Crime.

FICTION

****

Get Real

A Dortmunder Novel

By Donald E. Westlake

Celebrated pulp fiction writer Donald Westlake, the recipient of three Edgar Awards, died in 2008. During his 50-year career, he produced more than 100 novels and short story collections, 14 of which feature John Dortmunder and his coconspirators.

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THE STORY: A smooth-talking reality TV producer tries to enlist John Dortmunder and his ragtag band of crooks for his latest project: "Real criminals committing a real crime, right there in front of your eyes." Dortmunder remains unconvinced. "When you're committing a felony," he explains, "the idea is, you don't want witnesses. What you want is privacy." Persuaded to sign on for the series against his better judgment, he soon hatches a plan for a double heist--one for the camera and another behind the scenes, in which the gang breaks into the TV company's production studio. Of course, as they set to work, nothing goes quite as planned.

Grand Central. 288 pages. $23.99. ISBN: 9780446178600

Los Angeles Times ****

"Part of the great fun of these novels is watching Dortmunder (and Westlake) outsmart the people who think they're smarter than he is--including readers like me. ... In short, Westlake delivers the goods for which he is justifiably famous--nothing is what it seems, everything that can go wrong does, and the complexity of the heist increases until there is no possible way for Dortmunder to pull off the caper, which is when Westlake surprises us yet again with moves so smart and funny they leave us gasping." ROBERT CRAIS

Miami Herald ****

"In Get Real ... the comedy is as clever and as roarful as ever it has been in his more than 50-year career." JOHN HOOD

NY Times Book Review ****

"While the formula is clear-cut and familiar, only Westlake seems capable of pulling it off with the perfect balance of technical ingenuity and high-dudgeon humor. The more strenuously outraged he becomes at some social or political absurdity, the more cutting his satiric wit." MARILYN STASIO

San Antonio Exp-News ****

"The pleasures of the Dortmunder series achieve special poignance in Get Real, as the story unfolds in the usual way: assembling the regulars--Dortmunder, Kelp, Stan the Driver and Tiny, who was introduced stealing compact cars by picking them up one at a time and loading them into the back of a moving van--in the grungy back room of the O.J. Bar and Grill. ... [Get Real] has all the pleasures of twist and wit as Westlake's other comic capers." JAY BRANDON

Washington Post ****

"While the developing plot of Get Real has holes big enough to drive a stolen Chevy through, they don't really matter much. Mostly, one just enjoys Westlake's ingratiating, laid-back narrative voice." MICHAEL DIRDA

CRITICAL SUMMARY

To critics' delight, the gang is all here in Westlake's latest--and, sadly, last--comic caper: Dortmunder, getaway driver Stan Murch, safecracker Andy Kelp, muscleman Tiny Bulcher, and recent addition Judson "The Kid" Blint. Though the plot will be familiar to longtime fans of the series, Westlake's charming characters, clever twists, and mischievous wit combine to create a winning novel. Part of Dortmunder's appeal is that he's not an evil genius but more of a criminal Everyman whose careful plans always seem to go hilariously awry. "A rollicking crime caper that pulls the pants right off the reality TV industry" (New York Times Book Review), Get Real will have readers laughing out loud and searching through bookshelves for Westlake's prior works.

FIRST IN THE SERIES

THE HOT ROCK (1970): Recently released from prison, John Dortmunder is hired by an African ambassador to the United Nations to steal a famous emerald from a rival nation. What starts as a potentially lucrative heist quickly devolves into a comedy of errors as one attempt after another ends in failure for Dortmunder and his hand-picked team.

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****

The Girl Who Played with Fire

By Stieg Larsson, translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland

Swede Stieg Larsson, a journalist and editor who died in 2004, wrote the internationally best-selling Millennium series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (**** Nov/Dec 2008) was the first, and the third, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, will be published in America next year. The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second in the series, reprises Lisbeth Salander, hacker extraordinaire.

