Pre-Election Mysteries
A Review By Charles King
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Pre-Election Mysteries
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With less than a month until a minority of potential voters elects the captain who, for good or ill, will pilot the American ship of state for the next four odd years, have you become tired of gratuitous glad handing, bilious backhanding, spurious attack ads, and other quasi-political twaddle? Why not sit yourself down with a nice mystery? Here is a quartet of candidates well-qualified for anyone’s post-election celebration and/or blues. |
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Former legal beagle turned mystery novelist Lisa Scottoline has created something of a small industry out of Rosatti and Associates, the all-female law firm populated with the author’s past protagonists. Scottoline’s novels have always leaned heavily on the author’s South Philadelphia roots, but her newest, Killer Smile (HarperCollins, $25.95) delves a few steps deeper into the author’s personal life and the recent discovery of her grandparents’ World War II alien registration cards. Little remembered today, when the war broke out, the FBI arrested about 10,000 Italian Americans and interned them in camps similar to those endured by Japanese Americans. Killer Smile follows the exploits of Rosario’s rising star Mary DiNunzio who is approached by the estate Amadeo Brandolini, a man who committed suicide after being interned. Brandolini’s heirs want restitution from the U.S. government, and DiNunzio decision to take the case pro bono testifies to her personal South Philly connections. But when Brandolini’s suicide begins to look a lot like homicide, another Italian American family takes murderous exception to Mary’s enthusiastic efforts. As in previous Scottoline efforts, Killer Smile displays the author’s notable skill at blending solid plotting, street smart dialogue, high level suspense, and quirky humor into an affecting mystery whose conclusion resonates long after the cover is closed.
Curiously, there are a considerable number of mysteries that make heroes out of professional killers. From Trevanian’s Eiger Sanction and Shibumi, to Lawrence Block’s more recent Hit Man, all wander the blurred line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. In a sense, many mysteries follow a similar, if less well-defined, path, offering detectives who kill only when circumstances (and plot) deem it necessary. But what really is the difference between hero and sociopath? Barry Eisler’s novels travel this same territory by following the exploits of John Rain, a former CIA killer trying to make a normal life for himself. In Eisler’s latest novel, Rain Storm (Grosset and Dunlap, $24.95), the killer discovers that normal life is distressingly difficult to achieve financially, so when his old boss offers him $200,000 for what appears to be a relatively uncomplicated hit on an arms dealer in cahoots with fundamentalist terrorists, Rain takes the job despite his better judgment. But soon after beginning the pursuit of his prey in Hong Kong, Rain discovers that he is also being pursued. Does the arms dealer know what’s up or has Rain been betrayed by his former employer? Where do the loyalties of his old buddy Dox lie, and what is he to make of the lovely, deadly woman who keeps showing up in all the wrong places? Eisler’s are not the best books in this peculiar mystery sub-genre; Trevanian and Lawrence Block are both better writers and approach the moral ambiguity of their material more thoughtfully. But John Rain is a serviceable anti-hero and Eisler has a firm hand with the action sequences and exotic locales such thrillers depend on. Overall, Rain Storm offers readers a well-crafted, entertaining escape. At this point in the election cycle, such qualities should not be impeached.
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