Ours isn't a very bad world, nor is it a very good one. We are born selfish, which isn't wrong in itself. What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours is only fair. However, what's mine is mine, what's yours is mine isn't. How do we protect ourselves when he proceeds to take what is ours?
We turn to the laws and those we appointed or elected to enforce them, trusting in their honesty to do so. Alas, there are times when our belief in their integrity is misplaced. The bad apples in a barrel. Corrupt, they take bribes to make dishonest decisions. What's yours is his. Case closed.
Insist that the decision isn't right, go fight City Hall. With support, possibly. On your own, you're dreaming. Obtaining the requisite support requires time and effort and is dangerous. The authorities won't take this lying down. Still, it might be worth a try.
Top flight Yank lawyer/novelist John Grisham focuses on this in his fiction-based-on-fact The Whistler. (A more appropriate title would be The Whistleblower.)
Set in Florida, the villain is a woman judge who has amassed a vast fortune from her bought decisions over the years.
With her ill-gotten gains Claudia NcDover has acquired condos in and out of the country: a hotel, a golf course, a casino, exquisite jewellery, bulging bank accounts. According to state law, whoever reports this is well-rewarded.
Two investigators, Lacy and Hugo, are tapped by somebody in the know to notify the FBI and start the ball rolling. It costs Hugo his life. The special agents spend months piecing it all together, pouncing when they have it all. Prison awaits the evildoers.
To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, Grisham hasn't exposed a rogue judge in his earlier two-score legal thrillers. Though he makes clear that they are few and far between, he lets on that they do exist.
Along the way, he notes that crime flourishes there. Not least is the Coastal Mafia. They have their fingers in drugs, prostitution, gambling, you name it. With a population of 20 million, demand is there. Any wonder so are the suppliers?
A John Grisham novel is always a worthwhile read.
Woman Of God by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro Century paperback 364 pp 2017 Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 295 baht
Pope Brigid?
Opening a James Patterson book by the Yank writer alone or with one of his stable of co-authors, I know from experience that it will be a crime suspenser/detective thriller. He turns out one a season. To his credit, the vast majority of them are compelling page-turners.
Imagine this reviewer's surprise when the beginning of the most recent, by Patterson and Maxine Paetro, takes a different direction. Woman Of God is virtually a Roman Catholic tract. A prelate couldn't have penned a story more religious. The title fits the protagonist to a T.
Brigid is a Boston girl whose mother died of a brain tumour. She resolved to become a doctor to relieve people's suffering wherever she was needed most. The neighbourhood priest, not her widower father, was the major influence during her adolescence. She felt that God was showing her the way.
A surgeon, Brigid volunteered to join the not-for-profit Helping Hand Foundation and went to South Sudan. The medical clinic was primitive. The heat, drought and endless patients made it hell on earth. A youngster, one of the numerous victims of a merciless gang, was saved by her surgery. Even her colleagues were amazed.
Brigid acquired the reputation of a miracle worker. She had an affair with a British doctor, who sired her daughter before being killed during a raid. She was shot and sent to Europe for treatment. Forever praying, she puts herself in God's hands. Her piety is praised in the Vatican.
American foreign correspondent Zachary falls for Brigid, but she knows where her destiny lies and returns to South Sudan. Kidnapped by the bandit leader and held for ransom, she's rescued by US Special Forces. She meets the pontiff. Elderly and on his last legs, Brigid is considered as his successor.
The plot focuses on whether Brigid will be chosen as the first female head of the Catholic Church. It seems likely. But she has enemies and her life is in danger. The story's finis is plausible.
Patterson has done his homework and appears to know the mindset of the College of Cardinals. He makes a complex subject comprehensible. Avoided is throwing in stereotyped suicide bombers to spice up the plot. Other faiths (Baptist Zachary) are mentioned in passing. Ninth-century Pope Joan is nailed as a myth.