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THE STORY: During an investigation of sex trafficking in Sweden, a husband-and-wife journalism team and a third man, an attorney, are murdered in Stockholm. Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander--either an eccentric genius or a scourge on society, depending on the reader's perspective--has an unpleasant connection to one of the victims, and she becomes the prime suspect when evidence links her to the scene. Mikael Blomkvist, editor of Millennium magazine, which was to have run the reporters' expose, can't believe that Lisbeth could have done such a thing. But as she reinvents herself, in part as a way of forgetting Blomkvist and their brief relationship, Lisbeth slowly reveals details of her own past that could further implicate her in the crimes.

Knopf. 503 pages. $25.95. ISBN: 9780307269980

San Francisco Chronicle *****

"I have to say that these books grabbed me and kept me reading with eyes wide open with the same force as the best of the series on the TV monitor. ... The books are so good, in fact, that I have to keep reminding myself that they are genre novels, not mainstream fiction, so I shouldn't think about Salander as if she were a figure out of fiction with a larger vision and grander heights." ALAN CHEUSE

Chicago Sun-Times ****

"If the thriller part of Larsson's exceptional novel is the icing, more profound elements are the philosophical cake. ... The way Larsson ends it screams for a sequel; while it ties up certain aspects of this singular contemporary saga, it leaves other juicy ones to be explored." CARLO WOLFF

Dallas Morning News ****

"Given the enormous craft shown in the first two books, it's not stretching it to say that Larsson will be remembered as one of the most revered writers of the early 21st century. He's blessed with both depth and killer wit." JOY TIPPING

Los Angeles Times ****

"While The Girl [w]ith the Dragon Tattoo read like a Nordic Silence of the Lambs, its dynamic, brawny sequel, The Girl Who Played [w]ith Fire, reanimates the tropes of the political thriller. ... Formally, at least, [it] is a muscle car. But a European engine purrs beneath its hood." DANIEL MALLORY

Minneapolis Star Tribune ****

"In The Girl Who Played [w]ith Fire, Larsson at last gives readers a full accounting of how Lisbeth has been shaped by her tragic past. ... With just a few exceptions, as when the action backtracks to show Lisbeth's version of events or there's yet another slip-up at the police station, Larsson steadily builds the tension until it's nearly impossible to put this book down." KATHE CONNAIR

New York Times ****

"Though this novel lacks the sexual and romantic tension that helped spark Dragon Tattoo--Salander and Blomkvist share few scenes here--it boasts an intricate, puzzlelike story line that attests to Mr. Larsson's improved plotting abilities, a story line that simultaneously moves backward into Salander's traumatic past, even as it accelerates toward its startling and violent conclusion. ... As he did in Dragon Tattoo, Mr. Larsson ... mixes precise, reportorial descriptions with lurid melodramatics lifted straight from the stock horror and thriller cupboard." MICHIKO KAKUTANI

Washington Post ****

"Here is a writer with two skills useful in entertaining readers royally: creating characters who are complex, believable and appealing even when they act against their own best interest; and parceling out information in a consistently enthralling way. The sharp-eyed may catch Larsson leaning on coincidence a bit too often in the new book, but overall his storytelling is so assured that he can get away with these peccadilloes." DENNIS DRABELLE

Cleveland Plain Dealer ***

"Larsson's novels emphasize character as much as crime. But Fire plods where Dragon Tattoo built suspense. ... Thankfully, the new story's second half crescendos to a jaw-dropping, suspense-filled finale." CODY CORLISS

Philadelphia Inquirer ***

"What Larsson has done is akin to enlisting two huge, enticing stars, then keeping them separated for much of the action, united only through e-mail. Consequently, Dragon Tattoo proves the more rewarding of the two books, even as its plot snowballs in the final chapters, growing improbably convoluted and more violent than necessary, a failing of many contemporary mysteries." KAREN HELLER

