Loners Tie Up Loose Ends:

Stories about individuals who face unusual circumstances and deal with them effectively and creatively are always going to attract readers, even when they are only fictional accounts or are relegated to the mysteries and thrillers section by book retailers. Novels under consideration this month feature lone operators, expert police detectives, feckless investigators both amateur and private, and a compilation of suspenseful short stories by noted author Joyce Carol Oates. See if you concur with my remarks on these recently published and very interesting books.

Parker is the first lead character to take on some pesky loose ends, as he continues (in Richard Stark's DIRTY MONEY, 2008) mopping up from a bank heist gone wrong, what with the money hidden in an abandoned rural church, and with surviving partners and somewhat dishonest private investigators showing up to cause further complications. Plus, his cover identity is compromised and a wanted poster looking a little too accurate for comfort is published. And the money is "hot" too. Likeable, taciturn bad guy Parker copes with professional ease, never mind that murder is sometimes necessary, although usually only for the really rotten double-crossers, the ones who always seem to underestimate Stark's tough anti-hero.

Next up is a satirical spy caper told by one Vietnam vet turned CIA agent but chiefly focused on the antics of another, Gearheardt, thought to be dead, but, no, alive and seriously ready to foment a coup in Phillip Jennings' clever GOODBYE MEXICO (2007). Does Gearheardt bother with loose ends like whether one Cuban spy or another can be trusted, or whether the new CIA station chief needs to be consulted or even heeded, or whether his former Vietnam buddy Jack Armstrong, lacking language skills among other things, has a clue about why he was assigned to the Mexico consulate--not a chance! One absurd but plausibly described revelation is that Gearheardt is the apparent mastermind of a worldwide intelligence operation entirely composed of prostitutes, especially ones able to winkle secrets out of government officials. The ridiculously complicated plot involves the attempted assassination of the president of Mexico in furtherance of the takeover of Cuba as revenge for the Bay of Pigs fiasco or possibly to provide a safe haven for all the prostitutes of the world. Talk about loose ends!

Much more down to earth is Lee Child's NOTHING TO LOSE (2008), at least initially; for this one also features a government secret, though one without actual spies causing trouble. Jack Reacher, the loner and usual hero of Child's novels, confronts a whole town, Fistful-of-Dollars fashion, because they make the mistake of running him out, sending him back the way he had come. With the help of a policewoman in the nearby town of Hope, Reacher eventually figures out the strange reactions of folks in the other town, Despair, including discovering an underground railroad for military deserters and a classified contract for the recovery and disposal of radioactive war-zone wreckage.

Ten tales presenting alarming glimpses of murderers and victims, of odd slices of life, and of unexpected compulsions and motives make up Joyce Carol Oates' collection THE MUSEUM OF DR. MOSES (2007). One example is the boxing story, "The Man who fought Roland LaStarza," which seems to be about a fighter who committed suicide but actually turns and twists on complicated family relationships. The title tale is pretty scary but, unlike some of the other stories, resolves to a relatively happy ending. The first one, "Hi! Howya Doin'," is written as one long sentence and creates a rather cheerful atmosphere right up until the abrupt ending. These short takes are fascinating and every bit as compelling as longer fictional pieces.

Commissario Cenni, an experienced and pragmatic police officer, faces a complex business in THE LAST ENEMY (2007) by Grace Brophy, as an American heiress and relative of a noble family in Assisi is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Figuring out the case, not helped by pressures to declare the death as accidental, Cenni deals with illegals and other foreigners, with a local policeman known as a womanizer, and with various well-connected people all harboring deep secrets. Meanwhile, Cenni's twin brother is about to be instated as the bishop of Urbino. The local color is good in this one and the story, intriguing.

A 20-year-old mystery is finally resolved in Carol O'Connell's BONE BY BONE (2008), as Oren Hobbs returns to his small hometown on the California coast. An ex-military policeman, Hobbs plunges right into the investigation of bones, lots of them, showing up on his father's front porch. This novel is populated with a plethora of odd-ball characters, from the domineering if petite housekeeper to the crippled recluse holding files on the long-ago disappearance, from the wealthy alcoholic neighbor and her devoted lawyer husband and her frustrated daughter to the hopeless team of local sheriff and his deputy, from the seance organizer to the ruthless state cop and the hack writer looking to finish a book started 20 years ago. This one resembles a shaggy dog story, even to the extent of featuring a stuffed dog resting before a fireplace, yet eventually winds down to a fairly neat final curtain, leaving just a hint of star-crossed lovers to satisfy the more romantically inclined.

On a far brighter note, Lisa Lutz's CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS (2008) allows only the suggestion of dark deeds as Isabel, the older daughter in a family-run private investigation business, keeps getting into trouble, and into jail, while pursuing the suspicious behavior of a new neighbor. Rae, a teenager and the younger daughter in the family, causes at least some of the trouble while apparently trying to help out everyone, encouraging her parents to take vacations and her sister to stalk the suspiciously named John Brown. This funny story is told primarily in conversations, including ones that are taped by the rather neurotic and obsessive Isabel. A brother who is not a member of the PI firm also appears to be undergoing a meltdown, possibly due to an infidelity in his marriage. Family friend and local police detective, Henry Stone, may be the only responsible individual here, although Milo the bartender has his moments. There actually is a mystery here and it is smoothly resolved by the final chapter.

A Florida-bound hurricane enlivens the ending of Walter Satterthwait's PERFECTION (2006), a police procedural case pitting the duo of veteran cop Jim Fallon and new detective Sophie Tregakis against a wily serial killer. The identity of the killer is a key issue and is only revealed at the end; yet, this evil doer, a murderer targeting obese women, manages to escape and leave behind two wounded cops. This work is clever and detailed; but is also not nearly as gruesome, nor as suspenseful, as some readers might expect.

THE HEADHUNTERS (2008) by Peter Lovesey, set in England, refers to four friends who, while imbibing merrily in a pub, laughingly discuss ways to do away with the boss of one of them. The boss does indeed disappear, but it is the mysterious drowning deaths that the foursome keep stumbling over that really gives them the creeps and cause the cops to give members of the group a rather hard time. The lead cop Hen Mallin is suspicious of everyone, puzzled by the lack of serious connections among the victims, and nearly stumped by what the unearthing of a Mammoth skeleton almost two decades earlier has to do with the case. Jo, one of the original four, is determined to find out the truth in order to clear suspicion from her friend Jack, an ex-con turned nature-reserve specialist. In the process she nearly becomes the killer's final victim. This work is inventive and plausible, illustrating the pitfalls of viewing violence as a game, and presents a smart, ironical ending.

So, there you have it: competent individuals, as devised by seasoned authors, ferret out the bad guys, solve all manner of problems, and, generally, save the day. On the other hand, the criminals may well be holding their own, as not all meet their just desserts in a timely fashion, and some, like Parker, calmly get away with murder. Happy reading!