The Ascendant by Drew Chapman

24. – 771.) The   Ascendant by Drew Chapman – I was swept into The Ascendant. It has been quite awhile since I was reading in bed and suddenly realized it was 2:00 in the morning of a work day and I still wanted to keep reading. I was reminded of how I was caught by the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I had to know what was going to happen next in the story.

I rarely repeat blurbs but the words of Marysue Rucci, Vice-President and Editor-in-Chief of Simon and Schuster resonated with me:

     I love this book and tore through it     in two sittings.

 

Chapman has created a striking contemporary hero in Garrett Reilly. The former California surfer has become a bond analyst on Wall Street for a medium size firm. The job barely holds his interest. Most days he smokes some marijuana to gain the “fuzzy, contented peace” he needs to let him deal with the constant agitation of trading in bonds.

 

He has two special gifts. He has a photographic memory for numbers and a talent for detecting patterns:

 

     Just the barest hint of a pattern – in numbers, colors,
     sounds, smells - would start a tingling feeling at the base of his
     spine, the faintest electric shock that was somewhere between
     pleasure and alarm. As the pattern, whatever it happened to be,
     became clearer to him, the tingling dissipated, melding quickly
     into hard fact ....... It didn't matter if there was purpose or intent
     behind the patterns; Garrett simply saw them, felt them,
     everywhere, and the recorded them in his brain. Just like that.
     Every minute of every hour of every day.

 

On a rare sober day he senses an unusual pattern in the market for American Treasury bonds. Because he can remember the identifying numbers on Treasury bonds issued years ago Reilly, by looking closely at the Treasury bond market around the world notes that someone is selling the bonds purchased at a single auction of the bonds twelve years ago. What excitement can there be in the sale of bonds? Their sale becomes breathtaking when the total sold is $200,000,000,000.00.

 

Reilly advises his boss, Avery Bernstein, that China is attacking the U.S. through the sale of the bonds. Confirming other evidence is the timing of the sales. They took place in a repeating loop 4 and 14 minutes apart through the day. In Chinese culture 4 means death and 14 means accident. They are “the two most unlucky numbers in China”.

 

When Bernstein passes the information on to the Treasury Department the information is intercepted and assessed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

 

As the American government recognizes Reilly’s remarkable talent to see patterns in the chaos of modern society’s ceaseless flow of information they seek to recruit him to determine the patterns in Chinese actions.

The diplomatic corps has already noted a change. Chapman's narrative ability is demonstrated by the following summary of diplomacy:

     Diplomacy with the Chinese was, to U.S. Ambassador Robert  
     Smith Townsend's mind, ceremonial theater. A carefully
     choreographed dramatic set piece, with a first act, an interlude, a
     second act, the occasional reversal or surprised, the 
     reintroduction of an early plot point, a denouement, and then a
     neatly wrapped-up resolution. Each actor knew his or her role,
     what was expected, and how the drama would turn out.

     But not this time.
 

Reilly is a master of modern information technology. At the same time he is abrasive and self-absorbed and amoral. He is volatile. Simmering with anger he flares into violence. He is a team of one. No one could be more ill-suited to work in the military.

It is no surprise he is resistant to joining the DIA. Beyond his innate distaste for working in a group, having his older brother killed in action while a soldier has left him bitter towards the American military.

At the same time  Reilly is so brilliant at patterns that the DIA continues his recruitment.

The American military realizes that soldiers are inevitably unready for the next war because they have studied and are influenced by the last war. Reilly is free from the mould of conventional military training.
 

Within China Hu Mei, a young peasant woman, is leading a growing movement against the regime which has no hesitation in trampling the working people in pursuit of economic development. Can she be having an effect upon the Party leadership?

 

Reilly and readers of the book are suddenly caught up in a conflict between China and the U.S. that is being waged by technology rather than soldiers.

 

A video game has become real life. Attacks, without using a bullet, bomb or rocket, are being launched through computers.
 

Chapman has imagined a new form of conflict for the 21st Century that entranced me.

Reilly's cleverness is amazing. While a genius, his behaviour is often boorish and immature. I was reminded of Lisbeth Salander - another brilliant, emotionally damaged, amoral character with immense computer skills. What a pairing Salander and Reilly would have made!