CRITICAL SUMMARY

By most accounts, the follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is as successful a second installment in a crime series as we're likely to see. In The Girl Who Played with Fire, Larsson explored Lisbeth Salander, a swirl of contradictions and evasions, with a depth that eludes most crime writers. In fact, this is Lisbeth's book (Mikael Blomkvist is still around, of course, though he plays second fiddle here to his erstwhile love interest), and Larsson has readers eating out of his hand with a plot that simmers before coming to a full boil. Only one critic cited an overly convoluted story line. It's a shame that only one book remains to be published in America, though rumors continue to circulate regarding a fourth book in progress when the author died unexpectedly in 2004.

****

Jericho's Fall

By Stephen L. Carter

Stephen L. Carter, a distinguished Yale law professor, is the author of several works of nonfiction on legal policy and ethics and intricate, literary thrillers (The Emperor of Ocean Park, **** Nov/Dec 2002; New England White, **** Sept/Oct 2007; and Palace Council, *** Sept/Oct 2008). Jericho's Fall is his fourth novel.

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THE STORY: Former CIA director Jericho Ainsley, dying of cancer, has summoned former lover Rebecca "Beck" DeForde--the pretty teenage coed who cost him his career nearly 15 years before--to his palatial mountain retreat. Beck arrives at the compound, which is fortified with state-of-the-art weapons systems and surveillance equipment, and intends to say a final farewell. Instead, she finds herself drawn into a tangled web of secrets and paranoia. Unmarked helicopters circle overhead, sinister strangers haunt the grounds, cell phones mysteriously ring despite the lack of service, and a headless dog is left for Beck as a warning. Someone wants the past to remain buried, and Beck must unravel the lies and deceit if she is to survive.

Knopf. 355 pages. $25.95. ISBN: 9780307272621

San Francisco Chronicle *****

"Jericho's Fall is that rare thing: a page-turner that grips the readers' attention as they plunge into a vortex that takes them into a nightmarish world where nothing is quite as it seems. ... Carter is a masterly novelist, and his control of plot and character development is sure and unobtrusively skillful." MARTIN RUBIN

Boston Globe ****

"His new thriller, Jericho's Fall, has perhaps the most Byzantine plot twists yet and enough red herrings to feed every guest at a mystery writers' gala. I enjoyed it immensely, even if there were moments when I thought the plausibility meter was way off the charts." CHRIS BOHJALIAN

Denver Post ****

"It's not a story immersed in character, but it's rich enough to make the reader care, at times heart-stoppingly so. ... Carter brings the reader to a blazing final confrontation, as surprising as it is inevitable." ROBIN VIDIMOS

Los Angeles Times ****

"Jericho's Fall--an intricate spy thriller that proceeds at breakneck speed from mystery to revelation and back again--marks a clear departure in his work, one that is likely to win him an even larger audience, and deservedly so. This is the sort of book Graham Greene used to call 'an entertainment' and Greene's readers, who savored those novels' unselfconscious erudition and matter-of-fact moral complexity, as well as their engaging plots, are likely to feel themselves on familiar ground here." TIM RUTTEN

Seattle Times ****

"Everybody, even the town librarian and the cops, seems to have a back story. And that makes the cinematic conclusion all the more intense and, sad to say, somewhat predictable with its Aha! Revelations. ... If Carter fails to induce genuine surprise in the end, he compensates by plunging us headfirst into swirling psychological and physical realms along the way." TYRONE BEASON

Washington Post ***

"It's all a bit much. Carter writes graceful prose, and he understands the mechanics of suspenseful storytelling, but he overdoes it here." PATRICK ANDERSON

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Despite a few doubts about the plausibility of the book's story line, most critics thoroughly enjoyed Jericho's Fall, a fast-paced thriller filled with intrigue, deception, and suspense. Carter guides Beck, his appealing, likeable heroine, through labyrinthine plot twists at breakneck speed, stopping along the way to shed light on the shady underbelly of the CIA, national security, and even Wall Street. Though the Boston Globe lamented the book's sacrifice of character in favor of complicated plot machinations, and the Washington Post considered the story line too melodramatic, most reviewers praised Carter's elegant writing and intricate maneuverings. The end result is a superbly enjoyable, gripping page-turner that will leave readers trying to catch their breath.

