014. The Getaway Man (2003).

THE GETAWAY MAN by Andrew Vachss (2003).

        

When Eddie met his first crew, he said

“I am the getaway man.”

A very simple and strangely addictive crime novel.

Like watching very old black and white classic noir.

P

layers. – Eddie. This book is 100% about him. Other than him, there are only 5 characters that matter and all of them exist just to move the story around Eddie.

Eddie is the story. Others are just there to make his life interesting for us to read about. Well, maybe that’s little too extreme, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Eddie is a getaway man. A getaway man is a guy who drives the vehicle to get the crew out of the crime scene, mostly banks and jewelers. Etc…

He is totally royal to his crew and his driving skill is simply unparalleled.

He is simple but not stupid, quite but observant.

Just a perfect man for a getaway man.

He doesn’t love cars. Driving is his love.

Tim and Virgil.  Brothers. Tim is the brain and Virgil is the muscle.

They are the first persons that teach Eddie what it takes to become a getaway man. 

They pay Eddie’s royalty back handsomely at the end.

J.C. and Gus.. J.C. is a legendary hijacker and Gus is an ex-military.

J.C. is a master strategist who plans everything down to absolute details and checks them again and again until he is 100% sure.

Gus is really powerful (muscular) ex-military man who learned all about how to survive in the jungle during his service and that of course helps him becomes the excellent criminal.

Vonda.  J.C.’s girl. Every film noir need a seductive/foxy vixen who plans for ultimate betrayer and she is the one in here.

She, very slowly but masterfully, seduces Eddie.

Eddie, simple man he is, of course falls for her charm/sex and ..well, you know..

P

lace. – I am quite sure there is no mention of cities or street names in this book.

The writer, by taking names and times away, wants us to believe that this could be happening anywhere, anytime, I think.

Also, because Eddie’s crew works all across the states and they never hit the same place again, it really isn’t important where they stay or in which city they do their job.

P

lot. – This is very straight forward film noir crime story. 

Here are the examples.

1.      Bad guys do bad things.

2.      Main man (Eddie, in this case) is neither stupid nor unprofessional. But either simple or naïve or in the wrong place in the wrong time. Or just purely unlucky.

3.      There is always, that famous “ONE LAST JOB ” which always goes wrong no matter what for the sake of the story lie (twist).

4.      There are one or two beautiful women who seduce the main guy for her own good.

This book fulfills all above categories, but somehow the author mixes them up really nicely, making them fresh and dangerous and unpredictable.

Does Eddie get away at the end with money, hence become his own getaway man? or he simply just drive away with his 55' Thunderbird?

Does he finally have to kill someone?

I think I must stop now. I don’t  want to spoil it for anyone who actually might want to read about Eddie and his gangs. But let me just tell you this:

In film noir,

Nobody get away free

or

Walk away safely with their score.

NEVER!!

V

erdict. –This is a very simple book.

The entire story is told from Eddie’s point of view ( he is the narrator ), and because he is a very simple, almost honest, man, this is inevitably a simple story.

In this book, there are no chapters, just short or mid-range paragraphs and half of the paragraph is a dialogue.

Therefore, if you decide to really read it, you can probably finish this book in one night ( 5~7 hours, maximum ).

Due to rapid pace and cool dialogue, this book somehow sucks your attention so completely, when I first pick up this book, I spent couple of hours without realizing what I was doing.

In other word,

Smooth but addictive,

this is 

A Perfect Book For Killing Time!!

   

013. Three Bags Ful (2005).

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story

 by  Leonie Swann (2005).

                                                                  

A shepherd George was killed by a SPADE during the night.

In order to revenge their beloved shepherd, the flock of unique and highly intelligent sheep decides to take matter to their own hand and find the murderer.

Personally, I don’t think mystery can get any weirder/cleverer than this.

P

layers. –Because the main characters in this book are all SHEEPS ( = quite simple-minded animals), their behavior and judgment are quite often affected by their sheep-instinct. 

In other word, most of them  are really happy when there are enough grass to chew, good story to listen (yes, they love good bed time stories ), and bright sunlight to warm their body/mind.

Therefore, they are not exactly the best group to go after the murderer. But certainly, the funniest and possibly the cutest!!

Here is the group.

Miss Maple. Just like Miss Maple from A Christie’s book, she is the sheep with a brilliant brain. She does have limits like other sheeps, but pretty much the only sheep who can actually investigate.

Time to time, she gets irritated by her herd’s ignorance and simplicity due to their happy-go-round sheep-instinct. Never the less, she takes good care of them.

