twenty-three years old. Six stories high. Ninety feet wide. Four hundred and eighty feet long. Almost four hundred storage units of various sizes and shapes; some even have windows. Zach knows it well.
Author B.A. Shapiro
The potential bidders are a mixed bunch. Two men in ratty clothes smell as if they’ve been sleeping on the street, which they probably have. Another three look like lawyers or real estate developers, and there’s a foursome of gray-hairs who appear to have just stepped off the golf course. A gaggle of middle-aged women in running shoes sends stern glances at a girl clutching a pen and a pad of paper, who seems far too young to be the mother of the children she’s yelling at. Male, female, tall, short, fat, slim, white, Black, brown, rich, poor, clever, or not so clever. Like the inner recesses of Metropolis itself, a diverse assemblage that stands in contrast to the archipelago of cultural and economic neighborhoods Boston has become.
Zach has owned Metropolis for ten years, bought at a ridiculously low price in a quasi-legal deal that looked to be the way out of the consequences of his bad choices. Although it still belongs to him, however temporarily, he has no idea what’s behind any of the doors. The building had a well-deserved shady reputation when he purchased it, and he concluded he was better off not knowing what people were storing in their units. In retrospect, a little prying might have averted this mess.
The auctioneer, a beefy woman with biceps twice the size of Zach’s, takes a key from her backpack and dramatically twists it into the lock. Then she slides the ten-foot-wide fireproof door along its track on the floor to reveal a murky room, lumpy with shadowy objects. She reaches inside and flips on the light.
“Take it all! Leave it all!” she cries. “Five minutes!”
Revealed by naked light bulbs hanging from the eleven-foot ceiling, #114 is decidedly dull. An old refrigerator, an electric stove, a bunch of mismatched chairs, a couple of mattresses, clothes overflowing from open cartons scattered all over the floor. There are at least two dozen sealed boxes lined up against the far wall and a four-foot pile of empty picture frames ready to topple. Everything is coated with what appears to be decades of dust. Zach groans inwardly. He needs every cent he can squeeze out of this auction, and no one’s going to bid on any of this junk.
But he’s wrong. After the auctioneer starts rippling her tongue in an impenetrable torrent of words, people start raising their hands. When the contents go for $850, Zach is flabbergasted. The other units surely contain more impressive stuff than this and should generate even higher bids.
Some do, some don’t, and two are completely empty.
“Take it all! Leave it all! Five minutes!”
When the auctioneer unlocks the door of #357, there’s a collective gasp. The interior looks like a stage waiting for the evening performance to commence: a complete upscale office suite, including a desk, bookshelves, and a small conference table surrounded by four chairs. Bizarre. It goes for $3,500.
On the fifth floor is a tiny and perfectly immaculate unit: a neatly made single bed, an intricately carved rolltop desk, a chair, a small bureau. Nothing else. One thousand dollars. In #454, there’s another bizarre tableau. Creepy, actually. It appears to belong to a couple of teenagers. Two desks piled with books and trophies, walls covered with movie posters, and corkboards adorned with invitations and photos and newspaper clippings. Did they come here to study? To hide? Zach stretches his neck in as far as he can without the auctioneer cutting it off.
She almost does. “Step back, sir!” she yells, her voice stiletto-sharp. “This minute!” Everyone looks at him as if he’s committed a heinous crime. “Take it all! Leave it all! Five minutes!”
Annoyed, he does as she orders, but he wants to see more, surprised to find himself interested in the lives lived here. This is something he’d never considered before, or to be more correct, he had thought about it, but only as a means to get the bad guys out of the building and clean up his own act. Now the questions surge. Who were these people? Why these particular items? And, most intriguing of all, why did they leave so much behind?
Unit 421 is another stage, but this one is freakish in its attention to detail. It’s a double unit with two round windows, and it looks like an upscale studio apartment, perhaps a pied-à-terre. Against one wall, a queen-size bed is covered by a rumpled silk bedspread and an unreasonable number of pillows. A nightstand holding a lamp and a clock sits to its right side; a large abstract painting is centered over the headboard. At the other end of the unit is an overstuffed reading chair, a writing desk, and a sectional couch, also with too many pillows, facing a large-screen television. In the corner, there’s a small table, two chairs, and a compact kitchen featuring cabinets, a refrigerator, a microwave, and a fancy hot plate.