***

The Lost Symbol

By Dan Brown

Dan Brown's runaway bestseller The Da Vinci Code (**** May/June 2003) was translated into 44 different languages and sold over 80 million copies worldwide. Famed symbologist Robert Langdon returns in this latest novel, hot on the trail of ancient mysteries in Washington, D.C.

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THE STORY: When longtime friend Peter Solomon of the Smithsonian Institution asks Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon to fill in as a last-minute lecturer, Langdon is surprised to arrive in Washington and discover that the speaking engagement is a hoax. He is even more shocked to learn that Peter has been abducted, his severed hand with a Masonic ring left carefully posed on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda. No ordinary criminal, Peter's kidnapper demands the key to a Masonic secret so devastating that the founding fathers themselves concealed it from humankind. Joined by Peter's sister Katherine, Langdon must find and interpret the clues hidden in the city's art and architecture if he is to save his friend.

Doubleday. 509 pages. $29.95. ISBN: 9780385504225

Christian Science Monitor ****

"No one has ever pretended that Brown is a gifted literary stylist, and those who find him lacking in that area will not have their minds changed by The Lost Symbol. ... But for readers who stay with it (and I can't think there are really too many who are going to put this book down halfway through), it all comes together quite neatly in the end. Brown is good at what he does--very good, in fact." MARJORIE KEHE

Los Angeles Times ****

"Brown's narrative moves rapidly, except for those clunky moments when people sound like encyclopedias ('The sacred symbol of the Hebrews is the Jewish star--the Seal of Solomon--an important symbol to the Masons!'). But no one reads Brown for style, right? ... The Lost Symbol is more like the experience on any roller coaster--thrilling, entertaining and then it's over." NICK OWCHAR

USA Today ****

"As in his other books, here his prose can be clumsy, flowery and heavy-handed. ... But, to his credit, he tells an action-packed story filled with fascinating history, myths, math, science, madmen and philosophers." CAROL MEMMOTT

San Antonio Exp-News ***

"The historical references that Brown liberally sprinkles throughout the book are fascinating in their own way. ... If The Lost Symbol has a fatal flaw, it's that the basic plot structure is the same as The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons." HARRY THOMAS

Washington Post ***

"Writers envious of Brown's sales (who wouldn't be?) have devoted much ink to his deficiencies as a stylist. ... Call it Brownian motion: a comet-tail ride of short paragraphs, short chapters, beautifully spaced reveals and, in the case of The Lost Symbol, a socko unveiling of the killer's true identity." LOUIS BAYARD

Boston Globe **

"Higher book sales and more readers are certainly good things, but what's less so in this latest adventure is Brown's paint-by-numbers plot, his wooden dialogue, his dull prose style, his unintentionally comic narrative grandeur, and his two-dimensional characters. ... Yet, to be fair, the book has its moments of pure, cheesy fun." CHUCK LEDDY

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette **

"Using 'good' as a relative term, the new Brown isn't as good as the old one. Like the alchemists he loves to mention, Brown's magic at first looks sensational, but it turns to dross once the fireworks fizzle." BOB HOOVER

CRITICAL SUMMARY

"Together again," proclaimed the Wall Street Journal, "an exciting thriller and a tedious sermon"--a view shared by many critics, who remarked on Brown's ability to build suspense into a dizzying, ever-accelerating narrative through short chapters and breathless cliffhangers, but panned his philosophical ruminations and his "habit of turning characters into docents" (Washington Post). Several critics also noted that, while The Lost Symbol shares many of The Da Vinci Code's shortcomings, including melodramatic prose, stock characters, and far-fetched plot devices, it lacks the former novel's emotional punch and audacity. Those who appreciated Symbol most were able to overlook its flaws and lose themselves in the story. Da Vinci Code fans may experience some deja vu, but they should find this latest novel just as entertaining.

