It has been a while a since I smiled while reading a book. My sense of humour is good and I don't hold back my laughter at something that tickles my funny bone. I find Thai double-entendres most amusing. This reviewer wishes books were funny. Those called hilarious by critics simply aren't.
Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All
What the characters have in common is that they had unhappy childhoods and are trying to make their way in their homelands any way they can. Which doesn't mean being law abiding. The two protagonists are Johanna and Per. She is called the Priest, having been ordained.
The catch is that while she quotes from the bible chapter and verse, she's a non-believer. Not that it bothers her, until Jesus (!) sets her straight. Per is a hotel receptionist and is called the Receptionist. Hitman Anders both mains and kills his assigned victims.
The Count (fake title) is a car dealer, legal and otherwise. Circumstances throw them together. Seemingly serious, the writer has the knack of having them trip over one another, physically and verbally.
The Priest and the Receptionist wed, have a child and come up with a sure-fire way of becoming rich, involving a generous Santa Claus. Oddly enough, it makes sense. It makes the reader aware of how big a racket Christmas is.
The scriveners in Scandinavia -- Sweden, Norway, Denmark -- are proving a match for those in the UK and US. Strangely, not those out of Russia which once boasted such greats as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev. Still, I shouldn't overlook Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn.
I wonder if Woody Allen would consider filming Hitman Anders? Regrettably, Ingmar Bergman is no longer with us.
Biological warfare
While Hollywood is turning out ad nauseam shockers about invaders from outer space, novelists are finger-pointing at danger closer to home: real-life murdering terrorists. Not all are Isis, but they are the worst of the lot.
The cleverest, too. They recruit infidels, unsuspected by the authorities, and persuade them to do their dirty work. When no longer useful, they will be made a head shorter. From experience, we tend to think of explosives as their weapons of choice. In fact, they don't confine themselves.
As long as it kills, any weapon will do. Not that they are suicidal. Hit -- create the maximum damage -- and run. One author after another has described their means, even given them ideas. Not that their evil imaginations aren't fertile enough.
It was only a matter of time before a scrivener came up with biological warfare. Credit ace British writer Chris Ryan for making it the plot of Hellfire.
Think Big. Why slaughter only stadium-goers when you can fell an entire nation? Lucrezia Borgia came up with poisons. Five centuries later came a spray to spread them via aircraft. Alas, terrorists now have that capability.
But where? There are numerous likely targets. Ryan's SAS hero Danny Black is given the mission to find out and prevent the atrocity. Venues move from the Iraq-Syrian border to Nigeria to the Sahara Desert to England. China is where the plague was developed.
For sale, Isis leader the Caliph buys it, managing to smuggle it in canisters into the UK. With minutes to go, Danny captures and tortures the Caliph to learn where and how it will be unleashed. If you enjoy how pain is inflicted, this is for you. Otherwise, it will put you off your food.
A hint if I may. The plot of the story was clearly inspired by the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Danny Black isn't a likeable character. Still, fighting terrorism is dirty work and he has long since dispensed with the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Sad that Hollywood has kept the War on Terrorism at arm's length.
