Fool Me Once

Family Secrets

Bestselling writer Harlan Coben’s latest, Fool Me Once, begins with the funeral of Maya Stern’s husband, Joe Burkett. Maya, a pilot and combat veteran had quit the forces under a cloud, and gone on to marry a wealthy man. Earlier, her sister Claire had also been tortured and killed in her own home by killers who escaped, and Maya is told by her grieving brother-in-law that death follows her.

Still haunted by the past, and trying to come to terms with the mugging incident that took her husband’s life, Maya wants to keep her two-year-old daughter Lily safe and installs a hidden camera at a friend’s suggestion, to keep a check on the child’s nanny Isabella.  What she sees during a random check of the footage, shocks her and sets her on the track of an investigation that involves her dead husband’s rich and powerful family. She does not trust Roger Kierce, the homicide detective investigating Joe’s murder and wants to get at the truth.

There’s a Julian Assange kind of whistle blower, Corey Rudzinski, stalking her—the man who had been instrumental in destroying her military career. Then, Kierce drops a bombshell—the same gun was used to shoot both Joe and Claire— and the motive for both lies buried amidst the Burkett family secrets.

The book is fast-paced and masterfully plotted, but after the unexpected climax, when the reader thinks about the sequence of events, there is a big loophole. Still, the many twists and turns make it unputdownable. Reports say a film based on this book is in the making, with Julia Roberts playing Maya.

Fool Me Once

By Harlan Cohen

Publisher: Dutton

Pages: 400

The Last Mile

Memory Man Returns

In his first Amos Decker book, Memory Man, David Baldacci created a unique character—man with total recall. It sounds like a superpower but when memories are painful, it can be endless trauma.

In the earlier book, Baldacci gave Decker’s backstory--as a young football player, he had been blindsided in his first game and got hit on the head so violently that he was declared dead. When he was revived, something had happened inside his brain that made him “an acquired savant with hyperthymesia and synesthesia abilities.”  Which in simple terms means he can never forget anything even if he wants to.

After he recovers, he goes on to become a cop, and because he has an exceptional brain, makes for a very good investigator. One night Decker returns home to find his wife, little daughter and brother-in-law slaughtered. The shock unravels him—he gives up his job, loses his home and car, becomes a recluse, making a sparse living as a private eye.

By the end of the novel,  he had been offered a position with the FBI, by Agent Ross Bogart, along with his journalist supporter, Alexandra Jamison, to work on unsolved cases. He had put all his belongings into his car and started driving to his new life in Quantico. In the second Decker book, The Last Mile, he arrives at his destination and right into a case made for him.

Melvin Mars, a bi-racial sports star who was accused of murdering his parents, spent twenty years on death row and kept declaring his innocence. The day he is due to be executed (a chilling sequence), another death row prisoner in a far off town, confesses to the double murder.  Decker used to know Mars in the past and believes this is the case the should begin with; the others on the team are clinical psychologist Lisa Davenport, who agrees and the hostile Todd Milligan, who drags his feet.

They travel to Texas to meet Mars, who is in hospital after being attacked by evil prison guards and surprised to see the FBI on his side. In this book, Decker struggling with his weight problem is far less interesting than a man almost driven to suicide by despair. His amazing memory is not put to much use either, though his prodigious powers of investigation and deduction are.

After a terrific start, the story starts to get too convoluted and implausible, even though the twists come along nicely and the body count rises steadily. It’s worth a read for Baldacci fans.

The Last Mile

By David Baldacci

Publisher: Grand Central

Pages:  432

Jellyfish & Granny

The Wisdom Of Kids

Two recent books, meant for young children, are filled with gentle wisdom that grown-ups could also benefit from. There are a few things common in both books-- the young, lonely and troubled protagonist of both is a pre-teen, possibly autistic girl, being raised by a single mother, but with the father not totally absent from her life. Both suffer the trauma of the death of a loved one and find their own ways of coping with grief.

