Book Review: The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon

"Everybody's got a little skeleton buried somewhere. All you have to do is dig it up, and you'll be surprised how glad they'll be to help you with whatever you need."

Sidney Sheldon was one of the many authors I read back in college during the eighties. 

In those days, Sheldon—along with the likes of Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Lawrence Sanders, Jeffrey Archer, Dick Francis, Alistair MacLean, Arthur Hailey, Len Deighton, Ken Follett, Desmond Bagley, Wilbur Smith, and even Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace—was known as a bestselling author.

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I suppose they were known as bestselling authors not only because they were prolific, but also because their novels were often racy and regularly topped fiction charts, sold in the millions, and achieved mass-market success—I'd find their paperbacks everywhere, from bookstores to railway stations, and from footpath bookstalls to private circulating libraries. They had a certain global appeal. Many of their books were also adapted for the screen.

For the past forty years, I've been reading a handful of their novels every year, never quite sure if they hold up as well as they did back then. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

Most recently, I read The Best Laid Plans (1997) and quite enjoyed it; although, I found the ending rather abrupt and anticlimactic. It left me somewhat disappointed. There, I've given the game away already!

Still, The Best Laid Plans is a fast-paced political thriller that, for some reason, reminded me of Gore Vidal's 1967 novel Washington, D.C. Perhaps it's because both novels are about political morality, or more precisely, the lack of it. Power-hungry men willing to do whatever it takes to reach the highest office in the land.

Set in Lexington, Kentucky, The Best Laid Plans follows the lives of Leslie Stewart, a young, smart and ambitious PR executive, and Oliver Russell, a charismatic lawyer and down-on-his-luck political aspirant. Oliver hires Leslie's agency to revive his career and improve his chances of becoming governor of Kentucky. She is put in charge of his campaign, and predictably, the two fall in love and plan to marry.

That is, until Oliver dumps her just days before the wedding to marry the daughter of Senator Todd Davis, a political kingmaker whose influence and wealth help him win the Kentucky gubernatorial race. Davis then helps his son-in-law win the presidency as well, except for the fact that the senator has a secret agenda of his own—he intends to call the shots from the Oval Office.

Leslie is heartbroken, but not done with Oliver. She vows to destroy him. She marries a middle-aged business tycoon and philanthropist, originally from Kentucky but settled in Arizona. Leslie transforms her husband's local newspaper into a powerful media empire, and uses it to bring Oliver down.

Does she succeed? Well, you'll have to read the book, which, by the way, also has subplots involving mysterious deaths linked to the drug Ecstasy, corruption, personal vendetta and media spin, all of which trace back to Oliver's administration and cover-ups.

The Best Laid Plans is classic Sidney Sheldon with its formula of power, betrayal and revenge, as we saw in his best-known work The Other Side of Midnight. The writing is crisp, the chapters short, there is plenty of dialogue, and just the right amount of suspense. All of this makes it entertaining, though there's not much depth to the primary characters and the plot feels a bit rushed toward the end.

In sum, a decent page-turner for the weekend.

Short Story: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 1890, by American writer and poet Ambrose Bierce is the poignant tale of Peyton Farquhar, a well-to-do planter and slave owner sentenced to hang by Union soldiers for attempting to sabotage a railroad bridge in northern Alabama during the Civil War.

Farquhar, described as a secessionist and an ardent supporter of the Southern cause, is minutes away from being executed on the bridge. But just as the noose tightens around his neck, he has an epiphany of sorts—an intense vision of escaping his captors, falling into the river below, swimming against the currents and bullets, reaching the opposite bank and tearing through the woods to finally make it home, to his wife and children.

One can assume that Ambrose Bierce, a Civil War veteran, draws from his own experience to paint a vivid picture of Farquhar’s illusory run for freedom—and, in many ways, his desperate, real-life, yearning to survive the war and go back to a normal life with his family. In that sense, the author masterfully—and poetically—blurs the line between reality and imagination.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is as much a story about the tragic plight of Peyton Farquhar, the soldier, as it is about the brutality and futility of war—in fact, all wars. There is no dignity on the battlefield, neither in victory nor in death. That’s how I interpreted the story and its ending.

A well-crafted and thought-provoking story. One I will be sure to read again in the future.

