In the Shadow of the Kingmakers by Vihad Imani tells some of the story of the post-WW1 countries’ geo-political maneuvering for control of Persia’s/Iran’s oil resources. Set in 1924 Tehran, the story revolves around the relationships between local Iranians such as young Ali who works at a restaurant and overhears spies manipulating each other, the British Embassy nurse who teaches him English in between his stints as a gardener and occasional waiter. A British spy/military officer is overheard manipulating an American into photographing a sensitive religious site in order to generate unrest with the locals. Locals also manipulate locals under the guise of being suitably religious or loyal to the government or the Cossacks who played a role in the newly-appointed prime minister…
At its core, this is the story of Ali, a young lad who had to leave school early despite his thirst for knowledge and the better life an education could bring him. His father’s early death means Ali must work menial jobs to support his mother and siblings. Ali is loyal to his father’s honour as a Cossack soldier and to Islam. He avoids being manipulated into protests but is accused anyway and locked away. The Embassy nurse takes on ambassadors and military generals, imploring them to fight to save Ali. But their careers, money and oil are more important to them.
This was a multi-layered story with many threads. I enjoyed its complexity and sense of reality.
McMinnville by Derrick McCartney is a fairly long and complex work of fiction that follows Ray Baker, a retired detective who is dying of cancer and dealing with the death of his wife. He discovers an unresolved case of photographs of a UFO at a place near his childhood home in Oregon. Ray applies his detective skills and concludes… I can’t finish that or it would spoil the plot – but it’s about much more than just UFOs. The book is very well-written and although long and complex, it is easy to read and follow along. I enjoyed it and had to repeatedly remind myself that it’s fiction.
Drowning in the Desert by Bernard Schopen is a lively, modern-day western thriller, set sometimes in Las Vegas and sometimes in rural Nevada.
Drowning in the Desert by Bernard Schopen
Fats Rangle, an ex-deputy sheriff, finds the two-year-old remains of a plane crash in the mountains and reports it to the authorities. On returning to his home/horse stables, he finds that his ‘cousin’ and employee has not returned from a short trip to Las Vegas. The initial investigation suggests that the cousin may have found the plane wreck before Fats and just may have found the briefcase that was said to have been in the plane, the reason so many big political and business names are keen to speak with Fats.
Fat’s investigation takes him into the underbelly of Las Vegas where it becomes apparent his cousin had told people he had a lot of money. And that’s why everybody wants a piece of Fats.
This is a very well-crafted plot with some decidedly charming characters that are easy to like and dislike, as per the author’s whim. I enjoyed the setting, which played a significant role in the story. And I found the ending most satisfying.
Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich is the thoroughly enjoyable story of Nub Taylor who hasn’t had the easiest of lives and hasn’t been easy on those in his life.
Nub had musical talent and he had opportunities, but drink got in the way of that and perhaps his time in the War was the reason for the drinking problems. He was a disappointing husband to Loretta and an embarrassment of a father to Emily and not much of an employee either.
Set in small-town Alabama, Kinfolk is a detailed and interesting exploration of southern people, their relationships and mid-70s rural-Alabama culture.
Nub turns his life around after an especially problematic drinking session and a chance encounter when he sees a local teenage boy harassing Minnie, a girl who works in a local Waffle House. AA meetings help, a blossoming relationship with the bar maid who also attends AA, and Minnie who turns out to be 15, pregnant to that boy who was harassing her and newly-orphaned. Minnie proves to be a talented singer and Nub encourages her to achieve the dreams he once had.
Nub is a likeable drunk and the reader quickly sides with him in the neighbourly and family disputes as well as his brushes with the law.
There’s a parallel plot that involves a newly-released prisoner, the mafia from which he stole and hid a serious load of cash and their intention to get that cash back by threatening Minnie, but I think I shouldn’t write much more about that, other than to say it adds some excitement and tension to the story.
I really enjoyed reading this well-constructed story. The characters are well-developed as are the ebbs and flows of their relationships.
I really enjoyed reading Bad Kids by Zijin Chen: a most intriguing crime thriller and story of a Chinese teenage boy, Zhu Chaoyang, his two friends, his mother, father, step-family, grandparents, and a police detective – and a series of 9 murders.
Bad Kids by Zijin Chen
The language of the translation, at times, seems a little awkward but in a way that added to the exotic-ness of the story, which serves as a window into Chinese family/parent-child culture (perhaps). There are many cultural nuances that will feel odd to the western reader and I enjoyed this aspect of the book.
Zhu Chaoyang is hard-working and very successful student with no friends. He is the occasional victim of class bullies. His parents are divorced; his father remarried and neglects to maintain a positive relationship with Chaoyang. And he’s mean with his money as well as his affection for his son.
A friend from several years ago appears at Zhu Chaoyang’s front door and asks to stay with Chaoyang for a few days. He and a younger girl have run away from an orphanage.
Meanwhile, Zhang Dongsheng, a teacher, murders his parents in law and the murder is captured on video by Chaoyang and his new friends. Their dilemma is that if they take the video to the police, the friends will be returned to the orphanage. So they hatch a plan to blackmail the murderer.
Around the same time Chaoyang meets his father, but it is clear that the father is completely under the control of his second wife and young daughter, fueling shame and financial hardship for Chaoyang and his mother. The meeting ends when the step-mother and step-sister appear and Chaoyang is introduced by his father as the nephew of a colleague. This upsets Chaoyang and…
Grateful for Chaoyang’s hospitality, his new friends offer to help exact some revenge on his nasty step-mother and spoilt-brat step-sister for being the source of his financial and emotional difficulties. This goes wrong and the step-sister is accidentally killed. This leads to the blackmail arrangement changing and I should probably stop telling the whole plot…
The story/plot is very well-constructed. At a distance, the plot seems far-fetched, but up close, sentence by sentence, it works well. The plot is told quickly and economically. We’re not bothered by too much florid description of the setting, and this brevity works well for this story, and keeps the plot ticking along at a rapid pace.
The characters are convincingly authentic and the reader will quickly develop a sympathy for the three kids, Chaoyang especially and his mother. The principal detective is no chump and it was interesting to read him being included into the relationship-driven plot.
It’s been fun to read that other reviewers were not happy with the ambiguous ending, but the ending is as clear as can be. And, in my opinion, it’s the perfect end and is perfectly satisfying. This is the most interesting and best-written crime fiction that I’ve read in a long time.
Books and beans 