The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

First published in 2004

The Dramatist is the fourth in a series of novels that chronicle the struggles of Jack Taylor, adding depth to Bruen's well drawn character, a fired cop and recovering alcoholic turned half-hearted private investigator in Galway. The prose style established in the companion novels continues here: clean, concise, and forceful. The plot includes a literary twist: Taylor's former (now imprisoned) drug dealer asks him to investigate the death of a college student found with a broken neck, a copy of The Playboy of the Western World under her body.

Like the other Jack Taylor novels, the plot is secondary to the drama that unfolds in Taylor's life, and there's plenty of it here, involving his mother, who lives in a dilapidated nursing home, his ex-wife, whose jealous new husband gives Taylor a beating, and the bartender who is one of his only true friends until that relationship sours. Along the way Taylor is suspected of murder, experiences violence at the hands of an extremist group called the Pikemen, and engages in a bit of violence himself while struggling to maintain his precarious sobriety. Then, just when you think nothing worse could happen to poor Jack, there's a sudden, shocking ending that would seem manipulative or forced in the hands of a lesser talent.

The novel moves at such a furious pace you might find yourself stopping now and then to catch your breath. Those breaks provide time to wonder just how much pain Jack can endure -- and whether he'll ever make for himself the life of peace and decency he craves. I can't help cheering for him and at the same time wondering what he'll encounter in the next novel.

RECOMMENDED

Spy Hook by Len Deighton

 

Published by Alfred A. Knopf on December 3, 1988

This is the first novel of a trilogy that follows the Game, Set and Match trilogy (in which British agent Bernard Samson's wife Fiona defects). Spy Hook begins with the beleaguered Samson asking former agent Jim Pettyman, now working for an American corporation, to return to England to answer questions in the investigation of missing agency funds. After considerable intrigue involving (among other characters), a Hungarian known as Dodo, Samson learns something he isn't supposed to know about Bret Rensselaer, an agent who played an important role (and died) in the Game, Set and Match trilogy. To the consternation of his bosses, Samson keeps nosing into the missing money, following his suspicion that Fiona set up the account. Eventually Samson comes under suspicion (could he be working with his treasonous wife?) and as the noose begins to tighten, we come to a cliffhanger ending.

The sheer number of characters involved in the story can make it a bit confusing, but that complexity is just a reason to pay attention, to look back from time to time, or to take notes, not to dislike the book. The story is fast paced, intriguing, tightly plotted and well written with sharply defined characters. Samson's growing confusion as he defies orders and investigates matters he's supposed to leave alone makes him an appealing, sympathetic character. The supporting characters are often recognizable components of bureaucratic institutions -- the ones who get ahead by knowing the right people and stay there by creatively doing nothing, taking credit for the hard work of their subordinates.  All told, Spy Hook is an excellent beginning to the trilogy, topped only by Spy Line,  the second installment.

RECOMMENDED

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

First published in 2006

The Brief History of the Dead is a book that stayed with me long after I finished it. I don't understand why so many readers disliked it. Some apparently had a preconceived notion that the novel would mimic a particular movie or book they liked and were disappointed to find that it was a different story entirely. So be warned: don't expect this novel to be quite like anything else you've encountered. If you take it on its own terms, you might enjoy it. I certainly did.

This well-written, haunting story imagines a virus that wipes out all life on Earth.  The dead reside in a sort of limbo as long as someone on Earth remembers them.  Point of view shifts between the residents of limbo (who are winking out of existence as the people who remember them die) and the last survivor on Earth, a woman in the Arctic who is struggling not with the virus, but with isolation and her unforgiving environment.

Here's why I liked this novel: The concept is imaginative. The nature of the Limbo-like existence of the dead is a stimulating mystery through much of the novel, until the characters in Limbo realize what their continued existence (at least in their Limbo-like state) depends upon. The writing is vivid. The images of Laura Byrd fighting for her survival are haunting. The novel raises intriguing questions about the nature of death and its relationship to the memory of the dead among the living.  As I said, this novel not only held my attention but made me think.

RECOMMENDED

TSAR by Ted Bell

First published in 2008

There are espionage writers like John Le Carre, Robert Littell, and Len Deighton who craft credible stories about memorable characters. There are espionage writers like Ian Fleming who create a larger-than-life hero whose adventures aren't particularly credible but are nonetheless great fun. And then there's Ted Bell, who brings us Alex Hawke: an over-the-top version of James Bond whose adventures in Tsar aren't even within spitting distance of credibility and whose prose doesn't quite reach the level of decent pulp fiction.

To some extent, I viewed Tsar as a guilty pleasure: a fast, easy read that featured plenty of preposterous action and a sharply defined (if incredibly simplistic) view of good and evil. The novel reads like a parody of a James Bond novel and some of the events Bell imagines (like Hawke's encounter with Putin in a Russian prison where Putin is scheduled to be impaled) are hilarious. Viewed in that light, Tsar produced enough chuckles to make the reading experience tolerable. Unfortunately, Bell's prose style too often falls flat, Alex Hawke is annoyingly self-righteous, the villain is a cartoon, and the "threat" to world security that Hawke confronts is so ridiculous that the novel fails even as parody.

As much as Bell seems to be positioning Hawke as the next James Bond, he just doesn't cut it. If you're looking for a quick, easy action story, Tsar will help you kill some time, but you'd do better to pick up an old Ian Fleming and read or reread the genuine article.

NOT RECOMMENDED

The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson

Published by Coffee House Press in 2006

As a "descent into madness" thriller, The Open Curtain stands out. Brian Evenson's commitment to detail makes the novel work. By interweaving the facts of an actual 1902 murder committed by the grandson of Brigham Young (perhaps with the assistance of an accomplice) and the modern ritualistic practices of the Mormon religion (some of which, as he notes in an afterward, have recently been abandoned), Evenson charts a credible path for his main character's detachment from reality. He gives that character (Rudd) a fully developed supporting cast: a cold mother; a tolerant friend-turned-wife who finds herself drawn to him despite her recognition of his growing isolation; the wife's judgmental and intrusive aunt; teachers and police officers and religious advisers who observe parts of his disintegrating personality but do nothing about it.

The Open Curtain allows the reader to experience the disjointed perceptions of a mind that increasingly fails to distinguish reality from delusion. It does that quite well. Some ambiguities are left unresolved (is Rudd's friend Lael/Lyle real or imagined?) but that makes sense given that the story is told from the perspective of a mind that doesn't know what's real. My only complaint about the novel is that, given the disturbing nature of its subject, the writing sometimes seems too low-key, not as vivid as the subject warrants. Still, I was engrossed by the story. I recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers or horror fiction.

RECOMMENDED