It is not a book you want to pause and reflect upon while reading for you are bound to question the reality of the plot. Just settle in for the ride and prepare to be astonished adopting  the words of the New York Times on Maisie Dobbs, the first in the series by Jacqueline Winspear. Not many books justify the use of the word thriller. The Ascendant is a genuine thriller.

 

 

 

 

Social and Cultural Issues in Miss Montreal

Howard Shrier’s book, Miss Montreal, is an excellent mystery which delves into historical, cultural and social issues in Montreal without losing its character as a mystery.

The victim, Slammin’ Sammy Adler, was beaten to death in a predominantly Muslim area of Montreal. Adler’s Jewish heritage instantly raises the issue of whether his murder was a hate crime.

In the book there is a story of a Muslim father burning to death in a house his daughter who refused to wear her “scarf”.

Recently there was a real life trial in Canada in which a Muslim father was convicted of killing female family members as a matter of “honour”.

In the book the Jewish Adler had been reaching out to a different group of Muslim immigrants. An Afghani family has set up a successful rug business and is adapting to Canadian culture.

Arthur Moscoe, who hired Jonah Geller, to solve the murder had grown up poor in Montreal at a time when Jewish residents were marginalized. Quotas were in place to limit the number of Jews who could attend professional colleges such as law and medicine.

Still Moscoe was a part of the English community of Montreal which dominated Quebec economically. Moscoe built a successful life in the 1950’s and 1960’s. To the working class French he was part of the English elite who controlled Quebec business and rarely learned to speak French. Prejudice lingers. One of the detectives calls Jonah a maudit juif (damned Jew).

Moscoe was a part of a migration to Toronto of many Anglo Quebeckers when the Parti Quebecois gained power in the 1970’s and pursued their separatist agenda.

For some Franco Quebecois, at the heart of the movement is a desire to exclude from the province those who do not meet their French standards.

The book highlights the current tension with Muslim immigrants who do not want to conform to a secular French Quebec society. They refuse to be conform to French Quebec.

Sammy was probing a new political party, Québec aux Québécois, which embraced such a philosophy. The founder, Laurent Lortie, is a proud pure laine (pure wool) a descendant of the early settlers to New France hundreds of years ago. It is another form of elitism.

Lortie seeks checks and balances needed with regard to certain communities:

And yes, since you raise the issue, I speak of Muslims – not all of them, just those who resist our way of life. Who would impose their will if we allow it. If we insist that Quebec will never again be dominated by the Church, we most certainly will not submit to the laws or practices of unassimilated minorities.

And then there are recent Muslim arrivals to Montreal in the book from Syria fleeing the civil war but still connected to the conflict.

Who has the ironic Slammin’ Sammy so disturbed in this volatile mix of culture, religion and politics that they would brutally murder him?

Miss Montreal by Howard Shrier

Miss Montreal by Howard Shrier – The fourth Jonah Geller mystery is set entirely in Canada. The first three books had involved Canada and the United States.

Jonah is hired by 83 year old Arthur Moscoe to find out who killed his grandson, Sammy Adler, in Montreal. It was a brutal murder. Sammy had been beaten to death. Moscoe is dying in Toronto and cannot bear just waiting for the police to investigate the murder.

Sammy was the same age as Jonah and they attended Jewish summer camp as pre-teens. For a climatic summer ending toss ball game, when they were 12, Jonah works with the un-coordinated Sammy to create a decent swing. The result is a nickname for life – “Slammin’ Sammy”.

As an adult, Sammy moved to Montreal where he became a journalist gaining fame within the City for his insightful, often funny, columns on city life.

Jonah travels to Montreal with Dante Ryan, the former organized crime hit man, who provides support and gun protection for the unarmed Jonah. His actual partner, Jenn Raudsepp, is recovering from injuries received in their last case in Boston.

