It’s said that men marry for sex, women for security. An oversimplification yet consistent with the undeniable fact that each party enters matrimony with expectations. Before exchanging vows, they’ve probably discussed and agreed on children, one or two jobs, family relations, domicile, time with friends.
Not everything comes out during the engagement, however. Unless it slips out. That she talks a blue streak; that he cusses when annoyed; that it’s her mother’s cooking he’d been enjoying; that he never attends to household chores; that she always finds something to complain about. So much for matches made in heaven.
Romance writers play down the realistic part, after the lovers walk off into the sunset. Crime-thriller authors are a different breed. When they do focus on nuptials, the couples might be private detectives, or one of them the victim of a killing. The latter is the case in Fool Me Once, by first-rate US novelist Harlen Coben.
You might think that Maya Stern, a US Air Force captain, knows better. But wealthy Joe Bucket swept her off her feet and Lily, their daughter born a year later, is perfect in every way. Alas, Maya is surrounded by death. A fatal accident in Iraq she hasn’t caused leads to her resigning her commission.
Maya’s sister Claire, an investigator, is murdered. Joe dies in an apparent robbery gone wrong. Earlier, two of Joe’s brothers died in “accidents”. The new Jersey Police Department has no doubt that there’s dirty work a foot. But whose and why?
Maya keeps a variety of handguns in her safe, yet all are licensed and none match the ballistics of the bullets found in the bodies. In her own investigation she learns that her late husband was a psychopath. His society-matron mother denies Maya’s accusations in their penultimate-chapter encounter.
Coben is noted for his double-whammy endings — a climax followed by an anticlimax — and he won’t disappoint aficionados here. This reviewer could have done without his throwing in an apparition, but it’s only a mock ghost. To the extent that Fool Me Once has a message, it is be wary of your spouse.
Not what it seems
With the Northern Irish Troubles over for the foreseeable future, Stephen Leather, arguably the foremost chronicler, has turned his literary talents a bit farther afield — to England in general, London in particular. Which brings him head-on with the country’s fastest-growing concern.
In the wake of the dissolution of the empire, it threw open its doors to denizens of its former colonies, as well as continuing its policy of welcoming political refugees. To its chagrin, the response has been overwhelming.
Fed up with the backwardness in their homeland, Asians, in a reversal of the Crusades a millennium ago, are invading Europe and other advanced continents. And they’re bringing their customs with them, refusing to leave them behind and accepting those of their adopted countries.
Gaining citizenship and voting for their brethren, it’s only a matter of time before the democratic process gives them the majority. Which is seemingly the plot of First Response. But as we read on, it becomes wishy-washy. The plot has Muslim terrorists taking hostages in the Smoke, demanding they be traded for jihadists in Belmarsh prison, explosives tied to the captives.
The Terrorists, “Cleanskins”, have no police records and can’t be traced. The gathered law-enforcement services, including SAS and the Prime Minister, are at a loss as to how to handle this outrage. Doves and hawks give their points of view. It’s clear the author is pulling his punches. And had he shown the courage of his convictions, he would have spared the reader one particular clever but weak twist. The author is better than that.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.