Assassins of the Turqouise Palace by Roya Hakakian

Assassins of the Turqouise Palace by Roya Hakakian – Late in the evening of September 17, 1992 three men entered the Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin while a driver waited for them in a black BMW. They went to a private dining area in the back of the restaurant where Kurdish exiles from Iran were meeting to discuss political actions. After cursing the diners as “You sons of whores!” the leader of the intruders opened fire. Four men died.

Each chapter is headed by a quote from Iranian satirist, Hadi Khorsandi and the quote for For Chapter relates to killer’s remark:

Terrorists nowadays! It’s not enough that they kill you; they must also insult you as they do it.

The other quotes equally have a bite to them.

The Kurds of Berlin and the rest of Europe were immediately convinced that the murders were committed by agents of the Iranian Intelligence Services who were killing Iranian dissidents around the world who had been marked for death by the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

German police are less certain. The German government would prefer that the killers were part of the armed section of the violent Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).

While the killers swiftly exit Germany the other two members (Youseff Amin and Abbas Rhayel) of the killing quartet need time to ready themselves to leave the country as they require new passports. Intelligence tips from Britain and the BfV (the federal office for the protection of the constitution) lead the police to the pair and they are arrested before they can depart the country.

The organizer and financier (instructions and funding came from Iran) whose cover was a Berlin grocer (Kazem Darabi) was also arrested.

Once in custody Youssef , the watchman for the killers, provides valuable information on the assassination.

Bruno Jost, the federal prosecutor, assigned to the case is a dedicated, meticulous, incorruptible lawyer determined to build a case not only against the arrested trio but the Government of Iran. He assembles 187 volumes of evidence.

While the actual evidence of guilt is overwhelming many Kurdish exiles doubt there will be a trial. There have been too many examples in Europe during the 1980’s of governments either perfunctorily investigating the deaths of Iranian dissidents or making deals that allow them to go back to Iran. With Germany becoming Iran’s largest European trading partner there is great pressure within the German government to quietly make the prosecution go away.

The laying of the charges is a triumph for the integrity of the German Department of Justice.

While the roles and actions of the lawyers were of the greatest interest to me a large section of the book is focused on the lives of leading dissidents and Shohreh Dehkordi, the widow of Noori Dehkordi, one of those slain.

Amidst doubt the killers would be tried and then doubt there would be an actual verdict the activists persevered in publicizing the case and participating in the trial.

The actual trial consumed 4 years with the court sitting two days each week. I had not known that a major German criminal trial would involve 5 judges. The questioning is essentially done by the judges. It is a torturous process though, when there are judges of ability, there is a thorough examination of the evidence.

There were lawyers for the victims who, under German law, take part in the case. Hans Ehrig provided years of representation pro bono for the victims.

The book provided a great view of how a German trial patiently searches for the truth.

I would have preferred the author to concentrate on one of the groups rather than trying to the stories of the victims, the prosecutors and the lead judge. Telling all the stories diluted the focus of the book.

As I read the book it was like a good mystery. There were bad guys being controlled by a dangerous foreign power. There were victims essentially powerless in the swirling machinations of international politics. There was a dedicated prosecutor and an honest head judge. The intrigues and twists near the end of the trial rival those of skilled writers of crime fiction.

I found myself eager to know if there would be a verdict. Would the trial be prematurely ended by negotiations between the Iranian and German governments?

Having just finished The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver which dealt with the U.S. Government arbitrarily killing those it identifies as its enemies in foreign lands it was very interesting to see how the issue had been dealt with in a trial a generation ago in Europe when it was the Iranian government which was arranging and carrying out the killing of its citizens outside Iran.

I had forgotten about the murderous actions of the Iranian government though they were but 20 years in the past. Iran was rightly condemned. What will history say about America 20 years from now?

Hakakian has written a good book. In my next post I shall discuss this case and two other German cases spanning a century. (Aug. 21/13)

Tracking Past and Present



James Laurenson as Bony in the T.V. Series with a modern means
of tracking, the airplane, and his traditional personal observation

The art of tracking is both similar and vastly different between Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield in 1945 and Trackers by Deon Meyer in 2011.

The tracking is comparable when it involves the examination of human tracks in rural areas. Whether the 1940’s or the 2010’s the tracking involves a person observing and assessing the imprints.

