Real Deal Fiction

Over the course of the past few years there have been some interesting trends in fiction writing. I have encountered a number of books that seemed to take forever to get rolling; I found some VERY big bestsellers a little bit of a slog at the start, but hung with them because of the raves that seemed attached to them. In some cases it was worth the work…others, not so much.

I am a fan of those great books that waste no time, but grab you by the throat and take you off to the races. These are what I call real deal fiction, with authors who waste no time getting down to business. Here are three recent reads that fall firmly into that category.

Exit Strategy (A Nick Mason Novel) Steve Hamilton (G. P. Putnam)

I had known of Steve Hamilton’s books, but had never gotten around to reading one until the first book in the Nick Mason series dropped on my desk. Hamilton pulls together a story of desperation and of the desperate acts that go along with it. Nick Mason is freed from one box, in this case a prison cell and then locked into another; servitude to a vicious gangster with who holds sway over Mason and his family.

With Exit Strategy, Hamilton picks up the story of Chicago gangster Darius Cole as he executes his plot to free himself from prison by any means necessary, using the pawns that are within his grasp. Mason has become Cole’s Angel of Death, charged with taking out the witnesses who testified against Cole in his original trail, this time around it’s folks in the care and protection of the U.S. Marshall Service, witness protection program.

Mason isn’t always afforded the luxury of time to plan, so he flies by the seat of his pants. Mason is the ultimate anti-hero; a bad guy who you can’t help but root for as he sits firmly lodged between a rock and a hard place. While Mason goes about his unhealthy business, he is planning and plotting his long play, to find a way out from under Cole’s thumb.

Hamilton delivers the action at such a fast and furious pace that you will find yourself gulping for air just to keep up. His writing style is so cinematic that it’s easy to see way Nick Mason has been optioned for a stint on the big screen. Here’s hoping that Hollywood doesn’t screw things up like they did with the Jack Reacher series.

Since We Fell: A Novel – Dennis Lehane (ECCO)-

If you asked me for a list of my favorite authors, Dennis Lehane probably would not be among them. But in all honesty, I don’t know why. Lehane has made a nice career out of crafting not only great stories, but of creating some great character types. I can’t say that I could recall them by name, but he just has a knack for creating fictional people who you can recognize from your life or have crossed paths with along the way. Call them…relatable for lack a better term.

While some may be disappointed that Lehane’s latest, Since We Fell isn’t another entry in the Kenzie/Gennaro series, I think that Lehane is at his best when he’s off crafting stories about ordinary folks who get caught up in circumstances that are anything but ordinary. And that may be the magic of Dennis Lehane at his best; if you think about it, it is ordinary folks who end up in extraordinary situations, because that is what makes them extraordinary!

Lehane manages to weave you into the story of Rachel Childs, a former journalist who melts down on the air and then finds herself battling her personal demons, but living a relatively quiet life. That life begins to fray and unravel, leaving Childs to summon up the strength and courage to tackle her greatest fears.

This is Lehane at his best as he populates his stories with average, ordinary folks challenged with seemingly insurmountable challenges.

G-Man – A Bob Lee Swagger Novel – Stephen Hunter (Blue Rider Press)

It seems hard to believe that it’s been nearly 25 years since Stephen Hunter first introduced us to sniper Bob Lee Swagger with the book Point of Impact, a book chock full of double dealing, nefarious, government insiders and dirty dealers that it could be ripped from today’s headlines, or at the very least fake news. In the intervening time, Hunter has put Swagger into precarious situations and even introduced us to his small town Sheriff grandfather, Charles Swagger along the way.

Now in G-Man, Hunter deals out an almost Forrest Gumpian hand by dropping Charles into the mix of squaring off with infamous outlaws the likes of Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Now decades after the fact, Bob Lee is the recipient of a mysterious box unearthed on his family homestead. The contents of the box include a well preserved .45, a rusty badge, a stray gun part, a puzzling diagram and a healthy dose of mystery that fans of Bob Lee Swagger know he won’t be able to resist solving.

Hunter masterfully draws out the master snipers struggles with age and ghosts from his families past. Hunter has to carefully walk the tight rope between historical events and the present as he plays out the two storylines that intertwine to create G-Man. There is a level of precision to the way Hunter doles out the facts with a level of accuracy that we’ve come to expect in his stories.