In Ali Benjamin’s debut novel, The Thing About Jellyfish,which has already been nominated for major awards, 12-year-old Suzy Swanson is a brilliant at science but no good at making friends.  The kids in her school make fun of her, and her only friend Fanny makes like somewhat bearable. But in a great betrayal that could shatter a sensitive heart, Franny dumps Suzy to join the gang of popular girls, and joins in the ritual humiliation of her former friend. Then, to compound the shock, Franny drowns to death, and Suzanne stops speaking.

Her inexplicable muteness worries her parents, who take her to a therapist, where Suzy spends session after session, defiantly silent. A trip to the aquarium introduces Suzy to jellyfish, in particular, a venomous species called Irukandji.  Suzy is convinced that an expert swimmer like Franny could not have drowned just like that; she must have been stung by a poisonous jellyfish. If she can prove this, it will bring some closure to her sorrow and confusion. Her organized, scientifically-inclined brain cannot accept that “sometimes things just happen.”

As she goes about her plan, Benjamin portrays Suzy’s routine life of social isolation, with just her science teacher, the wonderfully goofy and kind Mrs Turton, being able to crack her defences somewhat by encouraging her love for science.

It’s a story of pain, but has enough humour to prevent it from becoming mawkish. Suzy with her mass of unmanageably curly hair that earns her the nickname Medusa, is incredibly brave and smart, which makes her endearing to the reader. If a child picks up this book—and parents must encourage them to—there are a lot of fascinating facts packed in; also an indirect plea to accept all kinds of people—‘weird’ kids like Suzy and her lab partner Justin who pops pills for his ADHD condition, or her gay brother and his cheerful partner.

The dedication of The Thing About Jellyfish reads, “For curious kids everywhere.” But it is the kind of simple and moving books that ought not to be confined to a readership of kids.

The Thing About Jellyfish

By Ali Benjamin

Publisher: Little, Brown/ Hachette

Pages: 343

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After the international bestseller about a grumpy old man, titled A Man Called Ove, Swedish writer Fredrik Backman has written the marvelous My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry about an imaginative and feisty seven-year-old girl called Elsa.

Elsa’s seventy-eight-old grandmother is irrepressible, eccentric, adventurous and with a sense of mischief that exasperates her daughter, the neighbours and the town’s cops. Nobody knows how to deal with a woman like that, as she drags Elsa along on all her adventures in real life as well as an imaginary world in the Land of the Almost-Awake with its many kingdoms, princes, princesses, dragons and other creatures, speaking to the child in a secret language.

Elsa is mercilessly ragged and beaten at school and manages to escape sometimes by simply outrunning her tormentors. Her mother is pregnant by her second husband, the fussy George, and Elsa fears when “Halfie,” her half sibling arrives, she will be abandoned. Her father, who has remarried, comes dutifully to pick her up when it is his turn to spend time with her, but his life is clearly elsewhere. Elsa’s only friend is her Granny and when she dies, the little girl is almost pushed into the imaginary kingdom, and creatures from there turn up in the real world. Elsa’s imagination, already fired by her grandmother’s stories, is further fuelled by what she calls “quality literature” – Harry Potter books and Marvel Comics.

Before her grandmother died, she entrusted Elsa with a mission—she has to deliver a series of letters to various people, saying sorry. Finding each is like treasure hunt with clues that Elsa has to look for. The wise old woman, anticipating Elsa’s crushing isolation after her death, hands the child a way of dealing with grief and anger, by planning this adventure for her.

With wit and sympathy, Backman writes about Elsa’s interactions with the other residents of the building—the always complaining Britt-Marie, her show-offy husband, the rough cabbie Alf, the ‘drunk’ who suffered an enormous tragedy in the past, a sad-looking woman and her son “with the syndrome,” an older couple he addicted to coffee, she to baking, the huge ‘Monster’ with helpless OCD, a ‘wurse’ or a large but friendly, cookie-guzzling dog everyone but Elsa fears.