Bony explains the basic difference between rural and urban tracking:

I leave the body to a uniformed constable, and the cause of death to the doctor and the coroner, and to the experts at headquarters I leave fingerprints if any, the weapon, if any, and objects more closely associated with the crime. In a city the scene of a crime is confined to a room, an office, a flat, and, if on a street, to a space within a few feet of the body.

Here in the bush the scene of a crime is extended far beyond the immediate locale. Someone has had to go to the scene of the crime in order to commit it, and, afterwards, to leave the scene of the crime. As the criminal does not grow wings, he needs must walk, and he does not walk about without leaving tracks of his passage for me to see. To the city detective his fingerprints: to Bony his footprints. So you will now understand how it is that I am much more interested in the ground outside a house or hut or camp than I am with the interior.

Bony uses the training of decades and the skills of his aboriginal ancestors in examining tracks.

In Trackers there is tracking in the bush by men using the same skills Bony used almost seven decades ago. I am acquainted with tracking prints left upon ground.

My father was a trapper which meant he was a tracker. In an ever more urban world there are not many today who can distinguish which animals made the tracks they see upon the ground. I am far from being a skilled tracker but I learned some basics of tracking from my Dad such as where to look for animal tracks. You need to search where you would expect animals to be based on terrain, food sources, shelter offered and the quickest safest and most efficient way to travel through an area.

The title to Trackers in Afrikaner translates to spoor in English. It is an apt word for traditional tracking which looks to the traces left behind.

What has changed significantly, even in rural tracking is the use of technology to aid trackers.

In Trackers I noted 26 different types of tracking. They were tracking of vehicles in rural areas by anticipating roads, tracking done by teams of cars following cars, tracking of vehicles by transmitters placed upon them, tracking on foot in the city by visual contact,  tracking of people by observation from nearby buildings, tracking of telephones with electronic intercepts, tracking through talking with friends and enemies, tracking through sleeping with a source and listening to pillow talk, tracking through informants within organizations, tracking through computers searching the world wide web, tracking through the satellites continually orbiting the earth, tracking through reading newspapers and magazines for information on those being tracked, tracking through searching government records, tracking through breaking into buildings, tracking through searching desks and computers, tracking through the mind with skilful questions and brutal demands for knowledge, tracking through the sharing, often reluctantly, of information between powerful organizations, tracking through careful examination of financial records, tracking through the sources of funds in bank accounts, tracking through hidden microphones, tracking through the closed circuit cameras that inhabit every city, tracking through the examination of personal public records, tracking through the study of bodies and tracking through examination of wallets, clothing and other personal items.

Modern trackers would be lost without all their electronic devices.

Yet current technology has its limits. In Murder One by Robert Dugoni the investigators deal with footprints leading up to the window of a home through which a killing shot was made. The investigators try to determine size from computer analysis of the size of the tracks and distance between steps. I expect Bony could have told them by his experience. I believe he would have gleaned more information about the killers if study of the tracks had been left to him.

The powers of observation and reflection are less prized by modern crime fiction trackers. In our instant world we want answers and analysis instantly. Good trackers need patience to find the tiny signs that let the tracker follow their quarry. Bony often takes the time to sit down, make and smoke a cigarette, and deliberate about what he has seen. Few modern trackers pause to think.

“U” is for Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield

 
"U” is for Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield (1945) – For the letter “U” in the Alphabet in Crime Fiction meme being hosted by Kerrie Smith at her fine blog, Mysteries in Paradise, I am posting a review of a Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte mystery by the Australian author, Arthur Upfield.

It is another Bony mystery set in the vicinity of a prominent Australian geographic feature. Death of a Swagman takes place in and around the Walls of China in the southwest corner of New South Wales. On the opening page Upfield describes the area: 

The colour of the country is reddish-brown, and upon this reddish-brown land the soft fingers of the wind built a wall of snow-white sand some twelve miles long, three quarters of a mile wide, and several hundred feet high.

In The Will of the Tribe the Wolf Creek Meteorite Crater in Northwest Australia had been featured in the book. 

Bony arrives at the small town of Merino some six weeks after the

death of swagman, George Kendall, at a hut adjacent to the Walls of China. Where modern crime fiction perpetually emphasizes the importance of the first 24 to 48 hours after murder in conducting the investigation Bony is unperturbed about arriving weeks later. 

