Arab terrorists again, this time from Yemen. Osama bin Loony has come and gone, but his legacy of hate and destruction lingers on. What next after the outrage of 9/11? America again or some distant land? The world awaits the blow with trepidation. And with what weapon: chemical, biological, radiological?
The Storm by Clive Cussler 404 pp, 2012 Michael Joseph paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 695 baht
Not knowing gives novelists an opening to speculate and their imaginations are running wild. International intelligence agencies have their own thoughts on the matter, but not so far out. Perhaps the jihadists are reading the stories for ideas. Whatever else their failings, suicide bombers are presumed to be literate.
Yankee author Clive Cussler, who uses the revenue from his scores of books to finance his search for lost shipwrecks, has seafaring in his blood and in his plots. He's been around the seven seas more than once. The reader is given the benefit of his experience in exciting adventure yarns.
Unlike all too many scriveners, Cussler hasn't gotten on the Arab terrorist bandwagon. They don't appear in most of his writings, yet when they do, the spotlight is on them from the first page to the last. In The Storm under review, Jinn means to get universal power. A nut and a diabolical one.
His weapon of mass destruction is a pain machine, developed by the Americans for use against the Japanese but not used because World War II ended first. Turned on, it blows down and paralyses the enemy. Abandoned, Jinn acquires it and uses it for his own purposes on his Indian Ocean fortified isle.
Then there are bee-sized micro-robots which eat through everything _ human, steel, concrete. Commanded by a computer code only he has memorised, they are used to sink warships, devour their crews and cause manmade structures to crumble. The structure he is in the process of bringing down is the Aswan Dam in Egypt.
Can Kurt Austin, one of the author's literary creations, and his underwater team bring Jinn and his cohorts down in time to save mankind? If you are among the scribe's numerous fans, this question is rhetorical. For 404 pages they do battle on land and on sea.
In the penultimate chapter, will Jinn give up the secret code before the micro-robots devour them all, himself included? Clive Cussler, teamed with Graham Brown this time, offers us an exciting thriller in The Storm. By a character's account, 10,000 to 20,000 die. Is it really to be Aswan Dam next?
No One Left To Tell by Karen Rose 677 pp, 2012 Headline paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 350 baht
Overlong thriller
One thing mothers agree on is that their children are model citizens, innocent of any crime. If sent to jail, it's a travesty of justice, the evidence against them planted, the testimony of the witnesses spurious. Yet defending their sons and daughters are expected of mums, even those of serial killers _ hence ignored by the powers that be.
Nevertheless, on occasion the mothers are right. Not always, but sometimes. How can they obtain justice when the cases are closed and the criminal justice system has turned its back on them? Well, if the mothers persist, it just may happen. American detective fiction author Karen Rose gives an example of when it does in No One Left To Tell.
In Maryland, Hispanic gardener Ramon Munoz has been in the penitentiary for five years for killing _ raping, strangling, knifing _ a young woman. A family man, he doesn't fit the profile, but a belonging of hers is found hidden in his room. An open and shut case.
His mother refuses to let it go. She hires a private eye to do what she can to overthrow the conviction, which sent her boy away for life. Enter Paige Holden, the author's literary creation carried over from her previous stories. Paige moved from Minneapolis to Baltimore years earlier.
At 36, the shamus knows her job. Perusing the file, she finds holes in Ramon's case. Arresting officers gave conflicting testimony, not expected of experienced homicide detectives. And the connection to other young victims doesn't hold water. There are more murders, this time of his family.
The rapes _ same M.O. _ have been going on for 13 years. A break comes when the only survivor, now in her 20s, turns up and points her finger at a state senator and his wife. Powerful and wealthy, how can they be brought down? Persuading the same attorney who successfully prosecuted Ramon to join her, they join forces defending him.
No One Left To Tell has its merits, but is overlong by half at 644 pages. The numerous interviews, court orders, DNA testing, computer break-ins, step-by-step following of characters could have been tightened, several eliminated. Paige Holden's private life is interesting, not riveting.
Corruption in high places _ bribery, intimidation, drugs, sex _ is found in every land. No kudos to the author for exposing it in Maryland. Loving mothers, however, deserve plaudits. Loving fathers, too, I might add.