To ensure they have enough firepower for any situation Ryan takes the following with them in his special case for transporting guns:

His had foam cut-outs that matched his .22 target pistol and its suppressor; the favourite of his Glocks, a G22 that carried only fifteen rounds, as opposed to the usual seventeen, but fired .40-calibre bullets that blew bigger holes in the target, the compact version of the Baby Eagle; an army-issue Beretta that’s his throwaway if needed, and the one I think of as his persuader, a chrome Smith & Wesson revolver with an eight-and-three-eighths barrel, long enough to churn butter or a man’s insides.

Ryan is also a guide to Montreal. While Jonah spent time there in university Ryan grew up in the city.

Arriving in Montreal they meet with Sammy’s editor, Holly Napier. Ryan and Jonah clarify Ryan’s position:

“Don’t say apprentice,” Ryan cut in. “Don’t say trainee. And do not say assistant.”

“He’s my friend,” I said.

For mystery fans think of Spenser’s friend Hawk.

Holly can provide no leads. While Sammy annoyed some people, especially in authority, he did not create enemies with features and his columns. With regard to columns Holly tells them:

There’s an old newspaper saying about columnists,” she said with a sad smile. “They come out on the field when the battle is over and shoot the survivors. Sammy waited for the reporters to dig the dirt, do battle, then he commented. Put into his perspective.”

Jonah seeks information from the investigating detectives. Reynauld Paquette allows  Jonah to struggle with his limited French for a few minutes before ending the language humiliation and switching to English. His partner, Rene Chenêvert, refuses to talk to him in English.

Knowing Moscoe has authorized Jonah to use Moscoe’s team of lawyers to take court action to gain police information the detectives grudgingly supply some documents.

Jonah and Ryan start to explore the last pair of features Slammin’ Sammy was working on when he died.

One was a story about Afghani immigrants adapting to Canada and succeeding in their new land. It was to be a counterpoint to a recent story of an “honour” killing within a Canadian Muslim family.

The other was about a new provincial party, Québec aux Québécois, which is a nationalist party with strong opinions on immigrants, especially Muslims wanting a conservative Muslim lifestyle.

Jonah patiently assembles information with his friend Ryan.

It is the book I wish Shrier had written in the first two of the series - Buffalo Jump and High Chicago. While I liked those books I doubted I would read another book in the series because of a level of violence I found excessive for the story.

In Miss Montreal the violence is less and the plot is more. Jonah is still hard boiled but the streets of Montreal are not layered in bodies.

It is excellent crime fiction. My next post will delve into the societal issues addressed in the book.

****

Miss Montreal is the 3^rd book of the Arthur Ellis shortlist for Best Novel in 2014. Once again it was not the winning book but it is certainly worthy of the shortlist. It becomes the 14^th of the 13 books I have read since last July 1 for the 7^th Canadian Book Challenge.

****

(Toronto and other cities - see titles) Shrier, Howard – (2010) - Buffalo Jump; (2013) - High Chicago

Clashing Women in Authority

John Brooke

Chief Inspector Aliette Nouvelle as lead police officer and Margot Tessier as lead agent for the DST were pivotal characters in Walls of a Mind by John Brooke. My last post was a review of the book.

It was the first book I can remember reading where it was a woman who was in charge of the investigation at competing law enforcement agencies.

It is not a surprise to have women in charge. We are a generation away from the pioneering days of Helen Mirren as the commanding officer in the T.V. series, Prime Suspect. It is not uncommon in real life for women to lead police services. I have met woman sergeants administering rural Saskatchewan RCMP detachments.

What struck me in the book was that there was none of the male resentment of the officers serving under Mirren. Nouvelle and Tessier are accepted as in charge. Their subordinates may have issues with their superior but it is not because they are women. They give orders to their male and female team members and their instructions are carried out.

I certainly acknowledge prejudice towards women in authority continues to exist but not in this book.

What was fascinating to me was the relationship Brooke set out between Nouvelle and Tessier when they butt up against each other in the investigation.

There was no gender solidarity in that each was a woman and that they should share information as women trying to make their way in leadership positions in what is a man’s world.

Their attitudes as they confront each other are different from what I would expect from men in the same situation. For men there is bound to be a macho component. It would be almost inevitable to have physical aggressiveness and, possibly even a fight. Nouvelle and Tessier wage a subtler war of words and attitudes.

