It features Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and her friend the pathologist Maura Isles, so Gerritsen devotees will probably enjoy it even more as part of a series (nine so far). Some references to past books I may miss, but it certainly can pass muster as a stand-alone thriller. It also introduces some new characters that might well be worth a reappearance if the series continues.
In the gruesome beginning, during a "ghost tour" of Boston, a severed hand is found by a young boy on a Chinatown street. He thinks it is a stage prop but the adults are soon horrified. It leads Rizzoli to a rooftop, where she discovers a female body with a slit throat, minus a hand.
Chinese mythology is the basis for the story. Almost 20 years earlier, a shooting killed five people in the Red Phoenix restaurant in Chinatown.
Someone is now sending messages to relatives of the dead, saying the truth about it has not been told - it was not a murder/suicide committed by the cook.
Delving into the cold case, it is found two of the victims had also lost a daughter in the years before the shooting. As Rizzoli investigates the families involved, a wealthy Boston family and a poor widow in Chinatown, and also finds two dead hitmen, a legend about the "Monkey Warrior" meting out justice seems to be coming true. And meet the female martial arts master Iris Fang, whose prize possession is an ancient sword.
Rizzoli still has Detective Frost as an active partner and a new character is the young, ambitious and very diligent Chinese-American detective Johnny Tam.
Gerritsen obviously has put much of her own family's Chinese background into this novel and it has a strong fascination. There is Chinese folklore, history, ghosts and mythical creatures. There are also plenty of puzzles and thrills in this well-paced and entertaining mystery.
He should be too old for new spy assignments, Allon having been active spying since the 1970s. He stumbles on a terrorist attack while holidaying in London, tries to prevent it, then is knocked to the ground by plain-clothes police.
As a result Gabriel soon finds himself coaxed back to active duty in a plot that abounds with espionage and counterspying. It does seem fairly up to date with references to the "Arab Spring" and the death of bin Laden.
Allon has to help a CIA ally eradicate the sinister network planning terrorist attacks. One of his weapons is using the resources of a millionaire daughter of a man Gabriel had killed years earlier.
It is an intellectual political thriller with themes including the Arab awakening, women's rights in the Arab world, international relations and tensions between the spy agencies. While some are calling Silva a new John Le Carre, I found this suggestion extravagant. The writing is difficult with lots of Arab names.
The plot was just unbelievable, and this portrait of the warring world of spies is surely quite melodramatic.
If you like Silva's previous tales you will read it anyway. I just hope Allon now confines himself to his art jobs.
- Geoff Adams is a former editor of the ODT.
