“Supreme Justice” by Phillip Margolin (Harper)

Intrigue & Corruption at the Supreme Court

Sarah Woodruff, on death row in Oregon for murdering her lover, John Finley, has appealed her case to the Supreme Court just when a prominent justice resigns, leaving a vacancy.

Then, for no apparent reason, another justice is mysteriously attacked. Dana Cutler – one of the heroes from Margolin’s bestselling Executive Privilege – is quietly called in to investigate. She looks for links between the Woodruff appeal and the ominous incidents in the justices' chambers, which eventually lead her to a shoot-out that took place years ago on a small freighter docked upriver in Shelby, Oregon, containing a dead crew and illegal drugs. The only survivor on board? John Finley.

With the help of Brad Miller and Keith Evans, Dana uncovers a plot by a rogue element in the American intelligence community involving the president's nominee to the Supreme Court, and soon the trio is thrown back into the grips of a deadly, executive danger.

This is the second novel in Margolin’s Washington Trilogy (the first was Executive Privilege), and it continues the series in very fine form. The novel reunites us with Brad Miller and Dana Cutler – the former is now a clerk at the Supreme Court, while Dana continues to work as a private investigator and also some-time reporter for Exposed, the supermarket tabloid our protagonists turned to in their previous novel. Supreme Justice has a couple of great twists and red herrings, as well as political and courtroom intrigue. This is a pretty solid, entertaining and gripping political/legal thriller.

Artwork: “Twilight Robbery”/“Fly Trap” by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan/HarperCollins)

Here’s a UK-vs.-US artwork post. Personally, I am firmly on the side of the UK artwork, which I think is stunning – the US one is… meh. Which do you prefer?

I haven’t read the novel, or the first in the series (“Fly By Night”), but I spotted the cover when browsing Macmillan’s website (for Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new covers, in case you’re interested…). Here’s the novel’s synopsis:

As dusk approaches, the good people of Toll-by-day slam shut their doors and tremble. New openings appear in the shadows, a black carriage rumbles through the streets and a wicked underworld emerges. It is time to discover Toll-by-Night – and it’s a very different place.

Black-eyed orphan Mosca Mye and conman Eponymous Clent are down on their luck. Again. So when they find themselves embroiled in a daring kidnap plot, the whiff of money is too tempting to resist. Before she knows it, Mosca is trapped in Toll’s deadly night city on a mission to rescue a girl she can't stand with only a midwife, a murderous goose and a war-crazed dandy knight to help her…

“The Devil Colony” by James Rollins (William Morrow/Orion)

Sigma Force race to halt a potential cataclysm rooted in the history of America’s Founding

Deep in the Rocky Mountains, a gruesome discovery stirs international attention and controversy. Despite doubts about the bodies’ origins, the local Native American Heritage Commission lays claim to the prehistoric remains, along with the strange artefacts found in the same cavern: gold plates inscribed with an unfathomable script.

During a riot at the dig site, an anthropologist dies, burned to ashes in a fiery explosion in plain view of television cameras. All evidence points to a radical group of Native Americans, including one agitator, a teenage firebrand who escapes with a vital clue to the murder and calls on the one person who might help — her uncle, Painter Crowe, Director of Sigma Force.

To protect his niece and uncover the truth, Painter will ignite a war among the nation’s most powerful intelligence agencies. Yet an even greater threat looms as events in the Rocky Mountains have set in motion a frightening chain reaction, a geological meltdown that threatens the entire western half of the U.S.

I’ve long been a fan of Rollins’s Sigma Force novels, and being in the United States at the moment meant I could get my hands on Devil Colony months before its UK release date. Filled with intrigue, action and adventure – not to mention some great characters – The Devil Colony is an interesting, science-infused action-adventure.

Introducing… Mark Lawrence, author of “Prince of Thorns”

The Prince of Thorns is one of this year’s most anticipated fantasy debuts. In advance of its release, I thought it might be nice to introduce the author, Mark Lawrence, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new novel and writing.

“The Geneva Deception”, by James Twining (Harper)

Tom Kirk’s fourth adventure

A missing masterpiece. A shocking truth. An alliance signed in blood…

For Lieutenant Allegra Damico, the brutal murder of a mafia enforcer offers her an unexpected opportunity to jump start her career. When the body of a senior official at a Vatican-backed bank turns up under similar conditions, it becomes clear the killings are, in fact, the opening shots of a war.

