This one’s got it all: a prewar Nazi mission to Tibet, a daring aviatrix, a mysterious source of power, and present-day adventure. It’s got just enough character development to keep you interested and enough action to keep you turning the pages.
Honoré de Balzac
Set – and written – in the early 19th Century, this is a long, detailed novel that tells the story of a naive poet from a rural city and his rise and fall in Paris. Lucien Chardon has talent, though not as much as he thinks he has, and lacks the social smarts to distinguish real friends from those who mock his pretensions. It’s the tragic tale of an ambitious young man with promise who betrays his talents by devoting his energies to finding shortcuts to success. It could be titled “Wasted Potential”.
I read this book on my iPod and it took forever, but it was very satisfying to sink into such a richly drawn world populated by dozens of interesting characters.
John le Carré
In le Carré’s latest a vacationing British couple gets involved with a Russian oligarch/gangster who wants to sell his knowledge to the British in exchange for protection from his enemies. There’s no action but the characters are finely drawn, the writing is first rate, and every element is 100% believable. Nobody does it like le Carré.
E. Duke Vincent
The Mafia, Castro, Cuban Exiles, Kennedy, the Grassy Knoll, a mobster with a brother in the FBI – you get the idea. This novel has a great plot, but it’s marred by a wooden and repetitious writing style. For example: three different rooms, each with “an art deco coffee table” in the space of fifty pages. Are there no editors?
This is a rather good cyberthriller with a plausible plot, interesting characters, and enough realistic-sounding technical detail to be convincing. A potboiler, but a good one.
It’s really hard to find a good spy novel. Terrorists have replaced Communists and the stereotypical fictional terrorist just isn’t as interesting as the classic sterotypical Soviet spy. Happily, “The Trinity Six” is an old school spy story about a contemporary historian who stumbles on what may – or may not – be the “sixth man” of the infamous Cambridge spy ring.
I enjoyed this tightly-plotted, fast-paced novel – it’s a great example of a fading genre.
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