Nouvelle challenges Tessier’s right and need for secrecy as Nouvelle investigates a murder. Tessier is instragient dismissing the requests for information as contrary to national security.

Nouvelle persists threatening Tessier with legal and political consequences rather than physical violence. Tessier is unmoved and projects her position through her attitude. She is secure in her knowledge of DST priority in the conflict over information. She disdainfully rejects Nouvelle.

Nouvelle is upset about the patronizing attitude of the older Tessier.

At the same time Nouvelle projects a moral superiority. She is solving a murder of an actual French citizen. She is not taking advantage of authority to abuse citizens for the sake of a potential anarchist risk.

Nouvelle is reluctant to carry her gun unless there is a clear need. Her policy causes her problems. Tessier is always well armed and ready for action.

Nouvelle and Tessier carry on their conflict in frosty exchanges through the book. There are many barbed comments especially by Tessier.

The test of wills between the women may not be as overt as male battles but it is as real and as fierce.

Having women in authority has not reduced the level of conflict between competing government police agencies. I wonder how future crime fiction will deal with woman versus woman in law enforcement.

Almost two years ago I wrote a post titled Being Affected by a Male Author Creating aFemale Sleuth as I discussed New Zealand author writing under the name of Alix Bosco. I found myself distracted on whether McGee had created a “convincing” female sleuth.

At the end of the post I spoke about focusing on the book and quoted from a comment from the late Maxine Clarke, who I miss dearly:

Going forward I am going to do my best to just concentrate on the book. As blogger, Maxine Clarke, from the excellent Petrona blog said in a comment on my review of Slaughter Falls:

To me, the gender of the author is irrelevant. I have a review going up tomorrow of Mildred Pierce by James M Cain, which is such an accurate, and wonderful, portrait of a woman on all kind of levels. Amazing that it was written by a man? No. Just someone with talent.

I consider Brooke as someone with talent. I found that he created not only two convincing female characters he had insight into their minds and how women interact with each other. I shall be interested in hearing from female readers if they thought Brooke can write well of the female psyche. 

Walls of a Mind by John Brooke

23. – 770.) Walls of a Mind by John Brooke – Chief Inspector Aliette Nouvelle has been transferred from the Alsace region to the Midi of Southwestern France after a bad ending to a relationship.

Walls of a Mind is the 5^th book in the series but the first I have read. I would not have read the book if it was not on the shortlist for the Best Novel in the 2014 Arthur Ellis Awards sponsored by the Crime Writers of Canada. It is my loss not to have read earlier books in the series.

On a lovely crime free afternoon the inspector decides to treat herself to a picnic on the beach. Taking book, beach towel, parasol and lunch (“jambon-beurre on frest baguette, one hard-boiled egg, a few black olives. Carrot Sticks. A white peach” and one bottle of 1664 beer) she settles down on the sand. Being just before the summer rush the beach is quiet.

In a first for female sleuths I have read, Nouvelle rolls down the top of her swimsuit so that she is topless for tanning. As a good looking man in a suit gives her but a cursory glance walking by it appears she has a tinge of disappointment in the disinterest. (The cover captures the moment.)

Shortly after she is called to lead an investigation into the sniper killing of Joël Guatto, a member of a well known local family and an obscure politician who gained less than 1% of the votes in the last election for a federal representative. He had run for a right wing agrarian party, the Chasse, Pêche, Nature, Tradition Party, better known as the Hunting and Fishing Party, railing against the actions of the EEC.

While the family vineyard appears to be doing alright there is a simmering resentment in the region to the influx of cheap Spanish wine. The EEC rules allowing products to move easily across national boundaries are threatening the smaller grape growers and vineyards. There is a history of violent protest going back a century against imports of low cost wine.

Yet what reason was there to kill Guatto. He had no influence. He could damage no one’s interests. His ineffectual political campaign produced scorn rather than anger in his opponents.

As Nouvelle pursues her investigation she is drawn to Stephanie McLeod, an Enarque who had studied at the elite L’école de Administration in Paris. McLeod had returned home to care for her dying mother. She has stayed after her mother’s death working as a waitress in a rural bistro with owner Chef, Avi Roig, an Israeli exile. More importantly, she was deputy (campaign adviser) and lover to Guatto but she had little use for Guatto by the end of the election.