In Las Vegas, former art thief Tom Kirk has agreed to help Special Agent Jennifer Browne handle the recovery of a priceless Caravaggio. The painting, stolen over forty years before, has suddenly surfaced and Jennifer is determined to recover it, but a sniper lies in wait. Tom, accused by the FBI of being involved in the shooting escapes to Italy, crossing paths with Allegra. Realising their cases are connected, they decide to team up.

What they uncover is a vast and powerful conspiracy stretching from the scarred fields of Italy to the marbled halls of the world’s greatest museums. A conspiracy built on the graves of the dead and the blood of anyone who dates stand in its way.

In this fourth Tom Kirk novel, Twining once again showcases his skill at conjuring plots that centre on intricate, international criminal conspiracies and, of course, expensive art.

The previous three novels featuring Tom Kirk were all happily devoured by this reviewer, and it was only through accident that it’s taken me this long to finally get around to The Geneva Deception. While still very interesting, there are some flaws to go along with the author’s obvious strengths.

First, the pros: Twining’s familiarity with the art world (not only the museums, but also the European centres of art – especially those in Italy) is superb, and the detail comes across as natural and unforced. Kirk is a strong protagonist, and Allegra is an interesting addition to the series. The story is well constructed, and Twining takes the reader on quite the tour of Rome. There are a few scenes that feel like The Da Vinci Code, but it’s only because of lazy mental reference to the opening scenes of Dan Brown’s mega-seller in the museum – Twining is far ahead of Brown in turns of style and quality.

Some of the flaws of the novel come hand-in-hand, or as a result of some of its strengths. Twining, a detail-oriented author, has perhaps gone a little too far in The Geneva Deception, as he describes everything in considerable detail. It’s not to the same level as the details of Patrick Bateman’s morning ritual in the opening chapter of American Psycho, but it’s noticeably higher than could be considered wise. Everything is described: we get exact model descriptions of suits, watches, guns and the bullets available to them, vintage cars... It’s sometimes exhausting – certainly in the opening chapters, when Twining hasn’t quite got the plot going yet. Sure, it adds an extra level of authenticity for an art thief to know about the finer things in life, but it also screams a little bit like “Look how much research I’ve done!”

The story picks up around Chapter 15, when the art deal goes wrong in the Las Vegas Casino, and Kirk has to keep things together at the same time as dealing with a significant death (which he seems to cope with far too well). The pacing throughout the novel is just rather uneven and, for me, didn’t match up to the superb quality of his first two novels (The Double Eagle and The Black Sun), both of which I loved.

Overall, this is a good book, and a fun read. Unfortunately, and for reasons I can’t understand, Twining either has written this without strict editorial supervision, or his editor wasn’t paying too much attention. It takes approximately half of the novel before all the events described in the blurb on the back of the paperback have happened. While this isn’t bad per se, it was a little disappointing to know, basically, the first half of the novel before cracking open a single page.

If you like your thrillers a little less break-neck in pace, coupled with intricate plotting and an international setting, not to mention some excellent insight into art and the art black market, then The Geneva Deception should appeal. It’s not the author’s best novel, but it’s certainly still well worth reading.

“The Fort”, by Bernard Cornwell (HarperCollins)

Cornwell returns his attention to the United States

Summer 1779, a British force of fewer than one thousand Scottish infantry were sent to build a garrison in the State of Maine. The war of Independence was in its third year and no other British troops stood between Canada and New York.

The State of Massachusetts was determined to expel the British, but when they sent a fleet of forty vessels to ‘captivate, kill and destroy’ they underestimated their enemies, calm in battle and ready for victory.

Told from both sides of the battle, the main characters are all real figures from history. Based on diaries, letters and court transcripts, we meet many of the war’s greatest heroes, including Paul Revere and John Moore, each of whom become famous subjects of war poetry.

As a long-time fan of the author’s Sharpe series, I was eager to see what Cornwell would come up with when he turned his attention, once again, to American history. When I tried the Starbuck books (set during the Civil War), I couldn’t really get into them, but this was more an issue with me rather than Cornwell’s novels. I just wasn’t that interested at the time. Now, however, I am a little better versed in the time and setting, and so The Fort seems to have been perfectly timed to pique my interest. It’s also a great idea, and one I was eager to read. The novel is based on extensive documentary evidence from the period and of the events, so Cornwell has really delved deeply into the historical facts to construct his novel. However, this has a double-edged quality to it, and it is a very different novel to what I expected.