Post-story, I read that An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was originally published by The San Francisco Examiner in July 1890, and was part of Ambrose Bierce's book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians a year later. It is considered one of the most famous and frequently anthologised stories in American literature. The short story has also been adapted for film and television.

A visit to a book fair in South Mumbai

My wife and I frequently travel to South Mumbai, roughly 22 km (17 miles) from our home in the suburbs, to spend a few delightful hours among its art deco buildings, historical landmarks, art galleries and cultural scenes; walk along the sea-facing promenades; visit footpath booksellers and book exhibitions; shop on the causeway; and eat at traditional restaurants.

The island city holds a special place for us. We both grew up there. You can read more about our trip at our new website Pocketful of Happiness.

Here are a few pictures from a book exhibition that we went to. There were literally thousands of books–fiction and nonfiction, paperbacks and hardbacks. Most books cost no more than a dollar or two. We bought a few. The book fair was organised by Ashish Book Centre and held near Churchgate, which serves as the headquarters of the suburban Western Railway network in South Mumbai.

 

© All photographs by Prashant C. Trikannad

The last books I bought before lockdown

If there was one thing I missed during the lockdown and the long months of working from home, it was regular visits to secondhand bookshops, pavement booksellers and book exhibitions. 

During that period, I bought only two books from Amazon India—a used but rare Corgi edition of Sudden and a new Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus comic-book digest, both featured here. 

Finding Sudden felt like winning the lottery. I was surprised and delighted to come across the paperback—with its striking cover art—on Amazon India for just Rs.295. My favourite western isn't the sort of book one easily stumbles upon at second-hand book sales in Mumbai.

Most of the books in this post, however, were purchased in the weeks and months before the pandemic changed our routines. I've included their covers, original publication years and brief synopses below. 

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The New Collected Short Stories by Jeffrey Archer

"This brand new edition brings together three of Jeffrey Archer's classic collections of short stories—To Cut a Long Story Short, Cat O' Nine Tales and And Thereby Hangs a Tale—showcasing the master storyteller's skill like never before. Every reader will have their own favourites: the choices run from love at first sight across the train tracks to the cleverest of confidence tricks, from the quirks of the legal profession, and those who are able to manipulate both sides of the Bar, to the creative financial talents of a member of Her Majesty's diplomatic service—but for a good cause. In `Caste-Off', Jamwal and Nisha fall in love while waiting for a traffic light to turn green in Delhi, and in `Don't Drink The Water', a company chairman tries to poison his wife while on a trip to St Petersburg, with unexpected consequences... The stories held in these pages are irresistible: ingeniously plotted, with richly drawn characters and deliciously unexpected conclusions. Some will make you laugh. Others will bring you to tears. And, as always, every one of them will keep you spellbound."

The Twisted Thing by Mickey Spillane

"This was some household.

"The kid was a genius, the father a scientist of international repute. Money was problem. Not shortage of money but the opposite: too much. The sort of money that brings the envious and the scheming clustering like flies round a pile of ripe offal: nieces, nephews, cousins - a family of mean minds and gross appetites.

"The hired help had its peculiarities too: the chauffeur, an ex-con; the governess, formerly a featured act in strip clubs from New York and Miami; a secretary with a well developed taste in other women.

"Quite a household. And not one to welcome the arrival of Mike Hammer—not when the kid had been kidnapped and everyone else was a suspect."

Snobs by Julian Fellowes

"The English, of all classes as it happens, are addicted to exclusivity. Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them."

"The best comedies of manners are often deceptively simple, seamlessly blending social critique with character and story. In his superbly observed first novel, Julian Fellowes, creator of the Masterpiece sensation Downton Abbey and winner of an Academy Award for his original screenplay of Gosford Park, brings us an insider's look at a contemporary England that is still not as classless as is popularly supposed.

"Edith Lavery, an English blonde with large eyes and nice manners, is the daughter of a moderately successful accountant and his social-climbing wife. While visiting his parents' stately home as a paying guest, Edith meets Charles, the Earl Broughton, and heir to the Marquess of Uckfield, who runs the family estates in East Sussex and Norfolk. To the gossip columns he is one of the most eligible young aristocrats around.

"When he proposes. Edith accepts. But is she really in love with Charles? Or with his title, his position, and all that goes with it?"