For this investigation he chooses to slip into town as a stockman, with the name of Robert Burns, looking for work. Only after being arrested as a vagrant does he reveal his official status to Sgt. Richard Marshall of the local police detachment. Bony consents to a sentence of 10 days in the local jail during which time he will paint the police compound fence, whitewash the cells and have the chance to talk to the residents as a casual stranger rather than a police inspector.

There are interesting local characters led by Mr. Jason, a former Shakespearean actor, who owns the garage. Merino is so small he is also the Justice of the Peace dispensing justice, the town undertaker carrying the deceased to the cemetery in a spectacular hearse and presiding over the coroner’s inquest. 

Among the touches that mark the book as set almost 70 years ago is the role of tobacco. Almost everyone smokes. Bony does a lot of thinking while rolling his own humpbacked cigarettes. The community times how long it will take Mr. Jason to exhale great draughts of pipe smoke. 

The ever shifting sands of the Walls of China are at the heart of the detection of the book. Bony’s skills as a tracker are evident throughout the story. It is a physical art lost to all but a few current detectives. My next post will compare the trackers of the past and the present. 

What modern detective could discern that faint straight lines in sand showed a clever killer was covering his tracks by using a flail for the wind creates curved lines in the sand. Only man produces straight lines. 

There is also a fascinating explanation of the use of noughts and crosses or X’s and O’s to provide information. 

Bony is always professional in his investigations. He sets out the problem with emotional involvement by the police:

Many young detectives, and older ones too, are too liable to the emotion of indignation because of a brutal killing. They accept such a crime as a personal matter and so permit their judgment to be clouded by animosity towards the killer.  

Would that the fictional police of today avoid the righteous indignation that fuels so many of them? 

The book differs from earlier Bony mysteries I have read in having a strong child character. Little Rose Marie is a spirited and clever girl. 

The strength of the book is in the investigation. Unlike The Bone is Pointed or The Will of the Tribe or The Bushman Who Came Back it does not venture into the relations between white and aboriginal Australians. As always there are some passages that will make a contemporary reader cringe but I accept them as a reflection of that era. 

While the solution ventured into the bizarre I enjoyed the book. I find Bony a remarkable character.

 

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My earlier posts on Arthur Upfield and his books are:

Upfield, Arthur - (2011) - Cake in the Hat Box; (2011) - The Widows of Broome (2011) - "U" is for Arthur Upfield; (2011) - The Bushman Who Came Back; (2012) - The Will of the Tribe; (2012) - The Battling Prophet; (2012) - "U" is for Arthur W. Upfield; (2013) - The Bone is Pointed; (2013) - Q & A with Stan Jones on Nathan Active and Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte - Part I and Part II

 

My First 500 Posts!

With my last post about the National Historic Site of Batoche and its connection to The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault being my 500^th post I have been reflecting on the 500 posts and being a blogger.

I had wanted to create a place on the worldwide web where readers of mysteries could have information on mysteries set in the province of Saskatchewan and the authors of those mysteries.

I am glad to have posted reviews of 28 mysteries set in Saskatchewan and will shortly be filling in a gap with a review of A Political Addiction as part of my post for “W” in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme.

Saskatchewan authors, Anthony Bidulka and Gail Bowen, have generously responded to questions which have made for interesting Q and A posts.

I created a page for the Rest of Canada which, together with my participation in the Canadian Book Challenge for the last 2 years, has broadened my reading of Canadian mysteries. I have now committed myself to reading at least 13 books by Canadian authors each year.

I doubt I would have had the pleasure of reading L.R. Wright had I not started blogging and been looking for Canadian mysteries.

As a lawyer whose practice includes a substantial amount of criminal and civil litigation I enjoy reading legal mysteries. I have not come across another blogger who puts together a list of legal mysteries. I think there are more good legal mysteries being published now than ever.

The introduction of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has added to my focus on legal mysteries. I will shortly be reading Havana Requiem by Paul Goldstein which was the 2013 Prize Winner.

I set up a page in which I discuss mystery bookstores I have visited. I have been alittle disappointed that the page is not often visited. I fear the lack of page views is an illustration of the decline in bookstores.

While my focus is on mysteries I continue to read non-fiction and put up reviews of those books. I find I need some non-fiction amidst the crime fiction to maintain my reading interest in mysteries.

I have chosen but one book reading challenge, the Canadian Book Challenge, each year as I feel I would be too restricted in my reading if I was taking part in multiple challenges.