First, the good: the historical detail – from the mundane to the grander commentary on American life and society at the time – is brilliant, and meticulously researched. We get a great sense of both the righteousness and worry of the newly-free Colonials, and Cornwell delves into the factionalism that was already on the rise at this time (including the class struggle and the anti-Ivy League sentiments that would not be entirely out of place in today’s political discourse). The grand ideals that formed the basis of the Revolution are laid bare, frequent victims of simple human nature. For example, the American expedition sent to repel the Scottish forces, was seriously hampered by squabbling between Commodore Saltonstall and General Lovell over who should have command. Including characters such as Paul Revere (who was not quite the great patriot and warrior as American myth would have us believe) is a great draw for the novel, and Cornwell renders all of his characters well.

The novel includes a lot of detail of the lives of both loyalists and the rebels – religion remains a strong dictator of daily life for both, but the colonies need to contend with chronis under-supply of weapons, food, and almost everything else. There’s the occasional amusing aside or comment regarding military contractors – clearly, inflating costs for government contracts is nothing new… Cornwell also portrays the difference in quality of the American and British troops, and how that effected the outcome of the Expedition. The British were simply superior in almost every way, and so the outcome of this Expedition could perhaps have been considered a foregone conclusion. Then, however, you have to consider that the Americans ultimately won…

One could also not review a Cornwell novel without tipping one’s hat to the author’s considerable gift for writing action sequences – he remains one of the few authors who can write long battle scenes that keep my attention throughout, and convey the chaos and tension one might feel in such situations – not to mention delve convincingly into the psyches of those who will have to unwillingly face battle against an enemy so like themselves.

Unfortunately, the author’s apparent loyalty to the texts in existence has had a couple of negative effects on the novel. First, it is uneven – at times the dialogue feels natural and flows, the same for the narrative as a whole; then there are passages that are clearly influenced from written accounts, where the style changes (sometimes slightly, sometimes very noticeably), and changes the pace of the novel. There were a number of times when dialogue suddenly became extremely formal, rather than natural, and I can only suppose that it’s taken from written accounts of conversations or diaries of those present. While interesting on an intellectual level, it didn’t really work as fictional entertainment. The author has apparently been “fascinated” for a very long time with this period, and while this allows for a faithful reconstruction of the time, it also comes through as over-attention to detail to the apparent detriment to storytelling.

As always, Cornwell has done an incredible job of making sure his writing is accurate and deviates minimally for the purposes of his story. Unfortunately, the execution was uneven, and (in my humble opinion) not up to Cornwell’s usual standard. As an example in historical fiction writing, this is exceptional. But as an example of historical entertainment, it does not live up to the author’s previous writing. I may, of course, be entirely misunderstanding the point of the novel – as someone who has read all-but-one of the Sharpe novels, and was introduced to the author through his Archer series, I was perhaps expecting something a little more swashbuckling and adventurous, and a little more entertaining.

While this is an interesting novel, based on an interesting premise, and written by a very gifted author, I can’t help thinking that only Revolutionary-era historians will get the full benefit and experience of it. That being said, if you are interested in reading a novel about the Revolutionary War, by an author who is loyal to the actual historical events, and come to it not expecting Sharpe in America, then I believe you will probably enjoy The Fort.

Therefore, I offer a cautious recommendation.

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Comments on the Kindle Edition

As the first novel I’ve read on the Kindle, I thought I would make a couple of comments on both the eBook itself and also the reading experience. First off, it’s still a pleasure to read on the device – the page turns are quick, and the device is comfortable to hold.

That being said, the quality of the eBook – like many I have bought for my Sony Reader – is not at all high. There were too many typos, punctuation substitutions, and other errors to be acceptable (particularly opening speech-marks, which are all-too-frequently missing). It remains clear that publishers don’t treat eBooks as carefully as printed and bound volumes. If they don’t allow these typos in printed books (especially for bestsellers like Cornwell), then they really shouldn’t be appearing here.

Considering that prices for eBooks tend to be pretty close to those of printed books (at least on Amazon and near publication date), I find this unfair to customers and extremely irritating as a reader. I don’t see an excuse for it – unless it is a fault of the conversion software. While I am willing to accept that this may account for some of the errors, there is one glaring error in The Fort that cannot easily be blamed on this. Specifically, when the titular fort is built, and the British leader christens it “Tort George”. Twice.