THE KILL ARTIST
By Daniel Silva
Random House, $25.95
The popularity of thrillers dealing with international terrorism has waxed and waned over the years. While this subgenre is in something of a lull, Daniel Silva reminds us in his latest entry how satisfying it can be.
The main character of the book is Gabriel Allon, a former Israeli intelligence officer whose wife and son were killed by Palestinian terrorists. Since his retirement, Allon has been working as an art restorer in England, trying to forget his days with the Israeli police. Then he is approached by master spy Ari Shamron to help stop a Palestinian group bent on destroying Middle East peace negotiations. What makes this particular mission compelling to Allon is that the head of the terrorist group, Tariq, is the man who was responsible for the death of Allon’s wife and son. Allon is teamed with Jacqueline Delacroix, an Israeli agent/French supermodel whose parents died in the Holocaust.
What follows is a game of intercontinental cat-and-mouse between Allon and Tariq, who is plotting to kill the Israeli prime minister in New York. Along the way, Silva introduces a half-dozen vivid minor characters, all of whom give the novel great color and depth. By the time the book’s nerve-wracking conclusion is reached, Silva has given readers not only a thrill ride but also a somber and thoughtful examination of one of the world’s trouble spots.
TRUST FUND
By Stephen Frey
Ballantine, $24.95
High-finance thriller writer Stephen Frey is back with a tale of politics, money and tragedy centered on a Kennedy-esque family named Hancock. Patriarch of this wealthy clan is Jimmy Lee Hancock, who uses $2 billion of the family’s hedge fund to smear all of his son Paul’s opponents in the upcoming presidential primary. The brains of the outfit is son Bo, who knows where all the bodies are buried in the Hancock family past. But Bo has faults of his own, such as heavy boozing and womanizing, and soon he and his wife are banished from New York City to Montana by Jimmy Lee.
Put in Bo’s place as head of the family investment firm is Frank Ramsey, a devious right-hand man to the Hancocks and the first non-family member ever to get into a real position of power inside the clan. Shortly after Ramsey takes over, Jimmy Lee has a heart attack and Bo is warned by a company administrator–who later turns up dead–that Ramsey is using family money to make all kinds of shady deals. This brings Bo roaring back from Montana, and he finds himself fighting not only Ramsey but also, apparently, forces inside the government who want to destroy the family.
The twists and turns of the plot come rapidly, which helps because it distracts the reader from the extremely high level of melodrama in the material. All in all, however, Frey spins a pretty entertaining yarn of politics and ambition run amok.
THE FIRST COUNSEL
By Brad Meltzer
Warner, $25.95
Michael Garrick, a young lawyer working in the White House counsel’s office, is a rising star in President Hartson’s administration, and is just beginning to date Hartson’s daughter, Nora. But the first date doesn’t go well: Nora ditches her Secret Service watchers and takes Garrick to a gay bar where they find Mike’s straight-arrow and happily married boss, Edgar Simon, downing a few. Garrick and Nora follow Simon from the bar to a deserted wood, where he drops an envelope containing $40,000 in cash. Impulsively, Nora grabs $10,000 of it and gives it to Mike. They later get pulled over by the police for speeding, and the officers want to know why Mike is riding around with $10,000 in cash.
When Garrick tells his story to the White House ethics officer, Caroline Penzler, she tells him that Simon has said it was Mike who dropped the cash. When Penzler is murdered, suspicion hangs over Mike, who suddenly finds himself friendless in an unfriendly town.
As he has done in previous outings, Brad Meltzer delivers a thriller in which you can’t help but root for the main character. This is a book for which the phrase “page turner” was meant.
DECLARE
By Tim Powers
Morrow, $25
Fantasy writer Tim Powers moves into a new genre with this curious but interesting tale that combines the traditional spy novel with supernatural elements. The book opens in 1948, with an unidentified man being pursued down the slopes of Mt. Ararat by demons. Fifteen years later we meet Andrew Hale, the figure on the mountain, who we learn is a former British intelligence agent and now a university lecturer. But a phone call brings Hale back into the game to join an intelligence operation known as Declare.
Powers then tells the story of Declare, moving from Hale’s childhood to the mysterious events on the mountain. Using Cold War incidents and real people such as Kim Philby, Powers builds an alternate history of 20th Century Russia, complete with demons and genies. It’s a strange, fantastic story, engaging and silly at the same time.
Blending genres as different as fantasy and espionage is a bold move, and while Powers’ skill at plotting is undeniable, the book is ultimately less than satisfying. Still, it’s a grand attempt, and any reader looking for a different literary experience should check it out.
THE BABEL EFFECT
By Daniel Hecht
Crown, $23
Could the human propensity toward violence be partially viral? That’s one of the notions posited in Daniel Hecht’s latest novel, an ambitious scientific thriller. The main characters are Ryan and Jessamine McCloud, founders of Genesis, a think tank that tackles unconventional scientific issues. As the book begins, the couple is approached by a wealthy industrialist, Jason Ridder, who wants to fund an investigation into the causes of violence. What they begin to discover is that the capacity for violence might be viral in nature, spreading like a contagious disease.
Ryan is called to the Congo for work unrelated to the study and is captured by terrorists who keep him in solitary confinement for several weeks. When he returns, he finds that Jessamine has made a breakthrough in the study but has been kidnapped. Ryan must then reconstruct his wife’s research–in order to figure out what she has learned–as well as begin searching for her.
Clearly, Hecht is eager to dish up a thriller with some substance, but the science and the story don’t always coexist easily. Maybe the attempt is just too ambitious, which is unfortunate because Hecht is clearly a writer of sensitivity and talent who will demand attention in the future.