“Take it all! Leave it all! Five minutes!”
This time there’s no doubt in Zach’s mind to whom the unit belongs, or rather, to whom it had belonged. Liddy Haines. He closes his eyes and presses his forefinger to the bridge of his nose in an attempt to make the horrific image go away, which it does not. Six thousand dollars.
Unit 514 was apparently used as a darkroom, and from the looks of it, also as a bedroom. He stares at the sheets pooling at the edge of a cot, at the dirty clothes heaped on the floor. He’s seen three beds in three different units over the last hour, and he clenches his fists to contain his anger. If Rose didn’t know people were living here, she should have. It was a lawsuit waiting to happen—even if it wasn’t the lawsuit now upending his life. An irony he’d appreciate more if he weren’t so damn furious.
In contrast to Liddy Haines’s unit, there’s no expensive furniture here, but there is a lot of high-quality photographic equipment. A long table edges the south side of the room, overflowing with trays, chemicals, jugs, paper, an enlarger, and an assortment of spools, filters, thermometers, and timers. A clothesline with pins attached stretches over the jumble, and there are at least a dozen five-gallon Poland Spring containers, most of them full, along with another dozen warehouse-size cartons of energy bars.
A Rolleiflex camera is perched atop a stack of cartons, its well-worn leather strap dangling. Zach recognizes it because of the nature photography he’s been doing lately, his current obsession. Highpointing, climbing the highest peak in every state, was his last one, and that’s what got him into taking landscape pictures in the first place. But his interest in mountaineering has been waning—thirty-two states is more than enough—as his new interest in photography has waxed. He’s usually only good for one obsession at a time, dropping the previous one when another grabs his fancy. He’s an all-in or all-out kind of guy.
The Rolleiflex is a twin-lens reflex, medium format, which hardly anyone uses anymore. But if you know what you’re doing, it takes remarkable photos. Zach rented one when he was at Bryce last year, and the first time he looked down into the viewfinder—which is at waist, rather than eye, level—he was blown away.
The vastness of the mountains and the big sky in front of him were perfectly reflected through the lens, without the tunnel vision effect of a standard camera. When he returned to Boston, he kept it a few extra days and experimented with street photography. The cool part is that because you’re looking down rather than directly at your subject, no one is aware they’re being photographed. Vivian Maier, arguably one of the greatest street photographers ever, used a Rolleiflex.
Zach leans into the unit as far as the Nazi will allow, searching for pictures. There are a few lying about, but it’s difficult to see them from the hallway. The ones he can see are all square rather than rectangular, a feature of the Rolleiflex. He tilts his head and squints at a photo on the end of the table closest to him: a striking black-and-white with afternoon sunlight cutting a diagonal across the image.
A man is standing in front of an open door with an arched top; the word “Office” can be clearly read behind his head. His shoulder leans against the doorframe, one knee slightly bent. His eyes stare off into the distance. Before Zach understands what he’s seeing, his stomach twists. It’s a photograph of him.
The best of damn near everything Sometimes it’s nice to have someone else do the work for you. You can’t read everything. Various yearly anthologies try to save readers the trouble of filtering out the lesser nominees for our disposable income and spare time. Prominent among them are Houghton Mifflin’s Best Of series.
The Best American Essays 1998, edited this time by acclaimed practitioner Cynthia Ozick, is the feast of fine writing we’ve come to expect from this series. The 25 contributors range from the venerable William Maxwell on Nearing Ninety to John Updike’s lovely meditation on the art of cartooning. The Best American Short Stories 1998 ($27.50, 0395875153), guest-edited by Garrison Keillor, includes 20 stories by authors such as Meg Wolitzer, Carol Anshaw, and, inevitably, John Updike. Each of these stories surprised and delighted me, Keillor writes. He isn’t alone.