As Elsa gets to know her neighbours better, she also realizes that they all had a connection with Granny’s stories and her past life as a doctor who went to the world’s trouble spots to help people, at the cost of neglecting her own daughter.

Backman deftly blends reality and fantasy into a whimsical, poignant, amusing and utterly charming novel.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry

By Fredrik Backman

Publisher: Atria

Pages: 384

Shanghai Redemption

Chinese Checkers

Qiu Xiaolong’s ninth Chief Inspector Chen novel, Shanghai Redemption is an astute look at China caught between rapid growth and remnants of the authoritarian past. The repressive ‘Cultural Revolution’ and Tianenman Square have not been completely forgotten, but the new Shanghai, where Chen Cao—poet and cop-- lives and works, has high rises, strip clubs, karaoke cafes, corruption on a massive scale and a community of the new rich called Big Bucks by the locals.

Chen’s family suffered the impact of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, so he still gets disturbed when the old ‘red’ songs are casually sung or played. But he is the kind who stays within the system and tries to do his job to the best of his ability, even it means occasional skirmishes with the all-powerful Communist Party (in earlier novels).

In this book, after many years as chief inspector and Deputy Party Secretary of the Shanghai police, Chen is kicked upstairs—reassigned to the Shanghai Legal Reform Committee as director, a fancy sounding position but with no power. Taking a break, he decides to go to the neighbouring town of Suzhou to tend to his father’s grave and orders a renovation which would give him an excuse to stay away from work for a few days more.

In Shanghai, he is invited to a party to launch his book of TS Eliot translations, in an unlikely venue—the Heavenly World nightclub. He is dragged into a private room by two of the strippers of the club, from where he steps out to take a call from his mother. He notices a police party entering the club, which is otherwise protected by powerful politicians, and figures out that the raid was meant to trap and disgrace him.

He realizes that he must have stepped on some big toes in the course of his work as an honest cop, and that his life is in danger. Chen’s former partner Yu Guangming has been promoted to the post he vacated, but he is firmly on the side of his friend—so is his resourceful wife Peiqin, and father, a retired cop called Old Hunter. There is also a delicate romance with White Cloud, who has appeared in earlier books, and has now risen from humble beginnings to become a successful entrepreneur. She helps him too, along with a hacker and his girlfriend.

Chen’s mother’s flat is attacked, a woman who had befriended him is killed, the body of a missing Big Buck that was Chen’s case, turns up dead, a cop who came too close to uncovering a crime is murdered. Finally, there is an attempt on Chen’s life that leaves his driver and buddy, Skinny Wang, badly injured. Chen does not know who the hidden enemy is, but as the body count rises, he has to find out what is going on, in order to save his reputation and his life.

While Chen goes about his work, there are wonderful descriptions of food, landscapes, glimpse of Chinese history and snatches of his favourite poems.

The writer Xiaolong also grew up in Socialist China, where all literature was banned, but managed to teach himself English. He is able to write this crime series with large dollops of politics because he lives in the West. His Death of a Red Heroine was listed as one of the five best political novels of all time by the Wall Street Journal.Shanghai Redemption is a must-read.

Shanghai Redemption

By Qiu Xialong

Published by Minotaur/Macmillan

Pages: 304

All Dressed In White

The Bride Vanishes

All Dressed In White  is the second in the Under Suspicion series Mary Higgins Clark writes with Alafair Burke, the first being The Cinderella Murder (2104).                                                                             

In the book’s prologue, Amanda Pierce is happily preparing for her wedding, to take place at a posh resort, when she suddenly vanishes. The cops give up after a while, but her parents are devastated and need the closure that would help them get over the shock. There was no reason for Amanda to run away, though the tabloid media called her “"Runaway Bride.” If she was kidnapped there have been no trace of her for five years, if she was murdered, the body has not been found.

