Many of us profess to know it all, but do we? Not all of us, surely. And though there are among us who know a good deal, knowing it all is a bit much. Not even Aristotle or Da Vinci, Newton or Einstein were that brilliant.
DECEPTION by Jonathan Kellerman 306 pp, 2010 Headline paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 650 baht.
It has long been determined that the way to determine how smart people are is by giving them tests _ the high scores the wheat, the low the chaff. Such tests or examinations determine, among other things, entrance into prestigious schools.
With the results of the tests shaping one's future there are more than a few cases of cheating. One way is somehow obtaining the test in advance and concealing the answers. Another is having someone cleverer taking the test in the candidate's guise.
US author Jonathan Kellerman focuses on this practice in Deception, his 30th novel. His literary creation Dr Alex Delaware is, like him, a psychologist. Fans are aware that Delaware's friend is LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis.
Sturgis is a full-blown character, getting as much space as the shrink. He eats like a horse (every meal is described in detail), is affectionately nicknamed Big Guy, is gay, makes Delaware a paid consultant on his tougher cases.
The first body is of Elsie Freeman, a teacher at Winsor Prep Academy. Yet she was no schoolmarm, her abused torso encased in dry ice. The deeper the two protagonists investigate her background, the more lurid was her life.
The well-to-do families of the students left them stressed, insisting that Stanfort University was the necessary next step on the ladder to success. Those who weren't sufficiently intelligent needed a tutor, better yet someone to take the entrance exam for them.
Freeman made it clear that she was willing to do both _ $15,000 the standard fee for sitting in. The deal was made, she passed with high marks and was paid. But she was greedy, demanding a substantial bonus or she would tell all.
Moreover, the middle-aged teacher was sexually attracted to the teenagers. But they had their choice of girls their own age, be they co-eds or strippers.
Tristan and Quinn are rich brats who have it all and they enjoy killing, not least those they think are onto them, cutting up their victims with a chainsaw and blaming a hapless Mexican. Washing down drugs with champagne, they fly around the country in daddy's Golfstream.
Kellerman points out and reiterates that cheating on exams of all sorts is prevalent, those caught in the minority. It's a crime and it is universal.
Star-crossed lovers
EVERY MAN TRULY LIVES ALONE by C.P. Tertius 267 pp, 2011 Hellgate paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 540 baht.
A denizen of the Big Apple in the distant past, rarely a week passed in which my apartment house mailbox wasn't stuffed with flyers asking/ demanding that I support one charity or another. To help cure cancer in the US, take responsibility for orphans in Africa, feed the starving people of Asia.
The stories were sad and designed to send me on guilt trips. After all I ate my fill daily, had money left over for entertainment. How selfish of me to ignore those less fortunate. Yet ignore them I did. (Apart from my becoming a social investigator for a few years, which is another story.)
There are just too many sob stories, genuine for the most part, tugging at my tears, my heart strings and my wallet. I have donated blood to the Red Cross, but no body parts. I deserve to enjoy the fruits of my labour. The plight of tens, hundreds of millions isn't my problem. Why it isn't God's either, I intend to ask Him when we meet.
In Every Man Truly Lives Alone, US author C.P. Tertius (pseudonym) draws our attention to the stateless refugees of Southeast Asia, focusing on the Karen hill tribe. Neither Myanmar nor Thailand will give them citizenship and they have an impoverished existence in between, subject to the whims of those governments.
Dates aren't given, but the novel is set between the Vietnam War and the great Tsunami. Keith Miller retired after 20 years in the military, a colonel. Learning local languages and dialects with ease he knows his way around Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia. An anti-communist fighter adviser.
Civilian life back in the US didn't agree with him, his children grown and wife passing away in a traffic accident, so back to these parts he comes. At Three Pagoda Pass Miller meets Jey, who runs a coffee shop and they fall in love. But being a Karen, she has no papers. A legal marriage is out of the question. Nor can she travel.
Miller is determined to take her to Australia, where her status can hopefully be clarified. The Myanmar people are pleasant, but the junta is a repressive dictatorship, the land mired in the 19th century. Thailand is much to be preferred, but bureaucratic and corrupt.
The lovers are taken abroad a yacht, becoming friends with its Aussie skipper and Yank wife. The author throws in adventures with pirates, sharks, a typhoon and then the Tsunami, which takes down three of the four characters.
C.P. Tertius is no Clive Cussler, yet he keeps us turning the pages.