I have enjoyed the memes hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise. She is an amazing blogger. Taking part in the Crime Fiction Alphabet memes has been great fun. For last year and this year I adopted themes. Last year each letter was a post of an author I had read. This year I am putting up a post about a book or an author or a crime topic with which I have a personal connection. I admit the letter “X” which is looming is proving a challenge. I do not seem to have many connections with “X”.

The most unexpected joy has been meeting virtually fellow bloggers from around the world. I never expected to make new friends through blogging. I am always impressed by the depth of knowledge and kindness of the bloggers and readers I have met through the web.

An unexpected bonus has been making comments on other blogs and getting comments on my blog. The indefatigable Margot Kinberg of Confessions of a Mystery Novelist has been a welcome and constant commenter. I am amazed how many places she travels to in the world of blogging while maintaining her superb daily posts.

I have found I neither have the energy nor inclination to put up daily posts. I admire those bloggers who have that dedication. If I can average 3 posts a week I am content.

The post which has garnered the most page views is “N” is for Stuart Neville. The image of “N” I borrowed from Kerrie’s blog somehow ended up on Google images for “N”. Blogger tells me there have been 17,354 page views of the post and counting. One of the ironies of the world of blogging is that my most popular post has nothing to do with the content of the post.

I started blogging as I wanted to talk about books. The first 500 posts have been fun. I look forward to more blogging adventures.

Batoche and The Third Riel Conspiracy

I think it is fitting that my 500th post on this blog is about Saskatchewan. Batoche is my favourite historic place in Saskatchewan.

The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault, which I reviewed in my last post, is focused on the major battle of the Riel Rebellion at Batoche in 1885. Batoche was at the heart of the Metis community in the Northwest Territories of that time. (In 1905 the province of Saskatchewan was created out of territory that included Batoche.)

The Metis settlement around Batoche had grown up in the 1860’s and 1870’s. The settlers created long narrow farms moving away from the Saskatchewan River in the style of early Quebec farms. The Metis of that era were great hunters and annually went south for buffalo until the buffalo were almost exterminated.

The Metis people were the descendants of intermarriage between French fur traders and the Indian inhabitants of the prairies.

A variety of grievances, including the fear their farms would not be recognized by the Government of Canada because they did not conform with the grid being surveyed, caused the Metis, led by Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont to rise in revolt.

The Rebellion did not last long mainly because the Metis political leader, Riel, would not allow their military leader, Dumont, to fight when and how Dumont wanted to take on Canada.

The founder of Melfort, Reginald Beatty, had just homesteaded in 1884 in the area that would become Melfort. During the Rebellion he was a scout for the Canadian forces and a negotiator persuading Indian communities not to join in the Rebellion.

The Third Riel Conspiracy is excellent at describing Batoche and the surrounding area. It is a beautiful spot on a bend in the South Saskatchewan River.

The site is almost unchanged in the past 128 years. There is no development around the site. To travel there is to go back in time.

The church and rectory have remained intact with some bullet holes in the rectory to mark its role in the battle.

The photograph above shows the view from the cemetery on the riverbank looking towards the church and rectory.

I first visited the site 45 years ago. My father had a keen interest in 

An aerial view showing the Saskatchewan River in the background

Western Canadian history and knew men who had participated in the Rebellion.

Over the years I have made many visits to Batoche with my family and visitors to our area. Each visitor has said going to Batoche made history come alive for them.

In 1985 my Dad and I attended the centennial celebration of the battle. At the official event the Red Cross donated the flag flown by that organization during the battle. It was the first time the Red Cross had raised their iconic flag on a battleground.

I am glad that Legault set his second book in the Durrant Wallace series at Batoche. Every NWMP of that time had some participation in the Rebellion.

For any reader crossing central Saskatchewan in the summer a trip to the National Historic Site of Batoche will be a worthwhile stop.

While a place of battle and death it is now a serene site. I feel a sense of peace whenever I visit Batoche.

"T" is for The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault

The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault - It is 1885 in Western Canada when the Riel Rebellion, equally referred to as the Northwest Rebellion is under way in the heart of what is now Saskatchewan and then was part of the Northwest Territories.

The Third Riel Conspiracy is my entry for "T" in the Alphabet in Crime Fiction meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise.

NWMP (Northwest Mounted Police which is the original name of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Sargeant, Durrant Wallace, is on duty in Calgary.

