A Wake Up Call for the NBA

Trump Vs. China – Newt Gingrich – (Center Street)

Given the recent uneducated and often down right stupid comments from NBA players, coaches and league officials – what better way to explain China’s worldview than by using a sports analogy. China is the equivalent of the New England Patriots; they will lie, cheat, steal or doing pretty much anything to win or give themselves an unfair advantage.

For the clueless money grubbers in the NBA - this really isn’t that hard – it’s as simple as understanding the difference between a murderous, totalitarian dictatorship (China) and a system based on freedom and free markets (the U.S.) Simple enough that even dopey libs like Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich should be able to get it.

If that doesn’t quite get to the bottom-line then I suggest picking up former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich’s new book Trump Vs. China, in which he lays out in straight forward terms, why China is an existential threat to the future of our country. Gingrich, as always, brings his insider’s depth of knowledge to this examination and breaks down the multiple layers of the threat and offers a detailed plan for facing it down. He keeps it simple enough that even a shooting guard or LeBron James should be able to understand, if they had someone read it to them.

There is a simple difference between those who are willing to sacrifice principles (NBA) and intellectual property, in the pursuit of money and those who are willing to stand up and push back against the tyranny of Communist dictators. Gingrich makes it clear that this is a battle where one side will win, and one side will lose; a true battle of good vs. evil.

No greater example exhibits this better than the protestors in Hong Kong who fly the American flag and see the U.S. as a beacon of hope. Are we perfect? No, but who is? As president Ronald Reagan famously said, “America is a shinning city on a hill, whose beacon light guides freedom loving people everywhere.” Put that in your bong and smoke Mr. Popovich.

A Fiction Drought...is Over

Lately I seem to have been stuck in a rut where i have found it a tough slog to get through the latest outings from usually dependable purveyors of thriller fiction. Some I managed to struggle through. I think in some cases, the authors may have fallen victim to their own success; when their latest efforts fail to measure up to their prior work and can be perceived as missing the mark.

Cari Mora - Thomas Harris (Grand Central Publishing)

That may be the case with Thomas Harris, who is clearly cursed by the overwelming success of Silence of the Lambs and the Hannibal Lecter character being the yardstick that readers will forever measure him by. Harris has the uncanny ability to create memorable, violent, psychopathic, characters like Lecter and Francis Dolarhyde (Red Dragon) that drive his stories.

In his latest, Cari Mora, Harris combines a newly minted psycho in the form of Hans-Peter Schneider with a truly interest story concept of the hunt for an ill-gotten treasure in the form of $25 million in drug cartel gold, hidden beneath a Miami, ocean front mansion. While Lecter and Dolarhyde where clearly next level crazy, Schneider comes off as violent for the sake of violence.

As the story moves forward, it unfortunately begins to fizzle out as the title character can't quite measure up to FBI profiler Clarice Starling as female foil to the craziness.

The Persian Gamble - Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale)

Another case of the yardstick issue is the latest from Joel C Rosenberg, The Persian Gamble. I couldn't help but find myself comparing the latest entry in the Marcus Ryker saga to Rosenberg's early political thrillers like, The Last Jihad and The Last Days, that had an almost Nostradamus-like quality; seemingly predicting real world, future events, before they happened.

While Ryker is a dependable tough guy, that places him in the league with those created by Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, and Daniel Silva; this one seemed to be a bit of a stretch. The result was that it started to lose me at points - not bad, just not up to the level I've come to expect.

Crown Jewel - Christopher Reich (Mullholland)

Once again, the concept, while familiar, classic, tried and true; that of the so-called unseen hand in plain site, is a great one that has been done to great effect in the past. The second installment in Christopher Reich's Simon Riske series, Crown Jewel, misses the  and a beautiful femme fatale. Riske come off as a battered and bruised, Energizer Bunny, who takes an ass-kicking and keeps on ticking. While I am certainly a willing participant in fiction that suspends disbelief, this one just seems a bridge too far.

Drought Over

Collusion - Newt Gingrich and Pete Earley (Broadside)

Things start to look up with the latest fiction forray from the combo of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and veteran writer Pete Earley, Collusion. While we have been blasted with the C-word for the past two plus years, this one is not what you may think. The first entry in what will hopefully become and ongoing series featuring FBI counter-intel type Valarie Mayberry and disgraced former Navy SEAL, Brett Garrett, Collusion taps into not only Gingrich and Earley's insider knowledge, but also some ripped from today's headlines storylines.