Sudden: Law O' The Lariat by Oliver Strange

"The word had filtered out that Sudden was dead—and there was no one around to contradict it. Men who had cringed before, swaggered now; others boasted of their encounters with Sudden, the coward.

"Only one man stayed quiet: a tall, saturnine fellow wearing two guns tied low. When he heard the rumours, he gave a thin smile; and when someone asked him who he was, he said shortly: James Green. James Green — alias Sudden!"

Maigret and the Headless Corpse by Georges Simenon

"Two brothers find a grisly package clinging to the propeller of their barge in the Canal de Saint Martins, and by the time Maigret arrives most of a mysterious corpse has been assembled, except for the head. The search shifts from finding the missing piece to finding a motive, as the Inspector's keen mind assembles clues from the dismembered torse which lead to a trio of suspects. A flash of intuition linking the principal suspect's sordid life to the whereabouts of her victim on his last day alive closes the case but opens Maigret's mind to the reason for the crime."

I have yet to read Julian Fellowes and Georges Simenon.

Short Story: The Case of the Wandering Redhead by Leigh Brackett

I’d never read Leigh Brackett until now, and I’m glad I finally did. I discovered her short story, The Case of the Wandering Redhead, in the February 1951 issue of New Detective Magazine and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is the introduction to the story.

“Here is the most ruthless man you’ve ever met—a filler whom death could not soften nor bullets stop—yet whose relentless fists battered to their last futile gesture that softest thing a man ever finds—the heart of a woman in love. It is with a definite sense of accomplishment that we welcome Miss Brackett to these pages—which many of you will find unforgettable!”

The “ruthless man” is Marty James, a territorial gangster who lives by his guns and fists and serves as the story’s narrator. He is hopelessly in love with Sheila Burke, a stunning redhead he is determined to marry, even though she detests the very idea. Sheila rejects him outright—just as decisively as he would gun down an adversary. And she has every reason to want nothing to do with him.

“Can I get it through your head? I hate you, Marty. I hate everything you stand for. All I want out of life is decency and peace and maybe a little happiness. You can’t give me any of them.”

But Marty has no intention of leaving Sheila alone. In fact, he is trying to force her into marriage when his sidekick summons him away on urgent business, only to betray him to a rival gangster eager to seize his territory. Marty fights and shoots his way out of captivity before returning to Sheila, carrying a cracked rib and two bullet wounds in his thigh.
 
"Six flights, with thin snow beginning to fall, thinking of Sheila’s voice saying, There’s blood on you, Marty. You’re not in my world.

"I thought, All right. That’s the way it is, Sheila. That’s the way we’ll play it. I was colder than the snow, and numb."

The Case of the Wandering Redhead is a cracker of a story. Its two central characters, Marty and Sheila, are vividly drawn. Marty may be a ruthless gangster, but he is also, in his own words, "human enough to go crazy over a girl."

"I looked at her. She was beautiful. She was like something the wind might cut out of a snowbank, with the red fire of her hair on top. Her eyes met mine, and there was an awful coldness in them, like I’d killed the spark inside her."

The story is a fine example of hard-boiled crime fiction from the Golden Age, though I still have plenty to explore and read in the genre.

Book Review: Drink with the Devil by Jack Higgins

I read Drink with the Devil—the fifth appearance of Jack Higgins' trademark hero Sean Dillon—before the lockdown and decided to finally review it during my sixth month of working from home. Somehow, I always seem to pick up a Higgins novel to revive my blog every few months. Maybe it's because he is my favourite action-thriller writer and also one of my comfort reads.

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In Drink with the Devil (1996), Higgins offers a glimpse into Dillon's early life—first as a disillusioned IRA assassin, then as a skilled mercenary for the PLO and the Israelis, the KGB and the Red Brigades, and finally as an operative for a highly secret British intelligence unit answerable only to the prime minister.

The story begins in 1985, London.

The IRA sends Sean Dillon—posing as Martin Keogh—to team up with legendary Loyalist militant Michael Ryan and his young niece Kathleen. Together, they hijack a truck carrying £50 million worth of gold bullion. The IRA wants to prevent Ryan from using the gold to buy arms and ignite a civil war in Northern Ireland. Fortunately for Dillon, things do not go according to plan. One night, while he and Ryan are transporting the bullion across the Irish Sea aboard a hired boat, the crew attempts to seize the treasure for themselves. The resulting confrontation ends with the boat being blown up and the gold plunging to the bottom of the rough sea.

