Fangs Out
David Freed
Permanent Press, April 2013
ISBN: 978-1-57962-333-3
Hardcover
From its title, I was largely ambivalent and didn’t know what to expect from this new book by David Freed. So lest you have the same uncertainty, fear not, dear reader, and allow me to quote from its pages: “There’s an expression among fighter jocks that described what I was feeling, the adrenaline-fueled determination to close with the enemy and destroy him. They call it ‘Fangs out.’” Let me also assure you that what awaits you in those pages is a delightful, very enjoyable novel, which along the way will enlighten you with some obscure facts such as why vultures are bald.
Cordell Logan (just “Logan” to one and all) is many things: broke, a self-described “Buddhist work in progress . . . striving to become one with the universe,” adding “I had a long way to go before attaining true enlightenment . . . How does a man prone to violence by nature and training embrace a religion that preaches peace above all else?”). A recovering alcoholic, he now runs a flight school as an instructor in his beloved 1973 Cessna, the Ruptured Duck, which looks like “a homeless person with wings,” and is still in love with his ex-wife who years ago had left him for his best friend. His past includes having played wide receiver for the Air Force Academy; later a National Security “go-to” guy (read “assassin”) whose job was “chasing bad people to the dark corners of the globe in the name of national security.”
Logan is hired by Hub Walker, Lt. Col. USAF Retired, a “living legend” and “one of less than 100 living recipients of America’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor,” whose daughter, a beautiful young woman who had been second in her class in Annapolis, had been murdered. The man convicted of her murder had just been put to death by lethal injection. The problem was that just before the sentence was carried out, he stated that the actual murderer was a close friend, whose integrity and reputation had suffered greatly as a result. Hub’s job? “Validating the innocence of a man falsely accused.” No easy task.
Thoroughly entertaining, the book is recommended.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, August 2013.
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Lies at Six
Sarah Scott
Krill Press, May 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-615-82795-7
Trade Paperback
Sarah Scott, formerly a TV journalist in Memphis and Atlanta originally from east Tennessee, follows the maxim to write what you know, bringing us Joanna Leland (“Jolie”) Marston, on-air reporter for fourteen years, working in three newsrooms, ten years in Memphis at WTNW News [apparently now spoken of as the station Where Trash News Wins). Jolie chafes at what she perceives as a mind-set determined in any way to hold onto their viewers in the desired demographic, “keeping this town more scared than it needs to be,” turning whatever news comes their way into something sensational enough to make their loyal viewers put down their forks and pay attention, thereby keeping the ratings growing. She feels the effects of constantly having to deal with the content, or lack thereof, of the stories she’s told to cover and making them into something sensational. Finally unable to deal with what she perceives to be their pattern of “Lies at Six,” she effectively blows up her career with an on-air rant, however justified it may have been.
Divorced at 23, Jolie is now 36. Fast upon the heels of her firing, a truly sensational event takes place: The murder of Ellis Standifer, respected former Mayor of Memphis, and a dear friend and mentor to Jolie Marston. Despite the fact that she is no longer employed, she tries to find out whatever she can about the murder through her contacts at the police department and otherwise, to little avail. But then some information comes her way, and she determines to try to find the story behind the murder of her friend, with no idea where or to whom it will lead.
Threats start to come her way as well to those who have been assisting her in her investigation. Despite the fact that she had come to love her riverside city, she feels she must leave, returning to her home town of Singleton, in East Tennessee, where she had first met and come under the influence of her friend, Ellis Standifer (although “she usually described her hometown to people as the place where the fire station had been burned and the sheriff’s department had been busted for bootlegging.”). Her family welcomes her back into the hearth; she even finds that her mother had become willing to “overlook her [ex-]boyfriend’s Jewishness.” (The hostility toward inter-marriage raises its ugly head more than once.) She soon learns more than she had bargained for, as some old secrets come to light, as well as hints at corruption at the highest level, with unexpected sources being a couple of women who were very close to the great man, and one enigmatic old-world gentleman keeping long-held secrets.
The tale initially proceeds at a pace befitting the deep South, but soon amps up that pace with the mounting suspense of trying to find a killer, taking unexpected twists and turns in the process. A recurring theme seems to be that “there is no such thing as truth. Not when it comes to the past. Just different versions of it.” It is amazing how so many disparate situations reveal that to be true.
I was thoroughly intrigued by Jolie and her tale, and her depiction of the old (and new) South (including the old family recipe for mint juleps!), and look forward to where Ms. Scott will take her next.
Recommended.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, September 2013.
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Dead Wrong
Connie Dial
Permanent Press, May 2013
ISBN: 978-1-57962-334-0
Hardcover
The author’s bona fides are evident from the first page of this, her fourth novel, and the second in the Josie Corsino series: Connie Dial had 27 years of varied experience as a member of the LAPD, including undercover work, narcotics detective, Internal Affairs surveillance officer, watch commander and captain. And her protagonist, Josie Corsino, is an LAPD captain, trying to juggle that demanding job with that of wife and mother, and not always succeeding. After 20 years in the DA’s office, her husband, Jake, had just made partner in his new law firm, and the friction in their marriage is mounting. The tension includes her relationship with her 23-year-old son, still dependent on his parents for support, now involved with a woman Josie’s age.
In the opening pages, Kyle Richards, a sergeant Josie had appointed to supervise a burglary task force in Hollywood division, is involved in a fatal shooting. When it is discovered that the dead man was a fellow police officer, after over 20 years on the job, Kyle is faced with a hearing and a possible suspension until it can be proven that it was a justified shooting. Added to the fact that the dead cop was a black man, and Richards white, the political implications make every aspect of the investigation more difficult. With the help of her best friend, vice lieutenant Marge Bailey, and Detective “Red” Behan, Josie goes out on a limb to prove his innocence in the matter. Things only get more complex when another killing occurs, and Josie believes the two events are connected. The novel elucidates the theme that “perception most of the time was more important than truth in the world of policing. A good reputation was difficult to tarnish; a bad reputation whether it was deserved or not was indelible.”
This was a well-plotted tale. I have to admit feeling that the writing could have been more polished, but the novel held my interest throughout, and I will look forward to reading the next chapter in Josie Corsino’s life.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, October 2013.
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