Along the way you get political assassination, high stakes espionage, whack-a-mole Antifa types and even a side story centering on the opioid crisis and medication assisted treatment. Perfectly paced and intricately woven the team keeps things moving forward and isn't shy about tossing in a few curveballs to make things even a little more audacious.

Rogue Strike - David Riccardi (Berkley)

In Rogue Strike, from David Riccardi, the unseen hand remains a mystery until deep into the story, and could have deadly consequences not only for CIA Operative Jake Keller and his partner, Curt Roach, but on a more global scale, the United States and it's interests around the globe.

Early on a mission in Yemen to take out a high value terrorist target goes awry as control of a drone get's commandeered in in mid-flight. The drones payload of Hellfire missiles, intended to take out the bad guy, instead get dropped on Mecca and the innocents at the annual Haj pilgrimage, leaving thousand dead, countless injured and the U.S. squarely in the crosshairs of international outrage and hatred.

Keller and Roach become the easy targets of blame for politicians looking to pass the buck. With a target firmly affixed on their back, Keller and Roach run hellbent to stay one step ahead of the Middle Eastern Hoard on the hunt for their heads. Fast-paced is an understatement and Riccardi make the case that he is poised to join the elite ranks of thriller writers.

Redemption - David Baldacci (Grand Central)

Right from his first forray into fiction, 1996's Absolute Power, and on through his numerous series of regular characters, David Baldacci has proven to be one of the most prolific, nearing fifty titles in print, and consistently satisfying writers out there.

Baldacci's fifth installment in the so-called Memory Man series, Redemption, is no exception. The quirky and enigmatic Amos Decker is back and Baldacci does his dead level best to string you along and dole out not only a steady stream of clues to the stories direction, but also enough hooks and curves to keep you guessing right through the end.

While for me, Decker doesn't rank at the same level as Baldacci's Will Robie, King and Maxwell or The Camel Club crew, Redemption, did wonders for ending my fiction drought.

Re-Contract With America

Trump’s America – The Truth about Our Nation’s Great Comeback – (Center Street)

With his subject matter, Donald Trump, clearly being far and away at the top of the list of most hated politicians in our lifetime, author and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich is no slouch when it comes to generating liberal hatred.

Upon examination, this inordinate amount of hate from the unbalanced left could stem from the simple fact that both Trump and Gingrich are so effective and so successful at pushing through their agendas that it drives the do nothing left over the edge, because liberals have always been about having and exploiting problems rather than solving them.

While Trump is all bombast and bluster, Gingrich takes a more cerebral approach to tackling the big issues and challenges we face with a focused clarity that gets to the heart of the matter straight away and offers up concise solutions with actionable steps. In Trump’s America – The Truth about Our Nation’s Great Comeback, Gingrich serves up not only a full breadth examination of Trump’s plan, but offers a concise, but detailed look at a whole scope of issues we face. I look at this as a follow up to Gingrich’s wildly successful Contract with America; sort of an updated, Re-Contract with America.

Along the way he tackles immigration/sovereignty, cutting red tape, health care, taxes, employment, and many others. Most interestingly he also offers a direct solution for fighting addiction that flies in the face of how liberals would portray a conservative solution to the problem. Gingrich clearly has a handle on the ins and outs of the opioid issue and what is the scientifically proven most effective way to combat the issue. Take that all you liberal weasels who think conservatives are somehow anti-science.

Don’t mistake this as a Trump cheerleading book; it is truly a playbook for how to continue to Make America Great Again and tackle issues this country has been facing since well before Barack Obama was in the White House, plus a whole bunch of things he screwed up over eight years.

Fall Fiction Finds

Duplicity – A Novel – Newt Gingrich with Pete Earley (Center Street)

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, even if you disagree with his politics, there is no denying that former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich is a smart guy. The consistent bestseller has done it again delivering an intelligent thriller in, Duplicity.

Long time Washington Post reporter Pete Earley lends a hand and may have infused a bit of the ripped from today’s headline quality to the outing. Duplicity is an interesting bit of fact-ion as Gingrich laces not only real world actions and players into the story, but also takes the Koran and Hadith ( a collection of narratives that supposedly quote the Prophet Muhammed verbatim) at face value.