He has just returned to duty after losing part of a leg and having a hand severely injured.

 Despite his physical restrictions Durrant is eager to participate in the Rebellion and feels stuck in Calgary, a boomtown of tents and new buildings, growing rapidly on the prairie. When the forces advancing on Batoche, the small community on the South Saskatchewan River at the centre of the Rebellion, are ambushed his superior sends Durrant a wire to come to help the Canadian forces.

The headstrong Durrant ignores a further wire saying he need not leave Calgary.

By the time he arrives at Batoche the final battle is over and the Metis forces have been routed. In the midst of that battle a Regina teamster, Reuben Wake, has been murdered in the zareba where the Canadian forces are camped. 

A captured Metis fighter, Terrence La Biche, has been arrested for the murder. He had in his coat pocket the Colt revolver used to shoot Wake.
 While Sub-inspector Dickenson is content to close the investigation Durrant finds the accusation implausible and starts an investigation. 

Thought it is a time when forensic science is very limited and there is not a lab in the territory Durrant applies the science of the day to the investigation.

Mainly he explores the lives of those involved and, in so doing, sets out the history of Western Canada that led up to the Rebellion. In my next post I will go into some of the history and my personal connections with Batoche. For those readers unacquainted with Canada it will provide a basic understanding of our past.

What is striking is how the investigation takes Durrant over a significant part of what is now Saskatchewan, eastern Alberta and northern Montana.

Participating with him is a young woman, Charlene Louise Mason, separated from an abusive husband. Their relationship feels more modern than late 19th Century.

The conspiracies are more plausible than the usual fictional conspiracies.

It is an interesting book. I liked the plot which deals with a time and place with which I am very familiar. The mystery is capably set up. At the same time the dialogue did not capture me. There was too much of the characters' personality and appearance in their actions and role in the plot. Wake is such a dark character it is hard to imagine how he could have survived in the real world. I wanted the book to be better because of its subject and location. In the end, I found it an average book. It is worth reading. I intend to read another Wallace mystery to see if the other book in the series is beyond average.

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My connection with the book comes from its location in Batoche which is about 120 km from Melfort and is my favourite historic spot in Saskatchewan.

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The Third Riel Conspiracy is the 2nd book of 13 I have read in the 7th Canadian Book Challenge hosted by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set blog.

Government Powers in Our Times and The Kill Room

Jeffery Deaver in The Kill Room goes into major contemporary issues that are not often dealt with in crime or thriller fiction.

This post does not directly involve spoilers but it does have more information about the books discussed than some readers may want to know about the books.

As set out in my review the criminal investigation involves the death of an expatriate American, Roberto Moreno, who is executed in a hotel room in the Bahamas by an American intelligence services drone airplane. What is the authority of the United States to kill its citizens or non-citizens without due process of law?

In an age where threats of terrorism and actual acts of terrorism occur what rights do governments have to pre-emptively kill those they believe will harm their citizens?

In Fool’s Republic by Gordon W. Dale which I reviewed 2 years ago the protagonist, Simon Wyley “has been cast into one of America’s new secret prisons where those persons, the authorities fear threaten her security, are held captive without rights”. Interrogators seek to break Wyley to get the information they want from him.

In my review I discussed the dangers of abandoning the Rule of Law:

Recently I was in Germany where I spoke with a German lawyer about the Nazi takeover of his country. The Rule of Law was thrown aside when the Nazis perverted the German judicial system. He expressed unease over the development of secret courts in the United States. I stated it was America’s public courts that restrained the legal excesses of the internal War on Terror. He remained concerned for America’s future when confidential charges and proceedings become part of the judicial system.

A year earlier I had reviewed Crossing Hitler by Benjamin Carter Hett. The book discussed the actions of a courageous German lawyer:

Hans Litten was a radical Berlin defence lawyer in 1932, acting as a private prosecutor with the public prosecutor, helping prosecutor SA storm troopers charged with attacking Communists partying at the Eden Dance Palace. Litten convinced the Court to summon Adolph Hitler to testify about the SA. Litten carefully crafted questions that challenged Hitler to reconcile the Nazi Party’s public proclamations of pursuing power only by legal means with the SA taking violent actions in the streets of Germany. Litten’s probing questions provoke Hitler into a profound rage.

When Hitler gained power he immediately imprisoned Litten who eventually committed suicide in prison.