RELATED ARTICLE: BOOKMARKS SELECTION

****

Bad Things Happen

By Harry Dolan

Harry Dolan spent eight years as the editor of an academic journal before turning to fiction, and he draws on this rich experience to lampoon the literary world in his highly acclaimed debut novel. The profuse prepublication praise bestowed on Bad Things Happen heralds the emergence of a promising new writer.

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THE STORY: Arriving in Ann Arbor, Michigan, mysterious stranger David Loogan soon begins working for Gray Streets, a literary crime fiction magazine. He soon agrees to help the magazine's owner, Tom Kristoll, bury the body of a man Kristoll claims he killed in self-defense--partly out of guilt over the affair Loogan is carrying on with Kristoll's beautiful wife. After Kristoll plummets to his own death from his office window and the body they'd buried together is discovered, Loogan becomes Detective Elizabeth Waishkey's main suspect. But the writers and editors of Gray Streets keep turning up dead--and Loogan finds himself on the run, searching for answers of his own.

Putnam. 352 pages. $24.95. ISBN: 9780399155635

Chicago Tribune *****

"[A] brilliant first novel. ... I could go on for pages about the amazing amount of trust that Dolan generates from Page 1, letting us know that he won't make a false move. But I don't want to spoil your pleasure." DICK ADLER

Washington Post *****

"If I say that the novel is as well plotted as Agatha Christie at her best, I don't mean to make it sound old-fashioned; it's not. Even more than Christie, this novel reminded me of Patricia Highsmith. ... It's witty, sophisticated, suspenseful and endless fun--a novel to be savored by people who know and love good crime fiction, and the best first novel I've read this year." PATRICK ANDERSON

Dallas Morning News ****

"Harry Dolan nails the twist--and just about everything else--in his debut novel. ... One of Dolan's influences is Raymond Chandler, and the novel is full of sly homages to noir." SHAWNA SEED

NY Times Book Review ****

"Although the plot is fairly outlandish, the narrative comes with startling developments and nicely tricky reversals. There's also something appealingly offbeat about the wry, dry tone of its academic humor, which has much to do with the self-important authors who figure in the hectic plot, either as murder suspects or as the victims of a killer who seems to be culling the Gray Streets contributors list." MARILYN STASIO

San Francisco Chronicle ***

"The author has some impressive story twists and clever details, but they're almost lost in the unnecessary subplots and tedious dialogue. Bad Things would be a better read with fewer characters and plot twists, which is ironic, as this is the same editorial criticism given to a manuscript that's at the center of the story." CAROLYN LESSARD

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Compared to works by Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, and Patricia Highsmith, Bad Things Happen rated as a "brilliant first novel" (Chicago Tribune) and "the best first novel [of the] year" (Washington Post) among most critics. They praised Dolan's crisp, minimalist prose and well-developed, "esh-and-blood protagonists. Dolan's intricate plot, full of surprising twists and turns, eschews showdowns and shootouts in favor of droll dialogue and a noirish, Chand-leresque tone. Though the San Francisco Chronicle deplored the glut of subplots and secondary characters, most reviewers agreed that Dolan's debut effort is stylish, sharp-edged, and suspenseful. "It's probably too clever to be blockbuster material," lamented the Washington Post, but readers in search of a literate mystery are in for a treat.

CITED BY THE CRITICS

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY | PATRICIA HIGHSMITH (1955): In this classic crime novel, suave psychopath Tom Ripley, a small-time con artist, is sent to Italy by the father of an old acquaintance to convince his friend to return home. Ripley quickly becomes enamored of his friend's carefree, decadent lifestyle and resolves to take it for himself.

