Every country needs heroes, men, women and teachers to hold up and be proud of, for children to emulate, to celebrate their feats. Extolled in books and movies, if not so heroic in real life, legends are built around them. If they don't exist, create them.
The Gray Man By Mark Greaney Sphere paperback 405pp Available at Asia Books and leading book shops, 375 baht
You might think that heroes are men of peace, doing everything they can to prevent violence. But all too many heroes are praised for their exploits on the battlefield and their fast shooting at home. Jesse James and Billy the Kid, Al Capone, and Bonnie & Clyde all have posthumous fan clubs.
As a reviewer of long standing, I can tell you that the heroes of thrillers are mostly cold-blooded, who would sooner take the lives of culprits than bring them in. We are left in no doubt that they enjoy killing. The authors make clear that they effectively use all manner of lethal weapons with good reason. Still, is there ever a good reason for murder?
According to Yank scrivener Mark Greaney, murder is justified when done for one's country, for national security. His literary creation, Vourt Gentry, is nothing less than an assassin. But as he is doing it as his patriotic duty, it is condoned. Nor can he be taken to task for lending his services to others for money. Some people deserve to die.
Over the years, our hero picked up the nickname of The Gray Man, which happens to be the title of the book under review. It refers to Gentry's ability to slip in and out of shadows. He's a walking arsenal, hand grenades among the weapons he carries. Not that they prevent him from getting wounds all over his body.
In his experience, the rich and powerful are most dangerous because they buy anything they want or pay others to get it for him. Regarding The Gray Man as his most formidable enemy, a French count pays an army of mercenaries to get him, luring him to his chateau by kidnapping two English children. Bodies pile up while he rescues them.
Mark Greaney co-authored several books with Tom Clancy. Like Clancy, he can't mention a weapon without telling us what he knows about it. Lacking the suaveness of James Bond, Court Gentry still has the same license to kill and that's what he keeps doing.
If you like the thought of an heroic assassin, The Gray Man is for you.
Cat Out Of Hell By Lynne Truss Arrow Hammer paperback 243pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 350 baht
Get a dog
I was living in a ground floor apartment in the borough of Queens in the Big Apple in my mid-20s, when a grey cat hopped on my windowsill, then on my easy chair, and made herself at home. I called her Grey. She set the rules.
Canned cat food — Grey found the brand I bought agreeable — milk and water prepared before I left for work and when I returned. She clearly didn't like being cooped up and I left the window slightly open. Her toilet was somewhere outdoors.
Grey kept her own hours, awakening me in bed by sitting on my chest and purring in my face. She didn't come when I called, so I cut it out. After about a year, Grey did the calling, meowing, but not to me.
One day, Grey brought her boyfriend, who had a slit ear. Naturally, that's what I named him. Slit Ear was a tough streetcar. He hissed when I came near. He was multicoloured, indicating very mixed antecedents.
Grey became pregnant and had a half-dozen kittens. Slit Ear fled the scene and apparently Grey went in search of him. Though I fed the abandoned little things, I clearly failed as their stepfather.
Maybe it was in their genes, it soon being obvious that the litter was full of wild cats — attacking, scratching, certainly dangerous. I fled to a hotel, called a friend. We put on layers of clothes, gloves, obtained nets.
Returning to the apartment, it took hours to catch them all. Our garments in shreds, we took them to a local branch of the ASPCA. I remember that experience with a shudder. Was it only me?
Not according to British author Lynne Truss. In Cat Out Of Hell, she describes the encounters between a Cambridge University librarian and astonishing cats who can not only speak English but communicate with each other by computer.
In this 243-page story, the author notes that there's a cat master who rules the lot. He kills disobedient cats, dogs, people with impunity. The librarian is telling the story. He doesn't blame us for not believing him. At times, he doesn't believe it himself.
Nine Lives, an age-old pamphlet detailing the ways in which cats kill, is stolen from the British Museum, to be studied by cats to brush up on their techniques. We are led to believe that Roger is the worst of the cats, but he isn't. Truss throws in Beelzebub, who defers to cats to commit murder on Earth. Reading Cat Out Of Hell, you will opt to get a dog.
