It would appear that every Western novelist feels that if he doesn't pen at least one story about Muslim terrorists, he isn't being patriotic. Doesn't matter if it's plausible, it is the subject matter that counts. After all, is there any atrocity Muslim terrorists aren't capable of?
DEAD OR ALIVE by Tom Clancy 723 pp, 2011 Penguin paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 650 baht
It is well-known, the authors tell us, that Muslims mean to go to paradise and the surest way to get there is by joining a jihad against non-Muslims. Killing the infidels, dying a martyr's death in the process, certainly entitles them to the 72 damsels awaiting. The problem is that the plot variations aren't infinite.
With scriveners turning out dozens of such books a month, we feel deja vu reading them. All feature a hero, by himself or with a team, taking on the villain, alone or with a team. And thwarting the evil deed at the last minute. Tom Clancy sticks to this formula for 723 pages in Dead or Alive.
Jack Ryan Jr heads the counter terrorist team answerable to the president of the United States _ called Campus, but has nothing to do with schools. The Emir, based on Osama bin Loony, is out to commit terror in the States _ death, pain, panic. Earlier, he left a swathe of bodies from Tripoli to Damascus.
The author gives pages of descriptions of those on each team. In training, experience and expertise, they are evenly matched. The Emir's plan is to cause several small bloody incidents in different cities as the prelude to the massive one.
Grenades under the bleachers during a game, a mine outside a church on Sunday, etc. But nothing to match poisoning the water table of the western States. Capturing the Emir's right-hand man raises the question of whether waterboarding him to learn what his reader is up to is torture.
Clancy doesn't mince words. Of course it is, but when employed for the greater good, torturing enemies of the people isn't immoral. In the event the captive tells all, though the author is in no hurry to bring Dead or Alive to a conclusion. To be sure the Muslim terrorists have blood on their hands, but not as much as planned.
Taking a leaf from James Patterson, Tom Clancy has many chapters _ 88. Other writers are doing the same. Chapters of 30 to 40 pages are giving way to those of three to four pages. Now if only Clancy can shorten his works from over 700 pages to under 400.
The dead speak
MIDWINTER SACRIFICE by Mons Kalletoft 440 pp, 2012 Hodder paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 350 baht
Just when I thought I'd reviewed every kind of crime novel, up comes a new variation, which Midwinter Sacrifice by Swedish author Mons Kallentoft clearly is. Not that different is necessarily better. Still the book, translated by Neil Smith, has its merits.
It occurs to this reviewer that had Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman penned a detective story, it might be similar. The blurb informs us that Kallentoft in his provincial hometown of Linkoping, which after 440 pages removed from my dream list of tourist destinations.
It has a police station, detective inspector Malin Fors its leading criminal catcher. She and her husband are estranged, each blaming the other for the lack of restraint of their teenage daughter, Tove. The people of the community have no time for lawmen, unless urgently needed.
The author notes that every family has a dark secret, a skeleton in the closet they will do anything _ literally anything _ to keep hidden. Malin and her team resort to threat of arrests to get information, and more often than not it's a lie. But she persists and her intuition is usually right.
What makes this tale different is that the dead are given dialogue (in italics). How they feel after being murdered. Or when in the casket. Or while being cremated. And among the characters are spirituals trying to contact the dead. No vampires, however. A boy is found hanging. A girl is raped and in a coma.
It's winter, snow is deep on the ground, winds blow with blizzard force. Layers of clothing and thickest of gloves don't keep out the cold for long. But there are perpetrators to catch, computers at the station and the UK's advanced laboratories available for testing DNA evidence.
The mother of the ravaged girl goads her three sons into going after their half-brother, convinced that he's the culprit. Malin knows he isn't. For page after page, she and her team are chasing them through the frozen forest to prevent this act of vigilantism.
Winter Sacrifice is too heavy-handed to be an easy read. Malin Fors is likeable, but I wish she moved to Stockholm. As for the dead talking, I regard it as a gimmick. But I allow that it's different. Stephen King, please note.