Cut to 1995, New York State.

Michael and Kathleen have vanished from the radar of both the IRA and British intelligence. The gold has never been recovered. Michael is serving a 25-year sentence in a New York State prison for a botched bank robbery and the shooting of a police officer. Kathleen, now working as a nurse at a nearby hospital, visits him every day. Living under the names Liam and Jean Kelly, they are believed to have died years earlier. 

But news of the lost bullion reaches the mafia family of Don Antonio Russo, who strikes a deal with Michael and Kathleen: a share of the gold—now worth £100 million—in exchange for their freedom. The discovery also attracts the attention of the American and British intelligence services, the president and the prime minister, and the IRA.

Enter Sean Dillon. The former IRA hitman is given a single mission: prevent the gold from jeopardising the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland. A decade after their last encounter, he comes face to face with his old friends Michael and Kathleen once again—and that is where the real twists begin.

While I haven't read many of the nearly two dozen Sean Dillon novels, I can say that Drink with the Devil is not one of his best. The story moves at a steady pace and has enough action and dialogue to keep the pages turning, but the plot felt rather flimsy. At times, it seemed as though even an amateur could have got away with stealing the gold. I also found it hard to believe that British intelligence could not trace either the missing bullion or the whereabouts of Michael and Kathleen. They could hardly have disappeared without a trace.

In Jack Higgins' defence, however, Dillon, his boss Brigadier Charles Ferguson, who heads the secret unit known as the Prime Minister's Private Army, and Special Agent Hannah Bernstein do not enter the picture until much later. Their story starts in 1995, when the tale of the Irish Rose lying beneath the Irish Sea begins.

Drink with the Devil has all the hallmarks of Higgins' simple, direct and conversational storytelling style. The characters—including the appearance of his other endearing hero, Liam Devlin—and the charming Lake District setting in northwest England, with its pubs and cafés frequented by Republicans and Loyalists alike, make the novel a fairly entertaining read. As in many of his IRA-themed novels, Higgins weaves the Northern Ireland conflict and its assorted players into the narrative. As a history buff, I found those political and historical undercurrents particularly interesting.

Whatever the strengths and weaknesses, it is always a pleasure to read Jack Higgins.

Secondhand Book Finds: Able Team, Louis L’Amour and Sudden

In my first blog post of 2020, I wrote about my poor reading through most of the previous year. That, however, did not stop me from buying more books, some of which I mentioned in that post. Here are three paperbacks—two westerns and a thriller—that I picked up secondhand in 2019. I was especially pleased with Able Team and Sudden, both of which are rare finds where I live.

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Ironman is the 19th book in the Able Team action-adventure series written under the pseudonyms authors, G.H. Frost and Dick Stivers. The series—a spinoff of Mack Bolan: The Executioner, created by Don Pendleton—was first published in 1982 by Gold Eagle.

I have been collecting Mack Bolan and its spinoffs—Able Team, Phoenix Force and Stony Man— for nearly a decade and own some 25 novels, including a few written by Pendleton himself. These books take me back to my teens, when I used to read James Hadley Chase, Nick Carter and Perry Mason, many of which are still available in secondhand bookshops in Mumbai.

Synopsis: "Able Team's Carl Lyons travels to the cloud-swept Sierra Madre without his partners and without his weapons. But what was supposed to be well-earned R&R turns into a nightmare of conspiracy and terror when a Fascist international surveillance team identifies Lyons as one of the American specialists who wrecked Unomundo's attempt to seize Guatemala two years earlier."

Carl 'Ironman' Lyons is an old Able Team hand. As a bright LAPD detective, Lyons was tasked with bringing Bolan in—dead or alive; that is, till the Executioner saved his life. Later, he is recruited by Hal Brognola who heads a special organised crime task force.

Western fiction is my favourite genre. I think of Westerns as a blend of several others—crime, mystery, suspense, action, romance, politics, war, and even religion. So I had no hesitation in picking up the Bantam edition of Hanging Woman Creek by Louis L'Amour, another author I read widely in my younger days.

