THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham

 

John Grisham needs no introduction. He has been churning out best-sellers for years and this 2022 offering is just another feather in his hat. Grisham is noted for his legal thrillers, but The Boys from Biloxi goes one step further by taking four generations of two invented families and inserting them into the history of the so-called “Dixie Mafia” that ran crime and vice on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the mid-twentieth century. The result is a huge 450 page “legal historical” thriller. His reach is spectacular, but thereby hangs the tale. The slow-building plot covers over a hundred years of ever-increasing passion and violence and although the first 150 pages seems to move at a turtle’s pace, it does finally pick up as we move toward the end.  

A summary goes like this. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up as best buds in the turbulent sixties. Their grandparents were Croatian immigrants who settled along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and worked their fingers to the bone to make better lives for their children. The boys’ parents found success, albeit in different fields of endeavor. Hugh’s father, Lance, becomes the mob chieftain of bootleg alcohol, gambling, and prostitution along the Biloxi coast. His son, Hugh, eschews more education and moves directly into helping run his father’s criminal enterprises. Young Keith follows his dad, Rudy, into Law School and joins his dad’s passion for cleaning up the crime-ridden coastal strip and its long history of crime and political payoffs.   

I note again that you need some tenacity to get through the long years of buildup to the final legal battles that Grisham is so good at generating. One problem area early on is the amount of space devoted to the early high school athletic careers of the two grandsons and the too many  pages devoted to young Hugh’s boxing career. None of it seems to have much relevance to the later developments in the story.

I would like to have seen a few more developed female characters.   The family wives in the story exist only to have babies, keep house, and weep at the sad events. Most of the rest of the females are hookers. Also pretty much ignored is the impact of the South’s vast racial problem during that time.   

I cannot deny that the book, once you get into it, is compelling. The legal maneuvering is fascinating and the interplay of differing views of loyalty, justice, morality, and the impact of family ties is sure to foster plenty of discussion amongst readers.

I give it a 4 out of 5

 

THE DEFECTOR by Daniel Silva

 

Silva, Daniel  The Defector

I am a sucker for Daniel Silva’s espionage novels. Gabriel Allon is a fascinating character. He is a killer, no doubt, but has a backstory that includes faith, love, and even charity. There is also an artistic talent that seems as great as his assassination skills. Moving on, Silva has a skill in depicting locales. The streets, the buildings, the weather, the smells, the vehicles, the knowledge of tradecraft-- all are reproduced with such all-encompassing detail that he seems like a native of every place he writes about.

In this 2009 offering, Gabriel Allon is restoring art in Italy when a Russian defector, now living in London and who saved his life in the past, suddenly disappears. American, Russian, English, and Israeli intelligence all become involved as Allon vows to solve the mystery—the layers of deception stretch from London to Switzerland and finally to Russia itself.

When Allon’s wife, Chiara, becomes another kidnapping victim, the daring plan for her rescue generates a violent and deadly bloodbath. Although it long and a real page-turner, I did feel that Silva spent more pages stretching out the ending longer than necessary.    

Not his best, but still a solid 4 out of 5.

 

JIGSAW by Johathan Kellerman

 

Jonathan Kellerman has written an Alex Delaware novel each year for the last 40 years.  Jigsaw is his latest, and I’m sure his fans will be lining up to see the latest adventures of the two main characters. Detective Milo Sturgis, an overweight, gay man who has always been an outsider in his department, has survived in a profession that has never been keen on women or gay men, because his solve rate is higher than anyone else's on the force.  He gets a call on a run-of-the-mill murder case that at first glance seems a slam dunk. DNA on cigarette butts found at the scene point directly to the victim’s former boyfriend. Shortly, another murder occurs. This one turns out to be a retired detective who is now a recluse and major league hoarder. This victim was partially dismembered and stuffed into a deep freeze. The mental aberrations inherent in the case calls for deeper psychological consideration, and Milo’s good friend, child psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware is called into service. 

A third, even more egregious murder, goes down before the pair begins to suspect there are some connections between the crimes. As usual, plenty of red herrings swim into view before the real perpetrator is uncovered and the jigsaw of the title is explained. Whether you are a Kellerman fan or new to his books, you’ll find this is a quick and satisfying read. It’s a perfect bedside table or summer beach read. You won’t be disappointed as the two sleuths work their way toward the solution of another complicated murder puzzle.  

A solid 3.5