Mystery, Crime & Thrillers Hailey’s War: A Novel By Jodi Compton Shaye Areheart Books, $22.99, 304 pages Hailey’s War by Jodi Compton brings us Hailey Caine, a cadet who has been dismissed from West Point two months before graduation. After spending time in Los Angeles getting reacquainted with her music producer cousin CJ and her gang-banging former schoolmate Serena, Hailey finds herself in trouble and moves to San Francisco to become a bike messenger. When Serena asks Hailey to escort a young Mexican woman – Nidia Hernandez – from Oakland to a remote Mexican village, Hailey reluctantly agrees. Everything is fine until the two cross the border into Mexico; after that, things are not so fine – Hailey is wounded in an ambush, and Nidia disappears. Now Hailey is going to try to discover just what is going on and try to rescue Nidia – if she’s still alive. And if that means running with the gang bangers, that’s okay, too.?The central theme of this book is a little hard to figure out. A good deal of material deals with the makeup and lifestyle of LA gangs. Perhaps an equal amount of time is spent searching for Nidia. And there is the question of why Hailey seems so driven. A decent book, but not a thriller. “Don’t let him provoke you into conversation, okay? We’re keeping this guy on a need-to-know basis, and what he needs to know is nothing.” Reviewed by Douglas McWilliams The Hornbrook Prophecy By Robert Wickes Crystal Dreams Publishing, $18.95, 360 pages It’s 2010, and the United States is on the verge of bankruptcy. Robert Wickes’ The Hornbrook Prophecy brings us President Winston Dillard – very liberal, very left wing, very power hungry. Dillard’s plan to cure the economy is to raise taxes and increase the minimum wage, giving little thought to the higher rates of unemployment and business failure that this may cause. Opposing Dillard and his policies is Senator Henly Hornbrook, the conservative and independent senator from Washington State. But Hornbrook and his associates cannot
forestall Dillard’s legislation, since Dillard’s political adherents control Congress. “Being ignorant and utterly without a clue as to how to mend this mess is unforgivable in a President.” Once Dillard’s legislation is passed, there is a tax payer revolt, rioting, looting, and threats of secession. The President declares martial law, suspends upcoming elections, and attempts to place all blame on Hornbrook; soon a mob is attacking Hornbrook’s ranch. But all is not lost, as there is a dramatic turn in events, and Hornbrook and calmer heads carry the day. Primary characters are mostly caricatures, and there is a great deal of academic discussion on political thought, history, and the Constitution that slows down the story. The book will probably be appealing to those with conservative views but less so to political liberals. Reviewed by Douglas McWilliams Mr. Peanut By Adam Ross Knopf, $25.95, 335 pages Some books are easy to recommend. Some books are impossible to endorse. Then there are some books you can finish reading and realize that it’s the kind of book that is written so intensely toward a particular taste that you can neither easily recommend it nor refuse to endorse it. It lies in an area where no responsible reviewer, friend or colleague can give you a definitive answer. Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross is one of these books. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but so was Rome and we all know how that turned out for Julius Caesar. At its core this is a book about marriage and murder and revolves around a cast of oft-interesting, oft-not characters who circle around each other as the mystery unfolds. At the end of a day, this book just wasn’t for me. The ending didn’t justify the many tangents and the runaround approach taken by the author. There is certainly intelligence and a Hitchcock-like feel to it in places, though and it will most certainly resonate with many. Simply put, this is a book that you have to judge on your own. It’s easy to see why some would call it brilliant; I just call it self-indulgent. Reviewed by Albert Riehle
The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime by Today’s Top Authors By Johnathan Santlofer Walker & Company, $16.00, 291 pages Fraud, robbery, infidelity, murder... from crimes of passion to meticulous plans, small-time scams to acts of revenge, The Dark End of the Street encompasses all of these, although most of the stories lean more toward the criminal than the carnal. While this provides a great deal more variety in the storytelling, it also makes for a wildly uneven read, even moreso than the standard highs-andlows of the average short-story collection. A few of the stories, most notably Francine Prose’s The Beheading, feel entirely out of place in both tone and genre. The high points make up about a third of the book, and I’ll summarize some of the best below. Scenarios by Lawrence Block offers the reader multiple narrative possibilities from a single scene, while Michael Connelly’s The Perfect Triangle concerns itself more with the wheeling-and-dealing that never sees the light of a courtroom. A con artist makes his move in Laura Lippman’s Tricks, and in Midnight Stalkings by James Grady, a thief’s plan begins to unravel before her eyes. Any fan of the crime genre will find a story or two to enjoy in The Dark Side of the Street, but overall, the collection is a bit of a disappointment. Reviewed by Glenn Dallas Book of Nathan By Curt Weeden; Richard Marek Oceanview Publishing, $25.9, 272 pages Book of Nathan by Curt Weeden and Richard Marek is the New Jersey version of The Da Vinci Code. All Rick Bullock, aka Bullet, wants to do is keep Zeus off Death Row. Zeus, who cannot say words recognizable to most human beings, recently transferred from the homeless shelter Bullet runs to death row without passing go. Complications that Bullet has to deal with keep getting in the way of getting Zeus back, including babysitting a sex-crazed bimbo related to a Mafia member determined to clean up her act, and a worldwide nonprofit organization or two with iffy ethics that will do anything to get their hands on the book that never made it into the Bible.
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“His hood fell from his head. The lady gasped, made the sign of the cross, and ran into the night, the sound of her footsteps gradually swallowed by the white noise of the city.” The authors get a bit preachy at times and include more than a few clumsy transitions, but they also know how to turn a phrase. For example, they define a homeless shelter as a last-chance changing room for those who want to claw their way back into the ranks of the socially acceptable. And they do a good job of keeping you on the edge of your seat. Reviewed by Marj Stuart The Nearest Exit: A Novel By Olen Steinhauer Minotaur Books, $25.99, 404 pages The Nearest Exit picks up right where Steinhauer’s phenomenal debut, “The Tourist” left off. Abandoned by his family when they discovered his secret past, Milo Weaver has rejoined the secret CIA Tourism Unit, this time as Tourist, one of the roving amoral agents who carry out any mission no questions asked. Unfortunately Milo isn’t the man he once was, older and wiser, in his time as a husband and father he has grown a conscience. What is he to do then when he receives the most reviling of orders: assassinate a teenage girl? Steinhauer’s taut plot and breathless prose pull you along, almost daring the reader to try and not turn the page. His protagonist Milo Weaver, both flawed and charismatic, is most gripping characters I can recall encountering in an espionage novel. Be warned however, readers are better off starting off with his first novel. Even if you can pick it up in the middle, much of the nuances and references of the story will be lost otherwise. That aside, I finished the “Tourist,” excited for Milo Weaver’s next adventure, now I am left awaiting the third with equally baited breath. Reviewed by Jordan Magill
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