Synopsis: "Barnabus Pike is no gunfighter and not much of a street fighter. Eddie Holt is a black boxer in a white man's world. They've both taken their share of hard knocks. Now they're looking to survive a brutal winter in a remote Montana line shack, collect their pay, and settle down for good. Then they cross paths with a hardworking Irish immigrant and his beautiful, spirited sister, who've been burned off their land. It's a fight Pike and Holt don't want, don't need, and don't dare turn their backs on-especially when one of the perpetrators might be one of Pike's old friends. Hunted like animals across the frozen countryside, Pike and Holt will risk everything-including their reputations, their dreams-and their lives."

If you're familiar with my blog, you'll know how much I enjoy reading the Sudden novels. James Green—better known as Sudden, the Texas outlaw— was created by British writer Oliver Strange, who wrote only ten books. Later, English author Frederick Nolan added five more Sudden novels, including Apache Fighter, under the pseudonym Frederick H. Christian. The original Corgi editions are so rare in India that they sell for hundreds, even thousands of rupees.

Synopsis: "There was a reward of five thousand dollars for the man who could bring Barbara Davis out of Apacheria alive. Every outlaw, gunman, and scalphunter in the south-west had drifted in to Tucson, then out into Apache country, lured by the dream of easy gold. The Apaches killed some of them slowly and horribly; but still they came. Governor Bleke knew unless the girl was brought out soon, he would have a full-scale Indian war on his hands. He sent for the one man who might be able to do it. A tall, slow-drawling man who wore his six-guns tied low and looked as if he knew how to use them. A Texas outlaw on the run: SUDDEN!"

I have been reading these books through different phases of my reading life, and I pick them up whenever I find them in secondhand bookshops and book sales.

Book Review: A Lesson in Deceit by Gillian Larkin

They came to a crossing and Sam pressed the button. “Anyway, let’s talk about you. How many dead bodies have you found now? Granddad thinks you’re cursed.”

“It’s not my fault I keep finding them,” Julia said with a note of indignation.

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A Lesson in Deceit by Yorkshire-based author Gillian Larkin is the first book in her Julia Blake cozy mystery series. It is a delightful novella about a murder set in the University of Edinburgh.

Julia Blake has a son, Sam, and a daughter, both of whom she dotes on. She lives in Leeds with her Scottish shortbread-loving father and runs a cleaning business to support her family. Life has not been easy since her husband left. But her hardships have not deterred her from caring for her family or from finding herself drawn into murder mysteries, often unintentionally and to the annoyance of DI Clarke of Leeds.

Julia is visiting Sam at his university and is full of maternal affection and concern. Sam takes her around the campus, including the local pub where he works part-time. There, he introduces Julia to his close friend Elliott, who is covering his shift that day. Elliott works many shifts because he needs the money and, as a result, often misses lectures. Lately, he hasn’t been himself, prompting Sam to suspect that something is troubling his once happy-go-lucky friend. Elliott’s situation stirs Julia’s maternal instincts.

But before Julia can think of helping him in any way, her father’s prophetic words come true again—she finds Elliott dead in his room. There are no signs of injury or a struggle. Did he overdose on painkillers and sleeping tablets? Or was he poisoned with a combination of the two drugs?

DI Thostlewaite, who has heard of Julia’s reputation and her tendency to turn up where corpses do, gently advises her not to interfere in the case. But she has no choice when the local police detain Sam as a suspect.

“Grandad wants to know if you’ve found any dead bodies yet. Ha! He’s so funny.”

“Dead bodies are never funny,” Julia replied.

A Lesson in Deceit is not a murder mystery in the true sense. There is no major investigation or extended unearthing of clues, which Julia predictably does at some risk to her life. She and Sam are likeable characters, mainly because of their strong familial bond, easy relationship and light banter. The author also neatly interlaces the narrative with values. For instance, when Julia offers Sam extra money so he does not have to work at the pub, he tells his mother that she has done enough and that he wants to pay his own way—a nice lesson for young readers. 

The novella is written in an easy, engaging style, and will appeal to both younger and older readers alike.

Short Story: The Bodyguard by Lee Child

© ITW Publications

She took my formal qualifications for granted. I have scars and medals and commendations. I had never lost a client. Anything else, she wouldn't have been talking to me, of course. She asked about my worldview, my opinions, my tastes, my preferences. She was interested in compatibility issues. Clearly she had employed bodyguards before.