TV producer Laurie Moran does an investigative TV series, Under Suspicion in which they recreate and try to solve cold cases. When approached by Amanda’s mother Sandra, who never gave up the search for her daughter, Laurie and her boyfriend, Alex Buckley, a defence lawyer who is also the show’s anchor, decide to do an episode on this case. They gather together the whole to re-enact the wedding scene at Palm Beached Grand Victoria Hotel. The groom, Jeff Hunter, who was prime suspect, mainly because he inherited his dead fiancee’s money, is just about rebuilding his life with Amanda’s best friend, and wants his name cleared.  Amanda’s father Walter Pierce, estranged from his wife, her sister Charlotte, who was jealous of her, her brother Henry, the maids of honour and the groomsmen all collect to short for the show.

Secrets and long held grudges spill out, and obvious lapses in the investigation exposed. The passage of time may have dimmed memories of the incident, but also uncovered things the cops did not bother to follow. Bill Walker, the wedding photographer, recalls that the police never questioned his intern, Jeremy Carroll, who, was a strange and slightly creepy man with stalker tendencies. Laurie can’t understand why Amanda willed her belongings to her niece, but her $2 million trust fund to Jeff, with whom she had just signed a pre-nuptial agreement. Then a similar case from the past is revealed and the killer finally nailed.

The writers build the suspense with carefully and methodically, with a few red herrings cleverly strewn about. Even the reader takes a slight distaste to the fiancé, who is somewhat goody-two-shoes, but did not mourn enough before latching on to Amanda’s pal. The outwardly happy family had many internal dents, that Laurie’s persistent questioning bring out.  It is a gripping read, and creates curiosity about the next in the Under Suspicion series.

All Dressed In White

By Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke

Published by: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 432

The Waters of Eternal Youth

The Past Is Present

The intriguingly titled The Waters of Eternal Youth is Donna Leon’s 25^th  Commissario Guido Brunettibook. Brunetti is a Venetian inspector, a sharp but laidback cop. These books are unlike other cop thrillers—there are murders, but otherwise no violence. Brunetti is a home loving family man, married to Paola, a Venetian aristocrat and has two smart teenage kids.

In this latest novel, Brunetti is invited to a formal dinner—which he finds tedious—by the  Demetriana Lando-Continui. She is active on the city’s cultural scene and involved in projects to save the heritage of Venice. Soon the Commissario is invited again by the Contessa, offered fine Scotch and asked to reopen an old case. 

Fifteen years ago, her teenage granddaughter, Manuela, had fallen into a canal late at night. The girl was not just unable to swim, but was terrified of water. An alcoholic pulled her out, but the delay in taking her to hospital caused irreversible brain damage. The man who saved her claimed he saw a man throw her in, but the next day, could not remember anything. The cops filed it as an accidental death and closed the case. The Contessa needs to know what really happened before she dies.

Brunetti manages to cajole his ambitious but dim-witted boss, Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta, to reopen the case. With the help of Patta’s super smart secretary, Signorina Elettra, he manages to find information from the depths of the internet. His colleague Commissario Claudia Griffoni, feels great pity for the child-like Manuela, who has the mind of a seven-year-old, and offers to help with the case and in the process befriends the young woman.

While Brunetti is trying to make sense of the tragedy that befell Manuella, Donna Leon captures the problems of Venice—from housing shortages to illegal immigrants to preserving the city’s historical sites.  Brunetti does his investigations, but luck is on his side too; a change encounter in the street drops the answer into his lap.

Leon’s writes crime novels with a certain elegance and unhurried pace; there are no shootouts or chases over rooftops. The reader is meant to savour the sights and smells (with some imagination) of the city; ‘see’ through her descriptions the great mansions of the old aristocracy, ‘jump’ onto a vaporetto and ‘taste’ the food Paola cooks with love.    

The Waters of Eternal Youth

By Donna Leon

Atlantic Monthly Press

Pages: 304