The silents

The silents

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Alongside co-authors, Yank scrivener Clive Cussler turns out at least two books annually, not all novels. Writing is his night job. A seafarer by day, he and his crew hunt for lost ships, treasure too. Over the years he has had several literary creations. Dirk Pitt is the most popular.

The Thief by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott 376 pp. 2013 Penguin paper back. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 350 baht.

However, this reviewer prefers the less muscle-bound, more cerebral Isaac Bell who is able to throw a mean punch when called for. Bell isn’t contemporary — his period is the early 20th century. Cars, planes, trains, phones, movies, phonographs were all around then. But not radio, television, ball-point pens, penicillin, jets, computers, bikinis, DNA, as it was only with World War II that there was a speed-up in inventions.

In The Thief Clive Cussler and Justin Scott focus on movies. No individual or country can be credited with creating them. The US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and Australia all made contributions. Granted, the US most of all. Moving pictures made their début at the tail-end of the 19th century, but matching sounds to pictures was the sticking point. More than one inventor gave up trying.

But was it impossible? Whoever succeeded brought honour to himself and his country. Cussler notes that the vainest ruler of the time was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. World War I wasn’t far off and though he wasn’t about to start it, he made no secret of looking forward to defeating Britain and France and demonstrating the scientific and engineering superiority of the Fatherland, which would be another feather in his cap.

If Germany cannot invent motion picture sound, at least it can steal the latest development from the Americans. Agents cross the Atlantic on the Mauretania transatlantic passenger liner to do just that, murdering those trying to prevent it. The Van Dorn Detective Agency sends its chief investigator Isaac Bell, wed to film star Marion Bell, to thwart and bring them to justice.

Inventor Thomas Edison and director D.W. Griffith are among the characters. The advanced machine stolen in Hollywood; Bell Chases the culprits across the country to New York. Their battle royale is aboard the Mauretania and during World War I. Germany loses on all counts.

In the event, talkies came about in the US with The Jazz Singer in 1925.

For a historical fiction account of Silent Picture days, read The Thief by all means. 376 pages is the right length for the story. Unlike all too many of his colleagues, Cussler doesn’t pad.

Sentinel by Matthew Dunn 416pp. 2013 Harper. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 350 baht.

Averting WWIII

While the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan were creating global mayhem, authors of spy thrillers didn’t look far for villains. With the Cold War following close on the heels of World War II, the obvious “baddies” were the USSR and its Eastern Europe satraps. But who to turn to when the Soviet Union imploded?

Mao Zedong’s China, the IRA and tribal atrocities in Africa were all tried, with readers showing scant interest. Sept 11 and Muslim terrorism captured the popular imagination and have been milked for all they’re worth. But, what now? Curiously enough, Russia again. But not the Marxism-Leninism of Stalin.

Simply put, capitalist-democratic Russia wants its Republics back, who happy to have broken away, mean to keep their independence. Is joining Nato enough to keep Big Brother away? Just maybe, if the US and UK make clear that in the event of war, they’ll side with the underdogs.

Needless to say World War III would be more devastating than its predecessors and right-minded people do their utmost to avoid it. Sentinel by former MI6 officer Matthew Dunn is about MI6 protagonist Will Cochrane trying to thwart Spetsnaz (special forces in Russia) Colonel Razin from bringing a war about.

Will and Razin are opposites but equals. The few times they fight leaves each bruised and bloodied without a winner. They kill enemies without batting an eye. Razin had been recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) as a spy but is in fact a double agent. Venues change.

Dunn is strong on Russian descriptions, weak on American. He takes leaves from Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum and John le Carre, but still his style is his own. Lots of action; his tendency to dwell on each a drawback. The twist in Sentinel is that Razin follows orders from the unexpected.

Whether a nuclear explosion aboard a Russian warship, blamed on the Americans, would lead to an all-out war is a moot question. Can Will stop the war single-handedly? A glossary informs us what the Russian military and intelligence terms he uses mean. For example, SVR is the acronym for the current KGB.

Interestingly, all the major characters except one die violently before the book ends. It is reassuring to know that Will is on our side, but given his absence of conscience, I would be fearful of accidentally standing in his way.

Oh, there’s a heroine — a Russian military intelligence major — but she gets knocked off too. The best scene, in my opinion, is of Will helping her tinkle while she’s driving a car at 200kph.

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