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If ever I have read a story that captures the all-too-real fictional world of bodyguards in just a few pages, it is in 'The Bodyguard,' a short story by Lee Child. It was first published in First Thrills (2010), an anthology of tales involving murder, mystery and mayhem by various authors and edited by Child himself, and later reprinted in his collection Safe Enough and Other Stories (2024).

The British author succinctly describes the life and work of a highly-trained bodyguard who quits the military to protect the rich, the famous and the powerful.

Written in the gripping style familiar to readers of the Jack Reacher novels, 'The Bodyguard' introduces a nameless protagonist who could either be real or phony. Child quickly establishes both the uncertainty surrounding the man and the risks of his profession. His clients are mostly wealthy individuals, business magnates and the politically connected, all vulnerable to kidnapping for ransom. The threat is particularly acute in parts of South America, where abduction seems less a crime than a thriving industry.

A year after leaving his friend's agency to start his own business, the bodyguard—a "medium-sized man, lean, fast, full of stamina"—is hired by Anna, a wealthy and attractive 22-year-old whose father is a Brazilian politician and businessman and whose mother is a television star. But the assignment, and a perilous trip to Brazil, do not go according to plan.

The 3,110-word story ends with an unexpected twist that, while stretching credibility a little, adds to the fun and makes it well worth reading. I have enjoyed Child's work ever since I read his first Reacher novel, Killing Floor.

Book Review: Memory Man by David Baldacci

Amos Decker is the Memory Man, the protagonist of David Baldacci's eponymous series, which opens with Memory Man.

The bearded and massively built protagonist—a former homicide detective turned private investigator turned police consultant—has a rare gift: he remembers everything and forgets nothing. Events, experiences, people, faces, names, objects, shapes, numbers, dates and places are permanently imprinted on his mind, the result of a collision on the football field when he was twenty-two years old.

The accident ruins Decker's professional football career but leaves him with a super autobiographical memory, the ability to recall virtually everything that has happened in his life.

If you were a student preparing for a Maths or History test, you would probably give anything to have Decker's gift.

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In Memory Man, Decker puts his extraordinary perceptive faculties and deductive reasoning to good use by joining the Burlington Police Department, where he and his partner and friend, Detective Mary Lancaster, form a formidable team of investigators.

One evening, Decker returns home from work to find his wife, young daughter and brother-in-law murdered, his family brutally violated in the process. The tragedy sends his life into a downward spiral. He leaves home, gives up his job and drifts through life on the streets, largely indifferent to what becomes of him. Eventually, he manages to rebuild some semblance of a life as a reclusive private investigator, taking on minor cases, simply to survive. Meanwhile, the murders remain unsolved.

More than a year later, Decker is jolted back to reality by two extraordinary events: the appearance of a mysterious man named Sebastian Leopold, who confesses to the unsolved murders despite having a seemingly watertight alibi, and a carefully planned mass shooting at the local high school. His former boss, Captain Miller, persuades him to assist in the investigation into the shooting. Decker agrees, hoping it may finally help him uncover the truth about his family's deaths.

Decker joins his former partner, Lancaster, in the school library—the investigation's makeshift war room—with the FBI also on the case. But he largely works alone, much to the frustration of Lancaster and Special Agent Sam Bogart, bringing them in only after he has pursued a lead and uncovered something worth sharing.

What he uncovers over the next few days leaves him stunned: the person—or persons—responsible for murdering his family also orchestrated the killings of the students and staff at the school. Yet, even Decker's remarkable mental abilities fail to produce any face or name from his past that might explain the motive behind the crimes.

Amos Decker is one of the most unusual characters I have encountered in crime fiction. The tragedy has left him emotionally scarred and detached, but not devoid of empathy. His extraordinary mind makes him an effective investigator. Decker unravels most of the clues and assembles the missing pieces. Others on the case are largely content to follow his lead.

Memory Man is a well-crafted thriller with an unusual storyline and an intriguing hero. The novel's strength lies in its singular focus on Amos Decker, the Goliath-like protagonist who dominates the narrative from start to end, both as a grieving family man and a razor-sharp homicide detective.