In The Kill Room the good guys and the bad guys, with blurring on both sides as to character, use modern data mining techniques of the American Federal Government, often with no official authorization.

A vast increase in the power of police and intelligence agencies to investigate and surveil American citizens and non-citizens has taken place since the terrible events of 9/11. In the years after 2001 crime fiction dealt with these new powers.

Lost Light by Michael Connelly in 2003 was the first book I read involving these issues. Harry Bosch, in the interval when he is retired from the LAPD, finds out during a murder investigation how much power has been assumed by the anti-terrorism units of the FBI.

A year later, V.I. Warshawski, in Blacklist by Sara Paretsky explores issues involving the treatment of American Arabs and goes back 50 years to the McCarthy hearings on Un-American Activities.

Outside North America John Le Carre has dealt with the new world of intelligence in such books as Mission Song. In that book Congolese interpreter Salvo learns of the duplicitious nature of the English and other Western intelligence agencies while translating secret recordings of private conversations.

While this post reflects my concern with the actions of intelligence agencies apparently beyond the supervision of legislative bodies and courts I recognize that in an age of terror governments must have swift means to prevent and react to terror. Having been a criminal defence counsel and a lawyer for plaintiffs taking on big government and large corporations I am uneasy about abuses of the power entrusted to the intelligence services of our times.

The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver

The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver – Lincoln Rhyme is adjusting to the physical freedom gained from an operation to his right arm which has restored some feeling and the ability to use the hand and arm. Deaver examines the impact of modern medicine partially reversing the effects of crippling injuries. What happens to someone physically and emotionally who has regained physical abilities thought permanently lost?

More mobile, but still as irascible as ever, Rhyme is sought out by Assistant D.A., Nance Laurel, to assist in the investigation of the killing of an anti-American activist, Robert Moreno, in the Bahamas.

He has been killed by a sniper bullet that smashed the window of his hotel room. Two other men in the room bled to death from the shards of glass blown about the room as the powerful bullet shattered the window.

Ordinarily a murder in another country would not be the subject of a New York state prosecutor. Moreno’s death has been Laurel’s interest because of a whistleblower email that a secretive American intelligence agency, the National Intelligence and Operations Service (NIOS), using flawed information has killed Moreno. The State of New York is pursuing the killer because Moreno, despite his anti-American rants, was an American citizen. Nance has been assigned to build the case for a conspiracy to murder charge.

If she can establish the killing was outside the authority given to NIOS the State of New York will charge those responsible. Killing an American can cause prosecution. Killing a non-citizen is not an issue for a state court.

Deaver thus delves into the murky legal and moral right of America to kill those it considers its enemy wherever they are located in the world. It was timely reading the book as an American drone aircraft was reported to have killed two people in Yemen as I finished reading the book.

Where earlier books in the series were fascinating assemblies of forensic evidence to solve crimes The Kill Room examines an important current legal issue.

While the New York City police department and the District Attorney’s office seek to maintain secrecy through running the case out of Rhyme’s home NIOS almost instantly knows of the investigation.

Both the police/D.A. and NIOS use unauthorized datamining to find information. Deaver is touching upon another thorny American issue, the right of governments to spy upon their people without the checks of statute and public court consents. Deaver makes it clear that the security and proper use of vast American tapping of phone and other electronic communication is dependent on the integrity of those conducting the surveillance.

Rhyme is hampered as the crime scene is thousands of kilometers away and the Royal Bahamian Police are unenthusiastic about sharing information concerning a killing they consider the work of Venezuelan drug cartels.

In New York City Amelia Sachs is diligently aiding Rhyme though the effects of osteoarthritis are becoming more severe. She can no longer walk without pain.

As she starts to search out information concerning Moreno’s recent trip to New York City there is a chilling development. Someone is trying to remove all evidence and witnesses that might lead to the killer.

Can it be that a federal American agency is willing to kill American citizens so that its actions in protecting America’s security can be concealed?

Where the initial forensic evidence is limited it builds during the book to the extent, as usual in this series, that it is hard to analyze all of the facts. Deaver is among the world’s most gifted authors at giving the facts that will lead to conclusions but I rarely make the correct deductions from his facts.

Deaver does not take one-sided view on the extra-judicial killing by the United States government. It is among his most challenging books. Deaver a grandmaster of deception and layered plots. As common with his books there were unnecessary extra twists near the end. It is a mystery that compels the reader to think. (Aug. 10/13)