A newer series, The Best American Mystery Stories 1998 ($27.50, 0395835860), edited by the alphabetical Sue Grafton, offers 20 forays into crime and punishment. The authors range from old standbys like Edward D. Hoch, John Lutz, and Donald Westlake, to surprising additions, such as Jay McInerney.
The best of damn near everything Sometimes it's nice to have someone else do the work for you. You can't read everything. Various yearly anthologies try to save readers the trouble of filtering out the lesser nominees for our disposable income and spare time. Prominent…
It’s been a decade since I wrote my first legal thriller. Like many authors, I was caught in the updraft of John Grisham and Scott Turrow. The Letter of the Law was the first novel I’d written that became a bestseller, and it changed my career. Since my first legal thriller—a story about Casey Jordan, a tough, resourceful female lawyer—was the catalyst that propelled me to a new level as a writer, my editor thought revisiting that character might prove itself again. I’ve done that with my last two books, Above the Law and now False Convictions.
As I did when I first wrote about Casey Jordan in The Letter of the Law, I went to my wife for inspiration. I needed a story that would entertain and inspire. Since my main character was a woman, I needed a woman’s perspective. But I also needed a subject rooted in the legal system, a subject that anyone could relate to, and that also carried with it the weight of life or death. My search began with a simple conversation about the law, about crime and punishment.
My wife has an uncompromising view of the justice system: if someone is guilty, he should be punished. The death penalty? Well, that’s okay, too. Some crimes are so bad they deserve the death penalty, if the person really did it.
There’s the rub.
“But how do you ever know that for certain?” I ask.
“Well,” she says, “just in the cases where you really know, like someone saw them do it or something, or if they get the DNA. Those people should never get off.”
While I agree with her ultimate goal, the lawyer in me argues about her certainty.
“What if the witness is lying?” I ask.
“DNA and a witness,” she says. “That’s proof.”
And a great setup for a thriller.
The O.J. Simpson trial first opened the public’s mind to the possibility of corrupted DNA, throwing back the curtain on the magic of science. The defense brilliantly called into question the validity of the processes and the people who give us the 13 matching loci that constitute a match with a billion-to-one certainty.
When we think about human manipulation, so many things become possible, and the switch between right and wrong is easily flipped. Of course, those with the power or the opportunity to flip that switch need motivation. For the rich and powerful, it’s often greed that motivates them and money that fuels their mission.
We regularly hear about prisoners who’ve spent 20 years or more in jail being set free. The mechanism is DNA testing where physical proof directly refutes the evidence that led to their conviction. Many times these people were unjustly convicted by witnesses who, for one reason or another, lied or were mistaken. The DNA may have been taken from the murder weapon, some matter on the victim’s clothes or person, or some other object from the scene of the crime, proving that it was someone else who committed the act instead of the convicted prisoner.
Twists and turns drive suspense novels to make the story fast-paced and hard to put down. The obvious is a story about a lawyer working hard to overturn an unjust conviction in order to free an innocent man from nearly two decades of imprisonment. We’ve seen thousands of those.
As a writer, I can turn up the heat by giving reasons why other people would want the accused to pay for the crime instead of the real criminal. And I can create a close-knit, politically charged small town where nearly everyone will present an obstacle to the lawyer because she is a mistrusted outsider. However, the real twist comes from the unexpected, from challenging people’s perceptions of reality: can a smudge of matter from 20 years ago prove guilt or innocence? And, if it can, how can we know for certain that the smudge is what someone says it is? Where did the smudge come from and how do we know?
I love that DNA can free men wrongly imprisoned for decades. I’m hungry to lock up murderers, rapists and pedophiles and throw away the keys and know that modern forensic science can help. Still, at the end of the day, contrary to my wife’s wishes—even with the power of DNA—the ultimate arbiters are imperfect humans. The guilty don’t always get the punishment they deserve and the innocent don’t always go free.
A former lawyer and pro football player, Tim Green is the author of several legal thrillers, a memoir and a children’s chapter book series. When he’s not writing, he is hosting the ABC show “Find My Family” or spending time with his wife and five children at home in upstate New York. You can find more information on his website.
