Doc Savage - The Infernal Buddha by Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray)

Will Murray does it again with this installment of Doc Savage’s continuing adventures. This time Doc’s team only includes Monk, Ham, and Renny along with Doc himself as they find themselves drawn into an adventure in the South Seas. Seems there is a Buddah-shaped artifact of some kind, possibly delivered to Earth in a meteor, that has the horrific effect of sucking the moisture out of everything nearby.  Living beings are reduced to dried husks in seconds. It is not known if there are any limits so, theoretically, if this thing were to be unleashed ala Pandora’s Box, it might well suck up all water on the planet.

Definitely a job for Doc Savage!

This was another wonderful adventure from the pen of Will Murray. Probably my favorite of his that I’ve read so far even though he is content to let the science behind the artifact remain vague. The adventure takes them among 1940’s era Malay pirates and we even get to see Doc going undercover as a swashbuckling scourge of the South Seas pirate captain himself. Awesome! But at the same time, the terrible nature of the artifact leads Doc to one of his most challenging adventures ever. Rarely have I seen Doc so vulnerable and even unsure of himself as he confesses to have been in the final pages. This brings an extra edge to the story; it’s just not good to have a completely invulnerable hero.

Good setting, good characters for Doc and team to work with (or against), a good peril to be dealt with, and a good plot with plenty of action that keeps the pages turning. Everything I want in a Doc Savage yarn.

Faceoff - Edited by David Baldacci

Back in 2013/14, the International Thriller Writers came up with a way to earn money to finance their organization and eliminate dues from members. The result is this first anthology of eleven stories, written by 23 world-class thriller writers for zero compensation. All proceeds of the sale of this book go directly to support the activities of ITW. The idea must have worked because they followed up with MatchUp in 2017.

It’s a cool idea. Each story pairs up two iconic characters from different series. Even though the title is “Faceoff”, they tend to work together during the story, almost always coming away with a healthy respect for the other. That’s good because I would hate to read a story where Repairman Jack actually works against Jack Reacher, for example.

I’ve read most of these authors and feel like I know the characters well. The few I hadn’t read…well, of course now I want to read them too. Most were pretty good tales although a couple of times the plot just to get the two characters to meet each other in the first place was a little too contrived. I listened to this one on audio while driving on a lengthy road trip this past week and the format worked well. Just one story or two at a time depending on what I was in the mood for. David Baldacci served as editor for the book and also read the introductions to each story for the audio version.

For completeness, here is a list of the stories, characters, and authors included in the book:

1) Harry Bosch vs. Patrick Kenzie in “Red Eye,” by Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane

2) John Rebus vs. Roy Grace in “In the Nick of Time,” by Ian Rankin and Peter James

3) Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast in “Gaslighted,” by R.L. Stine, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child

4) Malachai Samuels vs. D.D. Warren in “The Laughing Buddha,” by M.J. Rose and Lisa Gardner

5) Paul Madriani vs. Alexandra Cooper in “Surfing the Panther,” by Steve Martini and Linda Fairstein

6) Lincoln Rhyme vs. Lucas Davenport in “Rhymes With Prey,” by Jeffery Deaver and John Sandford

7) Michael Quinn vs. Repairman Jack in “Infernal Night,” by Heather Graham and F. Paul Wilson

8) Sean Reilly vs. Glen Garber in “Pit Stop,” by Raymond Khoury and Linwood Barclay

9) Wyatt Hunt vs. Joe Trona in “Silent Hunt,” by John Lescroart and T. Jefferson Parker

10) Cotton Malone vs. Gray Pierce in “The Devil’s Bones,” by Steve Berry and James Rollins

11) Jack Reacher vs. Nick Heller in “Good and Valuable Consideration,” by Lee Child and Joseph Finder

The Jericho Iteration by Allen Steele

In the year 2012, a huge earthquake destroyed much of the Midwest United States.  Now, a year later, the city of St Louis is trying to come back from the brink of extinction and the heavy-handed Emergency Relief Agency carries out their tasks utilizing martial law. Gerry Rosen is an investigative reporter who finds himself chasing after a big story but not quite sure where it will lead. What he does know is that people around him are getting killed and it all involves a mysterious something with a code name, Ruby Fulcrum. As he follows the trail and becomes a fugitive himself, Gerry uncovers a conspiracy of monumental proportions involving the federal government and artificial intelligence.

It sounds like a techno-thriller and, indeed, that’s the way this novel reads. However, it is actually science fiction, having been published in 1994 and with the setting being the “near future” of 2013. Reading it now is much like reading a contemporary thriller albeit with a few twists where the author’s guesstimate of then-current trends would lead. I confess that part of the fun I had reading this novel was being spoon-fed those little tidbits that turned out to be mostly incorrect. But even though CompuServe and Commodore did not last to be the tech mega-companies that they are in the book, and neither did we concern ourselves with fax machines and long-distance rates in 2013, all that really doesn’t matter. The fact that the states of Oregon and Washington succeeded from the US and became the country of “Cascadia” however, is integral to the plot and so the book, in fact, becomes a bit more like reading a sci-fi thriller.

This book is quite a bit different than most of Allen Steele’s more space-adventure works but his fans will still appreciate his tight prose, quality characterization and tech-savvy climactic scenes. Another good one from Mr. Steele.