The one of only three sheeps who can stay focused and think ahead. The others are Melmoth and possibly Othello.    

Othello. A very quite and tough black ram with sharp four horns.

He used to travel with the circus. That horrible experience (trauma) makes him completely mistrust humans.

He has “a voice of reason“which follows him everywhere. Literally someone is talking to his mind every time he takes an action.

Mopple the memory sheep. He memorizes everything he sees and hears although he doesn’t understand any meaning of it.

Always hungry-the fastest eating sheep in the flock.

Sir. Ritchfield. A leader (old) sheep. He has a poor eye sight but good eyes.

Melmoth. A twin brother of Sir. Ritchfield. Only sheep ever to venture into the wild (traveling) and comes back alive. Very mysterious. Few crows are following him all the time (they even sit on his back!!).

Cordelia. A poet.

Zora. A brave and beautiful (?) sheep.

There are a lot more characters in this book, but these are probably the most important. 

I didn’t mention any humans above, because humans are considered simpler and quite often dumber than their kinds by sheeps (Sheeps understand the human languages but NOT the vice versa).

They are also drop dead HILARIOUS!! All of them!!

P

lace. – Irish village of Glennkill which I don’t even know it exists. Their barn is located on top of the hill with a magnificent view of ocean and beautiful field of delicious grass. 

Ever since their shepherd George cuts tie with all the rest of the villagers, they have been the king of the hill.

The near by village has a small population with one bar (Mad Boar), one butcher shop and pretty much nothing else.

P

lot. – There are two parts of stories in the novel. Like a lot of the first book in the series (if this is a series), this book put aside first half to establish the characters (SHEEPS, off course). 

Almost all the sheeps have their own story to tell, philosophy to share and nightmare to hide.    

The first half, about 180 pages, is filled with all kinds of side stories and backgrounds of main characters. Author must spend incredible amount of time, carefully developing each characters. 

Because there are at least 20 completely different characters (sheeps!) in this book, in order to help out readers to memorize them, the publisher list all the main personals in order of appearance, just after the title page.

Now the other half.

George was killed by a SPADE. This is weird, right? Wait until the story gets moving.

Why did he get killed? 

1.      Did he get killed for drugs? There are few guys looking for grass in George’s house.

2.      A mysterious dark figure is lurking in the dark.

3.      The flock’s new shepherd Gabrieal has something else sinister in his mind.

Then police finds out that George was poisoned before speared with a spade!!

1.      Was George killed because he was never belong to the herd (villagers)?

2.      Because he owns the prime land with magnificent view and never let anyone near it?

3.      Or because he dealt drugs with gangs and ignore their warning about something?

With the second half, the story actually gets a bit intense and with the intensity, the level of challenges sheeps have to face raises, too. And those new obstacles that they have to conquer make them smarter, more resilient and quite tougher than before.

Naturally, the story moves faster, becomes much more interesting and really really really funny.

V

erdict. –Even if this book looks like it is intended for the children (All those funny and unusually intelligent animals Do remind me of ‘Shaun the sheep”), it is actually for adult reader only. 

Once each character is firmly established with variety of unique personality, this book just takes off!

Since even if all the sheeps posses human intelligence and creativity, they are NOT humans, suspense comes from the most unexpected places. Believe me, this is the clever and most original mystery at its BEST!! Funny, too.

Like the cover says,

“The Best Sheep Detective Novel You Will Ever Read!!”

012. Death At La Fenice (1992).

Death At La Fenice by  Donna Leon (1992).

                                                                  

The crime scene is in Opera house.

The city is Venice.

The victim is a world famous Conductor.

The method is a Poison.

The cause is LOVE at any rate, LUST.

The perfect setting for possibly one of the most ROMANTIC mysteries.

P

layers. – Guido Brunetti. One of three commissaries in the city and the smartest. 

Like all other great detectives, he is never in a hurry. Always takes time to assort the priorities and executes them with easy and patience.

Not a light-bulb kind of detectives who come up with a great inspiration all the time, but one who follow the procedure and uncover the clues, step by step, with precision and stubbornness of hound.

A very gentle and thoughtful investigator whose priority, it seems, is doing the right thing and protecting the weakest than delivering the law and solving the crime which more often than not hurt the injured party even worse.

Since this is my first Brunetti’s book, it is hard to say for sure, but I think he has a very strong moral code which sometimes goes above or beyond the law.

A dedicated family man. Here’s his family.

1.      Paola. – A very smart woman who reads every newspaper in Venice. Her parents, the Count and Countess Falier, is outrageously rich (old money) and one of the dying breed that belong to the previous generation.