Based on the classic invisible, controlling, hand story model, Duplicity has a chilling, worst fears realized quality that will have you burning through pages.

Patriot – An Alex Hawke Novel - Ted Bell (William Morrow)

Ted Bell serves up the ninth installment in the Alex Hawke series; which finds Hawke at odds with some guys who want to do him harm…in fact they want him dead. While so many thriller writers have moved on from the Cold War, in Patriot Bell heats things up with some bad guys courtesy of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

 

While the cognoscenti may scoff at the thought of Russia being one of our most difficult threats (see the reaction to Mitt Romney’s Presidential debate comment to that effect) Bell delivers a convincing fictional case that Putin would dearly love to elevate Russian back to superpower status.

Spies are dying all over the world. Hawke is on the hunt trying to tie these seemingly disparate events together with a common thread. If you are one of those folks who feel the need to latch on with a death grip to reality, the you may find this tale wholly unbelievable. For those that are so tightly bound to reality and just want to be entertained, then release the grip and enjoy the ride.

Mycroft Holmes – Kareem Abdul Jabbar with Anna Waterhouse (Titan Books)

Yes it is that Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Some may forget that the NBA Hall of Famer, multi-time MVP and Champion actually earned his degree in English and history at UCLA; perhaps it was the guidance of legendary coach John Wooden.

Jabbar is a bestselling author of numerous non-fiction books and a lifelong aficionado of Sherlock Holmes, so it’s not such a stretch that he would take a shot at telling the untold tale of Sherlock Holmes older brother Mycroft, in his fiction debut Mycroft Holmes.

 

Jabbar has a clear grasp on not only the period in history that book is set, but also in the style storytelling and setting of the day in which it takes place. While Mycroft played a role in many of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes tales, Jabbar adds much more meat to the more bare bones, government official in the Doyle stories.

While it is certainly a daunting task to dip into the realm of one of the most admired fictional characters of all time, Jabbar does an admirable job of spinning an entertaining tale that even Sherlockian purists will find entertaining.

Front Runner – A Dick Francis Novel – Felix Francis (G P Putnam & Sons)

Speaking of daunting tasks…imagine the challenge of taking the reins of one of the most successful mystery/thriller writer’s catalogs and continuing those series. Now add to by ratcheting it up a notch and make that masterful writer your father. That is the task faced by bestselling author Felix Francis who picked up where his father Dick Francis, the author of more than 40 books left off.

The one benefit that Felix had was the opportunity to work side by side with his legendary father, co-authoring several books before his father passed. While they are big shoes, Felix continues to do an admirable job of carrying on the family name.

While Dick Francis developed a very lean approach and spare writing style Felix does a nice job of weaving a nice level of detail into what have become a dependably entertaining series of books. He does a nice job of telling Jeff Hinkley’s story and mixing in some familiar Francis faces along the way.

The Girl in the Spider's Web: A Lisbeth Salander Novel – David Lagercrantz (Knopf)

A few years back, Steig Larsson burst onto or depending on who you believe created the thriving Swedish fiction scene and rocketed to worldwide acclaim first with the book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and a couple of bestselling follow ups. The wave in his wake included Henning Mankell, Liza Marklund, Ake Edwardson and a handful of others who spun fantastic, intriguing tales.

The Lisabeth Salander trilogy went on to sell a reported 80 million copies worldwide and almost as quickly as he became successful, Larsson died of a heart attack at the age of 50, with a legion of fans hungry for more of adrenaline fueled tales. Into the proverbial breach stepped David Lagencrantz, to take the mantle and carry on the saga.

 

While many authors have been tasked with continuing storylines and characters by the likes of Robert Ludlum, Robert B. Parker, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn and many others; those prolific writers had a much larger catalog than three books for a writer to better know the characters and style, which can be an advantage or possibly a disadvantage.

Lagencrantz does a spectacular job of locking into the tone, style and steady pacing of the storyline for The Girl in the Spider’s Web, ala Larsson’s handy work in the trilogy. Like Larsson, Lagencrantz does not grip you by the throat right from the first page, but builds the foundation of the characters and the story until you can’t stop turning pages. He perfectly meshes the new players in the story to the usual suspects from the prior books and just enough twisty turns to keep you guessing.