Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Click book cover to purchase

Peter Deutermann had one brilliant career which essentially prepared him for his second successful career. He entered the United States Navy, receiving his commission upon graduating from Annapolis, and rose to the rank of Captain before retiring. He then embarked on his second career which is as a well received author with a great array of fiction dealing with police procedural as well as military novels to his credit. The Iceman is a rousing novel about submarine action in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters set during the early days of World War II.

Malachi Stormes takes a submarine through minefields right up to a base where Nazi submarines are moored and manages to sink three of them in a brilliant maneuver. Britain, under whose auspices he is sailing, decorates him, and the U.S. promotes him and assigns him as captain of a new class of submarine fighting Japan in the Pacific. Malachi finds that he has several problems that must be solved if he is to be successful with his new command. First and foremost the Admiral commanding the submarine fleet in the Pacific insists on use of a newly designed torpedo utilizing a magnetic action which has a very high failure rate. Malachi must actually circumvent official policy if he is to be successful in sinking Japanese ships. He also has to shape his crew up, especially so as they had a skipper who took no chances and consequently sank no ships. He also bucks the command chain alienating the admiral in charge.

The theme of the book is that success is only granted to men that do creative thinking and do not succumb to the rules of the game becoming hidebound by military regulation that prevents initiative. It does seem more than a little strange that a retired career military officer would take a bit of a jab against the institution that he spent 26 years of his life working with. But, this is not the first instance that Deutermann takes the tack that what the military needs for success is promoting some independent thought among it’s members. A difficult thing to accomplish due to the organization necessary to achieve goals in the chaos of battle.

Like his previous books, the writing is crisp and the technique and format guarantee sleepless nights to readers. The discussions of combat and use of the ordinance taking part in the battles is, of course, described by an expert. These are presented in terms that allow the reader to understand what the equipment is doing and what it takes to guide it in battle. A fascinating picture of naval warfare that took place 70 years ago and also of the men and women that fought it.

8/18 Paul Lane

THE ICEMAN by P. T. Deutermann. St. Martin’s Press (August 21, 2018).  ISBN 978-1250181374. 320p.

Kindle

Audible

Click book cover to purchase

The author is Danish, writes in Danish, but has evolved a wide audience in the rest of the world via translations and the well written novels he turns out. His knowledge of the political system in the United States and its constitutional checks and balances is certainly evident in the background and presentation of the “Washington Decree”. Although he is mainly known internationally for his books featuring “Department Q” this novel is a well done stand alone and includes one of the most mesmerizing conspiracy plots I have seen in a long time.

The leading characters met 16 years prior to the opening of The Washington Decree, during a trip to China, and the five individuals have maintained contact since then. Dorothy (Doggie) Rodgers and Wesley Barefoot are both working at the White house for Bruce Jansen, just elected President with both Doggie and Wesley active in the election campaign. Both people are romantically interested in the other but work and events have so far prevented a more heated exchange.

Doggie’s father is the wealthy owner of a chain of hotels and is a staunch Republican. While Jansen is a Democrat, Doggie’s father feels incumbent upon himself to offer one of his hotels as a place to hold the inaugural ball and ceremonies. While celebrating victory, tragedy strikes when the President’s wife is gunned down by one the workers at the hotel.

Jansen immediately decides to take the position of getting rid of the violence, unilaterally he comes up with new rules that cause chaos in the U.S. making international travel almost impossible. Constant roadblocks and stops by police and soldiers cause the same stalemate as in travel abroad. And for Doggie, the ultimate horror occurs when her father is accused of masterminding the murder of the President’s wife. To make matters worse President Jansen decides that the normal lapses between sentencing and carrying out of the death penalty will no longer include the normal appeals that can last as long as ten years. Therefore it looks like her father will be executed in a matter of a few weeks.

Beside Doggie’s natural urge to exonerate her father and get him out of prison, there is an evolving censorship of all media, the probable insurrection by militia against Jansen’s dictatorial decrees and the complete insecurity of the citizenry unable to count on previously guaranteed rights and liberties. Adler-Olsen’s description of the chaos running rampant in the United states is quite vivid and possibly even understated if such conditions were to actually occur. What is done to alleviate the problem will certainly provide the reader with some sleepless time and a keen interest in getting more novels from the author.

An A+ novel at the very least.

8/18 Paul Lane

THE WASHINGTON DECREE by Jussi Adler-Olsen. Dutton (August 7, 2018).  ISBN 978-1524742522. 592p.

Kindle

Audible

Click book cover to purchase

Elkins delivers us a two for one delightful trip into the complex world of fine art buying, selling and exhibiting. The first part of the trip is a well done “who done it” concerning the theft of two priceless paintings. The second part is a primer on the intricacies of dealing with art; its valuations, its insiders that make livings off it and why some paintings are worth fortunes and others almost nothing.

Art curator Val Caruso is an assistant to the head curator at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has reached a triple whammy in his life. He has been passed over for promotion, his divorce from his wife has just been finalized, and he feels in a rut in general. A group of paintings in Italy have been offered for exhibit at museums around the United States and Val is chosen to travel to Milan on behalf of all the prospective exhibitors to coordinate necessary details and requirements to bring the works to the America. The trip might be made to order for him to temporarily get out of Dodge.

Before leaving on the trip he is asked while in Italy if he would attempt to obtain a pair of Renoir paintings from their owner in Milan and restore them to a man whose family had them stolen by Italian Fascists at the end of World War II. The art work is early Renoir and not listed in catalogs delineating the artist’s later paintings. This fact alone makes them extremely valuable. Val understands that the legalities surrounding art stolen and than resold to legitimate buyers is fuzzy in the extreme, but does promise to see if the present owner will consent to lend the two paintings to Sol Bezzecca the last living descendant of the family that originally owned them. Apparently this is an action that might satisfy all concerned with the paintings restored upon the death of Bezzecca to the owner.

Arriving in Milan Val finds himself involved with the present day remnants of a plot beginning decades ago involving forgers, thieves and an unknown someone that wants him out of the way due to his art expertise. Val had lived in Milan years ago to work with and learn the trade of art dealing and still has friends there that he can call upon for help.

The novel is a well done story set within the technical confines of the movement of fine art from sellers to buyers. Elkins gives the reader all the information necessary to understand the intricacies of fine art buying and selling without too much redundancy to spoil the read. I found myself in a welcome learning experience while enjoying a very good novel.

8/18 Paul Lane

A LONG TIME COMING by Aaron Elkins. Thomas & Mercer (August 7, 2018).  ISBN 978-1503902381. 268p.