Back To The Books

So let's start with The Osterman Weekend. It's by Robert Ludlum, which means if this copy was published today, it would say something like "By the bestselling author of The Bourne Identity!" on the cover. However, since this was published in 1972, it says 'The electrifying bestseller by the author of The Parsifal Mosaic'. How things change in 37 years, I've never even heard of that book.

The gist is that the CIA is concerned about an extremist Communist cell called Omega here in the U.S. This cell, which consists of between 1 and 6 people, has sufficient dirt on various important economic figures that, were they to blackmail those figures, the country could be thrown into economic ruin. The suspected six people are three married couples, all who know each other, and who are all close friends with another couple, the Tanners. A CIA agent approaches John Tanner and asks him to help his country ferret out these dangerous subversives. It just so happens that all the couples will be coming together for what they call an Osterman Weekend, named because it happens when the Ostermans fly in from L.A. to visit (the other three couples live in the same community in Jersey), and the CIA would like John tanner to just act normal, let them place listening devices in his house, and see what happens, becuase the three couples will all be receiving disturbing and vague messages warning them of. . . something.

Which leads to a weekend of heavy drinking, strained conversation, and people talking past each other because no one is willing to come right out and say what they mean. So lots of confusion, especially for Ali Tanner, who is not privvy to her husband's espionage work, so she gets all of the stress and terror (when that starts), with none of the udnerstanding. For some reason, Ludlum felt it necessary that Ali would have a difficult childhood, with her father being some sort of messianic wannabe living in the desert in a compound with many "devotees", and he eventually got shot. All this really seems to accomplish in story is to show John would like to protect his wife from that being made public in their community, but it barely seems a serious threat. What was more important, and less dealt with, was the idea that John and Ali are supposedly totally honest with each other, no secrets, but John keeps this from her for several days, and maybe that should have been more relevant.

Being an espionage thriller, there's naturally a double-cross, big surprise type thing, which I suppose I really should have caught, but I didn't. There were apparently two clues, which I remembered but didn't make a connection between. To excuse myself, I think one of those could have been flimsy, and the other could have been excused as someone trying to manipulate Tanner. Which is true, it's just the goal of the manipulation was not what I thought it was. It was pretty standard fare, nothing special, good or bad.

The Man Who Never Missed - Steve Perry. One man wages a war against the Confederation on one little planet. The Confederation spans stars, but Khadaji's taking the longview, and this only one step on his big plan to bring the Confederation down.

The book is three parts. Part 1 is the general set-up. Here's Khadaji, here's where he lives and does his business, here's how he does his business. Part 2 is a flashback, the whys and hows, what brought him to this point, where he learned to be as good as he is. Part 3 returns to the present, as Khadaji wraps things up in his current locale, and prepares for what comes next. What that is, I don't know, because that's the end of the book. I imagine there were more books, but this is the only one I have currently, so how was it?

It was pretty entertaining. The bit where Khadaji is unsure where to go, but then meets the wise and powerful old master who teaches him some really super awesome martial arts is a bit cliched, but at least Perry cops to it in the story. That doesn't make it not a cliche, but I get the feeling it's his way of asking us to roll with it, and I guess it serves a purpose. Khadaji has big dreams, that he has to do something that seems nearly insurmountable, but he's still a kid basically, understands little of how the universe works, and so Pen serves as the obviously more experienced character who can teach him. What helps is Khadaji continues to meet people who teach him things all through the flashback, and they aren't "old master" types, they're mostly just people with different lives and experiences than Khadaji, who can teach him things. It's probably about the way the universe works, how you always have to keep your eyes open, there's always something to learn, or someone to learn from.

Like I said, this seems to be the first book in a series, but I think it still works as an isolated work. Perry presents us with certain mysteries about Khadaji in the early going. Some of these are answered in the flashback, some are answered when the book returns to the present, but there are a few that are left unanswered (though there are hints). Still, his campaign of nonlethal guerilla warfare against the Confederation on the planet Greaves, which started here, also ends here, so that's one complete arc in the book.

Charlie Chan Returns - Dennis Lynds. I've never read a Charlie Chan mystery before. My dad's a fan of the movies, and I've watched at least one with him (though I can't recall any of it), so I thought, what the heck. In this, Charlie Chan comes to New York, where his 3rd son, Jimmy, is a cop. While there, Mr. Chan is invited to a party by a Victor Cosmo, and at the party, Cosmo announces he has a ledger with information that will ruin 4 of the guests there (Chan's not in that group). That night, Cosmo gets blown up, and so we're off, with Charlie and Jimmy trying to solve the murder. There's also a robbery of a hotel vault which ties in.

I'm guessing this is a pretty typical Charlie Chan mystery. I figured it out, not by some brilliant piecing together of the evidence, rather I just figured it was the one person that nobody was suspecting. No, not Charlie Chan, though that would mean he placed the hand grenade in his hotel shower, and that would be pretty devious.

What I was left wondering is if there was some sort of translation device, where you put a relatively ordinary phrase in, and it comes out as a Charlie Chanism. At one point, when they have lost sight of the killer they were pursuing, Jimmy comments that it's creepy knowing the killer could be somewhere in the crowd watching them. His dad's response is 'Condition of being policeman. Remedy is to move fast on trail that leads in circle to behind man with gun.' So basically, you need to find him before he can get a shot at you? It's part amusing, part irritating.