Novelists have a jaundiced view of the media in general, the press in particular. To hear them tell it the Fourth Estate's primarily sensational, scandal-mongering is their bread and butter.
Tatiana By Martin Cruz Smith Simon and Schuster 322pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 325 baht
It is the rare author who gives them their just due. The intrepid reporters who follow up stories. The foreign correspondents who insist on covering wars from the front lines.
Whether at home or with the troops, they are under fire. A hot story is hot in more ways than one — dangerous, deadly. Exposing individuals or gangs trying to hide their nefarious activities has led to the murder of more than a few investigators.
Those killed in Russia tops the list. Not only its notorious mafia, but ranking officials have their fingers in the cookie-jar. This time, though, the cookies are worth hundreds of millions of dollars (not roubles).
Yank author Martin Cruz Smith focuses on this in Tatiana. In Gorky Park, the best known of his Russia-based crime thrillers, he introduced senior investigator of Moscow police Arkady Renko, who carried over in his subsequent stories.
Honest to a fault, his superiors are on notice that he'll pounce on them if they aren't. Including cases that are sensitive and embarrassing to officials. On death lists himself, his survival instincts are second to none.
When Tatiana Petrova's body is found on the sidewalk beneath her balcony, the medical examiner calls it suicide. This isn't good enough for Arkady. As one of the best journalists in the country, noted for exposing corruption, she doubtlessly had many enemies.
Spotting clues nobody else can, or wants to, he finds himself among mega-rich Russian businessmen and their Chinese partners. There's talk of "buying" the Kremlin. Others are offed to throw Arkady off the scent.
Tatiana was on to major corruption involving a nuclear submarine. If revealed, it would rock the government and bring about many arrest. All in a day's work to our hero.
The penultimate chapter twist — the dead coming to life — is so far out that Smith's devoted fans will groan. Be that as it may, Tatiana does a good job doling out well deserved praise to journalists.
The Quest By Nelson DeMille Center Street 1975/2014 578pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 315 baht
The Holy Grail
Authors are rarely successful right off the bat. It takes them a number of books to acquire a following. Many never do and give it up. Or the publisher returns their latest manuscript. The scriveners who do become household names can't help wondering why their early literary efforts, read by comparatively few at the time, shouldn't be reprinted for his wider readership.
I'm game, the publisher may well say. And out the reprint comes, perhaps with a change of title. Nelson DeMille wondered the same thing, then had an attack of conscience. Reprint The Quest, fine. But it would be more fair to his fans if he rewrote the four-decade old novel.
The newly reprinted and republished The Quest is twice the length of the original. Does this mean it's twice as good, or even a whole lot better? To be sure the author writes well. Nevertheless this reviewer demurs. In no small part due to his choice of topic: the Holy Grail; the goblet from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. Believed to have healing powers, it has been sought for millennia. Priceless, it could never be put up for auction. Neither private collector nor museum could obtain it openly. As for clandestinely, its whereabouts would likely get out. The time-setting of the original story is kept: 1974.
Ethiopia, the main venue, is in the throes of a bitter civil war. As with all global mayhem, foreign journalists are on hand to cover it. One small team consists of foreign correspondents, Yank Frank Purcell, Brit Henry Mercado and Vivien Smith the photographer, her background obscure. Both men lust for her.
Jeeping along on their way to the fighting, they encounter an elderly man on foot. A Sicilian priest, Father Antonio, who is the central character in the story. Imprisoned from 1936-1974 because he knew the whereabouts of the Holy Grail, he opens up to his new friends. It reads like the background history of the Maltese Falcon.
The plot digresses to descriptions of Roman remains and fascist architecture, DeMille brings in the necessity of believing in God's love to believe in the power of the Holy Grail. The Vatican becomes its final resting place. The minor plot is who gets the woman, who has been sharing her favours.
I like DeMille's military stories, such as The General's Daughter which was made into a movie. He would do well to stick to them. The Holy Grail is a good theme, but its 590 pages are bit much.