2.      Raffaelle. – 15 years old boy who is in the middle of puberty. A huge headache.

3.     Chiara. – A very mature 9 yrs old girl.

Their favorite family activity is a Monopoly, by the way.

Cavaliere Giuseppe Patta. Vice-Questore. Brunetti’s immediate superior.

One of those incompetent bosses that every good detective novels need to give a hero extra-challenge and little twist.

A strikingly handsome man who is also extremely over-dressed for his job with silver cane and long cigarette holder is considered as a joke.

Because he got his job through his powerful father’s connection, he is a typical bureaucrap who demands the impossible, never takes the responsibility and always makes his subordinates’ job even more difficult than what it is.

In other word, just an incredibly stupid guy that we love to hate.

Oh, and he COLOR-COORDINATES everything he wears/carries, like black cigarette holder with black Russian cigarette. Fascinating.

Demetriano Padorari. A formal classmate of Paola and a very brilliant art critic who is something of a terror for both museum directors and painters alike. The voice of real gossip behind the curtain.

P

lace. – The beautiful city of Venice, Northeast Italy. The author obviously loves the city so much, she makes sure we, Readers, understand the beauty of it by vividly describing the city almost with every chapter. 

Wherever Brunetti goes, he looks around his surroundings he loves and through his observing eyes and acute self-explanation, we discover the city not from the tourist’s point of view but one with locals’.

According to my friend who recently visited Venice, the tour guide in the city actually told his guests if you want to know more about the real life of Venice, don’t bother checking the internet or guide book, just go and pick up Donna Leon’s books.

She has an approval of both citizens of Venice and local tour guides, too. They love her in Venice, no doubt.

P

lot. – Very straight forward.

A world famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer was killed during his concert in opera house called Teatra La Fenice. (Therefore, “Death at La Fenice”)

Someone put a deadly poison in his coffee cup during the second intermission.

Maestro who possessed extraordinary talent for music has huge number of admirers all around the world. But his popularity granted him God-like status in the music world. This with his outrageous personality created quite a few enemies, too.

Out hero, commissario Brunetti has to comb through all the witnesses, friends and past acquaintances(old lovers, gay stage manager, lesbian singer, retired journalist, etc…) to find out the evil behind the murder.

Brunetti does everything he has to do with very logical, step by step approach and with a bit of imagination, reaches the conclusion at the end of the book.

The plot is well constructed and the ending, with an interesting surprise, is perfect for this book.

Just PERFECT!!

V

erdict. –This is a very sophisticated story in a very beautiful city.

“Because this was Venice, the police came by boat”

Now, THIS line sums up the entire novel.

It is a beautiful written and gently narrated book. Romantic, even. How romantic? Let me give you an example.

When Brunetti and his friend went to the famous(expensive!!) restaurant called Galleggiante, the supreme waitress Signora Antonia not just recites all the selections and specials for the day( menu does exist but regulars never bother to look at it ever), but also decide what they should eat and drink. 

If you are brave enough to add something to the order, you should ask Antonia, like, if you might possibly, if Signora advised it, have perhaps a salad as well? 

You see, as a customer, you need her permission to add something to the dishes!! 

It is just wonderful, WONDERFUL!!

This is one of those books that I just can’t help myself but smiling as soon as I start reading the first page and still grinning long after finishing the last page.

Big salute to Donna Leon.

What a wonderful writer.

011. We Can Build You (1972).

We Can Build You by  Philip K. Dick (1972).

This book starts with tons of promises, I was literally drooling with expectation really, and then.……fades into ….. OBLIVION….. Sigh.

The CONCEPT is great, but….

P

layers. – Louis Rosen. A spinet sales man. 

Co-founder of MASA Associates which sells the electric organs (spinet) made by his family for decades. 

His ordinary but boring life goes completely upside down when his partner, Maury, comes out with something called Electronic Simulacrum (=sort of old fashioned cyborg). 

Later on, series of insane events turns him into mentally unstable paranoiac.

Maury Rock. Louis’ partner.

A really intense guy, his hands shakes all the time, who is always looking for the way to improve the business.

With his daughter Pris and engineer Bundy, they create the first Electronic Simulacrum (ES), Edwin M. Stanton, an American civil war hero who fought for the freedom and the democracy as a closest adviser for Abraham Lincoln.

Pris. Maury’s daughter. Just released from the hospital. She has been in mental clinic in the custody of federal bureau since her third year in high school.

In this world, government involuntarily apply something called McHeston Act upon people and sort out mentally ill persons out of the society and put them on ward. 