Her background is also intriguing to the police. Her parents had fled Canada and changed their names. Her father had sabotaged some international economic interests. Her mother was a member of the FLQ, the separatist terrorist organization that created havoc in Quebec in the early 1970’s.

McLeod’s is of even greater interest to the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) the internal French Secret Service. Led by Agent Margot Tessier the DST aggressively questions McLeod.

While Tessier imperiously denies Nouvelle information it is clear that modern anarchists are being pursued.

Nouvelle learns that McLeod has/is also the lover of “Prince”, the leader of the anarchist group. McLeod is clearly at the centre of some complex relationships.

Yet how would the conservative Guatto be connected to anarchists? Their political goals are vastly different.

In a well constructed police procedural, Nouvelle carefully seeks out information on the murder while continually butting up against the DST.

It is a very good book. Nouvelle is a clever woman determined to do her job well but not with the obsessive compulsion of many contemporary North American fictional police to investigate 24 hours a day. She has time for good meals, for a new love interest and for reading – mysteries being her favourite.

I am going to search out earlier books in the series.

 

****

Walls of a Mind did not win this year’s award for Best Novel. It will be my 14^th book for the 7^th Canadian Book Challenge. I completed the Challenge with my 13^th book and I am now reading bonus books.

2014 Arthur Ellis Awards for Canadian Crime Fiction

Congratulations to the Winners of the

2014 Arthur Ellis Awards

Best Novel

Seán Haldane, The Devil’s Making, Stone Flower Press

 

Best First Novel

J. Kent Messum, Bait, Penguin Canada

 

Best Novella

Melodie Campbell, The Goddaughter’s Revenge, Orca Books

 

Best Short Story

Twist Phelan, Footprints in Water, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best Book in French

Maureen Martineau, L’enfant promis, La courte échelle

Best Juvenile/YA
 

Elizabeth MacLeod, Bones Never Lie, Annick Press
 

 Best Unpublished First Novel (Unhanged Arthur)
 

Rachel Greenaway, Cold Girl

 

The above winners were announced at the annual banquet in Toronto earlier tonight.

 

There was an additional award. As set out on the Crime Writers of Canada home web page:

 

This is the inaugural year of the CWC Grand Master Award, intended to recognize Canadian crime writers who have a substantial body of work that has garnered national and international recognition.

 

This year’s winner of the CWC Grand Master Award is Howard Engel, the author of the award winning Benny Cooperman detective series. A mainstay of the Canadian crime writing scene for many years, Mr. Engel helped put Canadian crime writing on the on the map at a time when few mysteries were set in this country.

 

While it has been quite awhile since I read any of the Benny Cooperman series I remember Benny as a uniquely Canadian character. A special congratulations to Howard Engel.

Defining Characters by Clothing and Actions

In reading Presto Variations by Lee Lamothe, which I reviewed in my last post, I was impressed by how he defined the lead characters, Ray Tate and Djuna Brown, by their clothing and their past actions.

Since I started reading Moira’s fine blog, Clothes in Books, I have been more conscious of how authors can use clothing to aid in the storytelling.

Lamothe created vivid visual images of Tate and Brown through their clothing and hair.

For Tate:

In spite of the heat he wore a short hacked-out brown leather jacket over a bright untucked Hawaiian shirt of avian motif that covered his handcuffs. His gun was in his right ankle boot under his jeans’ cuff. A bead chain hung around his neck, dragged to the left side where his city badge was in his shirt pocket. He had a short satanic grey-shot beard, the tip of his left ear was gone.

And:

        Ray Tate pushed his sunglasses up into his long

        straggly hair, ……”

Brown may be even more dramatic in appearance:

…… running her hands through her spiked hair ….. She
wore a red T-shirt from the Pompidou in Paris and khaki hiking shorts. Her legs were slim and brown. Her gun, a little silver automatic, was in plain view in an open holster on her right hip; her handcuffs were at her spine; the outline of her State Police sergeant’s badge, hanging on a necklace, was visible between her breasts under the shirt. On her feet were bright red slippers, threaded with little silver spangles and bangles.
 