It’s been a decade since I wrote my first legal thriller. Like many authors, I was caught in the updraft of John Grisham and Scott Turrow. The Letter of the Law was the first novel I’d written that became a bestseller, and it changed my…
My first novel, The Sixth Lamentation, deals with two time frames. The first presents the exploits of a group of Catholic students in Paris during the Nazi occupation of World War II. They call themselves The Round Table and smuggle Jewish children to a monastery in Burgundy. The students are betrayed, and only one person survives Agnes Aubret. The second time frame begins 50 years later. Agnes, now living in England, learns that she will soon die from a terminal illness. This terrible revelation comes on the same day that the German officer responsible for the fate of her compatriots is exposed hiding in a Gilbertine Priory. In due course a war crimes trial begins, and Agnes will either die vanquished or vindicated. The legal process flounders, however; there are secrets the participants will not reveal. Father Anselm, a monk in the community where the German officer sought refuge, is compelled to unravel the moral complexity of the past and bring an unexpected moment of redemption to Agnes before she dies.
It is perhaps a truism to state that a first novel is often a plundering of one’s past. This is certainly true of me, although the fields of memory I explored were not restricted to my own. In 1942 my mother was arrested by the Gestapo while smuggling a Jewish infant out of Amsterdam. The child was taken away and my mother was imprisoned. She survived the war; the child almost certainly did not. I had always been struck by the unimaginable antecedents to this dreadful incident: the anguish of the parents; the comprehensive nature of the Nazi project; and the need for extraordinary heroism from ordinary people in impossible circumstances. Thus, before I had any sense of the novel’s content, I pictured a group of students with their faces set against the times: a Round Table of chivalry in a world gone mad.
I moved the story to France because I thought the history of occupation and collaboration to be a powerful metaphor for the invasive presence of evil. Here was an Žpoque where cooperation and resistance were often blurred; where courageous acts were required from those who were most compromised; and where good, strong people sometimes failed despite best intentions. In many respects, it seemed to me, this was a model of human experience, writ large. And perhaps nowhere was the human confrontation with evil more starkly demonstrated than in the Vel d’Hiv roundup of 1942, when 4,051 children were separated from their parents before deportation to Auschwitz. From the outset, then, I wanted to present the agony of this history, along with the morally charged position of the bystander, whose only choice was opposition or compliance. I was as much concerned with the peculiar status of collaborators, who were sometimes in a position to influence their masters, as with resistantes, who were often powerless to intervene.
Much of my adult life has been spent as an Augustinian friar and then a barrister. Perhaps that is why I chose to explore the subject of this novel not through a re-enactment of the past, but through a present-day war crimes trial. This perspective had significant consequences: I was immediately free to explore how suffering can work its way through successive generations, such that the resolution of the past is profoundly necessary for those who were neither victims or witnesses; by using judicial procedure, the elements of the narrative are examined from an adversarial perspective, insinuating a sort of licensed scepticism that picks away at memories grown frail by the passage of time; the use of a religious context, and indeed the emphasis on the French experience, meant that the narrative had to unfold with reference to anti-Semitism in its political, theological and literary incarnations. It was my hope that all these complications personal, legal and moral could be gently touched upon in the tragic story of Agnes.
I wrote the novel after the first (and probably last) war crimes prosecution under British law and during the Irving v. Penguin libel trial. Lost retribution and Holocaust denial were thus painfully before my mind. The voices of the witnesses were fading away. All of which suggests this book is a testament of sorts, but not mine. It is in part, the handing on of someone else’s memory. A native of England, William Brodrick became an Augustinian friar at the age of 19. Leaving religious life six years later, he worked with homeless people and then became a lawyer. His first novel, The Sixth Lamentation is being published this month by Viking. Brodrick lives in Normandy, France with his wife and three children.
My first novel, The Sixth Lamentation, deals with two time frames. The first presents the exploits of a group of Catholic students in Paris during the Nazi occupation of World War II. They call themselves The Round Table and smuggle Jewish children to a monastery…
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Praised by horrormeister Stephen King, Paul Tremblay’s shocking new novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, is an often graphic account of one family’s ordeal when their vacation is shattered in a cult-like home invasion. We asked Tremblay about the book’s origins, its dark path and his inner fears that helped forge the novel.