Summer Reading Stampede: In Full Swing

Brutal Youth – Anthony Breznican – (Thomas Dunne Books)

There is something inherently not right about high school; it’s as if a group of masochists gathered to come up with a new and interesting way to torture children. Think about it; right around the time Mother Nature starts to bombard you with an abundance of hormones and urges, someone thought it was a good time to plunk you firmly down on the educational path towards your future. Good times.

With his debut novel, Brutal Youth, Anthony Breznican drops you squarely into the heart of evil; freshman year at St. Michael the Archangel High School, on the fringe of Pittsburgh, in Western Pennsylvania. To say St. Michael’s has issues is an understatement; which makes the oddball collected in the incoming freshman class a perfect fit, as the band together in survival mode.

Breznican will have you nodding your head, remembering the less than good old days as he dashes off so many familiar characters and relatable scenarios that we all endured. He brings together a colorful mix of The Outsiders and the band of brothers from Stand By Me, in this aptly titled debut.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Ascendancy – Eric Van Lustbader (Grand Central Publishing)

Eric Van Lustbader’s latest installment in the Jason Bourne series that he helms on behalf of the estate of Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Ascendancy is a new twist on the classic rock and a hard place scenario. Bourne, always on the outside with those most responsible for his creation at the CIA is scrabbling along as a freelance “blacksmith” impersonating high level business and government leaders in less than stellar situations, where their life could be on the line.

It is while in one of those “acting” jobs that Bourne comes up against an infamous terror mastermind El Ghadan and Bourne is given the ultimatum; kill the President of the United States or risk losing Soraya Moore, his close friend and her two year old daughter, that the terrorist holds captive.

Naturally the U. S. law enforcement types already mistrustful of Bourne get wind that something is afoot and that ratchets up the pressure and heightens the thrills. That makes The Bourne Ascendancy one of those great suspend reality and enjoy, summer reads.

Cold Shot – Mark Henshaw (Touchstone Books)

Thriller readers are a different breed; they crave not only the excitement that these books can create, but also they bring a focused attention to detail. They know when they are being sold a load of B.S. That is what truly separates the great thriller writers; the likes of Brad Thor, and sadly the late Vince Flynn and Tom Clancy from the rest of the pack. Either from real life experience or carefully cultivated contacts they bring a ripped from the real world authenticity to their books that put them a cut above.

Mark Henshaw is part of a new group of thriller writers who draw on real world experience to salt their stories with a gritty realism. Henshaw, a decorated CIA analyst and former member of the Red Cell think tank that was charged with getting into the minds of terrorists and developing potential scenarios and targets in an effort to beat terrorists to the punch; brings a rarely seen level of authenticity to his second novel Cold Shot.

Henshaw’s lead character, Jonathan Burke, a CIA analyst has that unlikely hero quality the Tom Clancy made famous in the form of Jack Ryan. Henshaw can certainly stake a claim to the Clancy territory, as he weaves mountains of facts into frighteningly realistic tale of the pursuit of the ultimate nuclear Cold Shot.

Sniper’s Honor – A Bob Lee Swagger Novel – Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster)

Bob Lee Swagger. The mere mention of his name can set the hearts of thriller fans aflutter. Point of Impact, the book that brought good ole Bob Lee to the big screen in the movie Shooter, is easily one of my all time favorite reads. Author Stephen Hunter has served up a steady diet of Swagger over the years and fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your perspective, Point of Impact will be the yardstick fans use to measure the success of the latest installment in the Bob Lee saga.

Sniper’s Honor, Hunter’s latest helping of Swagger, offers up a familiar take for long time fans, as the author takes us back in time; he’s gone down this road before as Bob Lee revisited his own past and that of his father, but this time out it’s the tale torn from the sniper brotherhood or in this case sisterhood.

Swagger gets drawn into the search for “the White Witch” a World War II, Eastern Front, grim reaper, who rained death on her enemies. Hunter weaves history, current events and the sniper’s bond throughout the story. The ping pong approach can at times be disconcerting and it’s as if Hunter is trying mightily to meld the two distinct plot lines together to create one coherent story.

While it may not meet the measure of Point of Impact, and to be honest very little does, Hunter’s master grasp of guns and history still make this a tale worth reading.