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RELATED ARTICLE: BOOKMARKS SELECTION

****

An Expensive Education

By Nick McDonell

Nick McDonell published his first novel, Twelve (2002), at age seventeen. An Expensive Education is the third novel by the 25-year-old Harvard graduate.

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THE STORY: Just moments after 25-year-old U.S. intelligence agent Michael Teak makes contact with renowned freedom fighter Hatashil in a village on the Somalia-Kenya border, the village is obliterated by an airstrike. As Teak, one of the only survivors, surveys the devastation, he vows to find out who ordered the attack. Meanwhile, Harvard professor Susan Lowell has just received word that her flattering biography of Hatashil has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, practically guaranteeing her tenure. When the committee reconsiders its decision on the basis of rumors that Hatashil is no noble rebel but instead a bloodthirsty warlord with ties to al-Qaeda, Lowell must fight to defend Hatashil's reputation--and her own.

Atlantic Monthly Press. 294 pages. $24. ISBN: 9780802118936

Boston Globe ****

"Smoothly commuting from the Porcellian Club [at Harvard] to the backwaters of Africa, McDonell crafts a sophisticated potboiler with an Ivy League patina. In particular his characterization of Teak as a spy precociously ready to come in from the cold raises An Expensive Education above the common run of page-turners." AMANDA HELLER

Entertainment Weekly ****

"Tempered by some hilarious insider glimpses of Harvard life, An Expensive Education is terrific, a thriller noir that's difficult to put down or forget." RICK TETZELI

Oregonian ****

"As a fan of Twelve, I was not surprised by McDonell's precise and disciplined rendition of life among the young and narcissistic, but I was surprised at how artfully he wove the political plot into his college portrayal. McDonell has mastered the mechanics of genre without losing his literary hipness." MARK LINDQUIST

Washington Post ****

"An Expensive Education, about a young intelligence agent from Harvard, is nothing groundbreaking--for McDonell or the spy-novel genre--but it's smart and sexy and could be the beginning of a franchise more lucrative than literary fiction. ... McDonell is stingy with the action sequences, but when they come, they're swift and hot, showing us how Teak strikes, kills and subdues with awesome precision." RON CHARLES

NY Times Book Review ****

"Half campus novel, half geopolitical thriller, An Expensive Education proceeds at this pace for 300 almost unerringly entertaining pages. ... McDonell's plot is wildly fanciful, but he documents the failings of his characters relentlessly and accurately--so much so that it starts to weigh the book down." BLAKE WILSON

Toronto Globe and Mail ****

"As the various players are sucked into the undertow of Hatashil's story and caught up in the shifting loyalties and aims of the intelligence community, McDonell writes with snap and verve, in chiseled, compact sentences that eschew too much description in favour of a slick pace. ... But while he has down the storytelling mechanics of a le Carre or Greene, and almost the chops, McDonell falls short when it comes to summoning the necessary quotient of moral murkiness." CHRISTOPHER FREY

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Critics praised McDonell's third foray into fiction as an engaging mixture of political thriller and campus novel. Even those who found minor faults with its lack of depth and lack of moral ambiguity commended McDonell's vibrant writing and feverish, page-turning pace. Though the plot isn't terribly innovative and the central mystery is quickly solved, Teak's disarming idealism and sulky soul searching--"more Holden Caulfield than James Bond" (New York Times Book Review)--propel the story forward and give it charm. Critics also appreciated McDonell's caustic behind-the-scenes tour of his alma mater and his biting descriptions of its privileged elite. Compared to Graham Greene and John le Carre for his storytelling skills, McDonell has proved that the third time is the charm.

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

TWELVE (2002): According to Blake Wilson from the New York Times Book Review, McDonell's "terriffic first novel" is "a scathing portrait of drug-addled New York prep schoolers that [he] burned through in a single evening." Compared to Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, this dramatic debut follows a group of wealthy Manhattan teenagers as they skip from party to party during winter vacation.

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