Naturally, they have literally tens of thousands of patients in several wards all around the country.

Pris, despite of her sickness, is a brilliant designer and inventor and practically creates first two ES, Stanton and Lincoln.

Bob Bundy. An electronic genius who assembles ES based on Pris’ blue prints. He has a speech blockage - knows the answers but can’t figure out how to answer them.

Sam K. Barrows. A self made billionaire.  Smart, passionate, effective, manipulative, calculating and eccentric as hell.

Maury stupidly approaches him with ES hoping for a multi million dollar deal for their invention and that is the beginning of the actual story.

P

lace. – MASA’s office in Ontario, Oregon and Barrows’ office in Seattle. But the location in NOT important for the story at all. 

P

lot. – This is where it gets CRAZY. This book is essentially two different books in one cover.

The first half is a very good SF fiction with some intensity and brilliant imagination. However when it hits the middle point, it changes its direction and becomes kind of a twisted/psychedelic love story (?).

Her is the story. You better be ready.

In order to revive the slumping MASA business and electronic organ sale, Maury with help of his genius daughter and engineer chooses to build the Electronic Simulacrum- a cyborg with its own mind like Replicant in Blade Runner.

Also out of all the historically famous figures, Maury picks up Edwin E. Stanton for their first ES. The experiment is overwhelmingly successful. Stanton is more real than actual human being.

The only problem is the production cost. $6,000 for one ES which is roughly $36,000 in today’s money. In order to get funding for this project, Maury approaches Sam K. Barrows, self made legendary billionaire. 

Then for the final push to impress both Barrows and Louis’ father who strongly opposed the idea, Maury orders and creates one more ES, Abraham Lincoln. From there it gets quite complicated for our, readers’ delight.

1.      First of all, Lincoln. The more he learns about the present, the worse his depression gets. He has to go through the mental counseling at the end.

2.      Stanton who is a natural leader with fierce temple and determination becomes a chairman of the board of MASA associates.

3.      Barrows who owns vast amount of land in MOON wants to send brain-washed ES family ( a father, a mother, a son, a daughter and a dog-a good American family ) to the Moon so that he can creates false impression that Moon is a cozy and family oriented place to stay and therefore, he can lures unsuspected family into buying the houses his company build in Moon. (Barrows himself hates Moon because there is nothing in Moon, no air, no sound only an endless mountains of sands and the black sky. Really depressing.)

This outrages Louis and Maury but when they refuges Barrows’ deal, Barrows leaves the MASA factory with Pris and Bundy back to Seattle, literally shutting down the ES factory in MASA.

By this time, Louis is already hopelessly in love with Pris and after several crazy attempts to get her back, Louis ends up in the mental hospital himself with obsession and hallucination. During this period, Lincoln acts as Louis' adviser and Stanton disappears completely from the entire story-line.

 At the end of the story, Louis is released from the ward but Pris goes back to the hospital cause she is never actually cured properly.

What did I tell you? Crazy story, right?

V

erdict. –Philip K. Dick is a genius SF writer. 

Why? Because (are you ready?) he is THE ONE who creates

The ONE and ONLY

RICK DECKARD. A.K.A. BLADE RUNNER!!

They made a film based on his book called “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1962)”.

Yep. That’s right. Possibly the most influential SF novel of the past 3 to  4 decades. The coolest for sure. But with this book, he kind of lost the focus, I think.

With all the civil war references, with Lincoln and Stanton, two most important persons  in the history of US and the world, this book could be so much better.

I mean, with their combined charisma and the brain, Lincoln and Stanton, they could start another civil war against totalitarian government or corrupted corporations !! And what about the politics? Since they are programmed to think and act exactly like the originals, they could even start their own political party!!

But sadly, the author put them aside for totally different story line half way through the book. Once it becomes clear that it turns into a weird psychotic love story, my interest is drifted away, too.

Despite of the story melt down, this book still contains very interesting concept of the future (similar to BLADE RUNNER, but not as dark), and even during the crazy love story, there are a few intelligent discussions about human kinds, the future and love.

Because it is written in 1972 (40 yrs ago), some of the technical aspects are a bit retro. For example, Electric Simulacrum’s voice system is run by tape recorder! (which is kind of charming if you think about it.).

Do I recommend this book  to anyone? Sadly, NO.

Like I said before, great concept but difficult story line to follow.

One last thing.

He was completely obscure as a writer during his life time, but after his death (1928-1982), his popularity due to the films based on his books such as Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Screamers (1995), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), his friend founded PHILIP K. DICK Award for the best original paperback SF novels.

 Long live the SF KING!!