 From these two paragraphs it is clear that Tate and Brown are not your conventional plain clothes officers. Not for them the generic blazer, dress shirt, basic pants and comfortable walking shoes.

If they were undercover officers they might be designed to blend into certain communities but as regular plain clothes police they would stand out in any police station.

Their outsize personalities are reflected in their appearances. They are not a cautious pair of methodical officers.

They are later aptly described as “goofy beatnik cops”.

Still each is respectfully regarded within police services because each has killed in the line of duty. Tate has killed three and Brown has killed one.

They have earned a special status that allows their eccentricities to be overlooked by more conventional police brothers and sisters. In a striking phraseTate and Brown have “wiped shadows off the wall”.

Uniquely dressed and genuinely tough, Tate and Brown are a memorable duo. I will long remember them.

Presto Variations by Lee Lamothe

Presto Variations by Lee Lamothe – Lazlo “Marko” Markowitz has a big problem. Working with his Colombian supplier, Pavo, the drug business in Detroit has been too good. He now has a stash of $10,000,000 most of it Pavo’s money. To get the money laundered he needs to get it across the border to Toronto where Pavo has a cousin who will deal with the money. 

Compounding the problem is that too much of the cash is in 5’s, 10’s and 20’s. Not enough has been boiled down into 50’s and 100’s. The volume of cash has become a major issue.

With border security heightened as part of the war on terrorism it is getting harder and harder to transport money into Canada. There also appear to be rats around Marko informing the authorities of his cash runs.

His latest courier, Abner Hussey, was stopped just before reaching the border by officers Ray Tate and Djuna Brown. Hussey had $200,000 in envelopes taped to his body.

Detectives Tate and Brown, lovers as well as partners have just returned from an escapade in Paris that was funded with an unauthorized Michigan State Police credit card. While superiors decided whether to prosecute they have been assigned to the Asset Recovery Project, better known as the Green Squad. They are bored with their new assignment until Hussey gets their attention by advising there are “ten ems” in cash looking for a way across the border.

When they tell their boss, Commander James “the Cashman” Cash, he is jubiliant. Promotion awaits for a senior officer who makes a “ten ems” recovery. Tate and Brown work out with the Cashman that their reward, if they can seize the money, will be a trip back to Paris.

Criminals and police are equally motivated by $10,000,000.

The Cashman gets additional officers assigned with a rather vague statement about the money being pursued. Mentioning “ten ems” would have the project scooped away from them.

Tate and Brown, visions of Paris in their eyes, start surveillance on Marko. Who is he associating with at this time? Where does he travel?

Marko, under severe pressure from the unforgiving Pavo, is desperate to find a safe passage for the money to Canada.

Working with Marko is Jerry Kelly, a psychopath and anarchist. It would be hard to come up with a more frightening character. Jerry is constantly simmering. Violence will flare at any moment without any provocation.

Marko reaches out to his childhood friend, Bobby “Presto” Preston who is a genius at smuggling:

A truckload of cheap chickens on one side of the border, and presto!, he’d come with a variation to move it across. Booze, smokes, anything. Anything except anything to do with dope.

While Bobby and Marko are blood brothers Bobby has no interest in transporting Marko’s drug money but Bobby has a daughter, Zoe.

The action flows swiftly.

I found the characters intriguing. Lamothe is an author who is becoming a relative rarity in contemporary crime fiction. He spends as much time developing the bad guys as he does the good guys. It has been a disappointment in some of Michael Connelly’s latest books that the bad guys are barely developed.

My next post will discuss how Lamothe created vivid images when he introduced Tate and Brown in the book.

The Presto Variations is noir crime fiction. There is no coziness to this plot. It is dark and bleak. If you like noir you will love the book. I am not fond of noir but I enjoyed the book.

****

The Presto Variations is on the shortlist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel this year. The book will be 13 of 13 for the 7th Canadian Book Challenge. It is the earliest I have completed the challenge in 3 Challenges. This year I am going to exceed with the challenge with further Canadian reading this month.