STOP THE PRESSES!

STOP THE PRESSES!

A Nero Mystery

By Robert Goldsborough

MysteriousPress.com

237 pgs

Cameron Clay is an egotistical little man who, in his selfishness, envies the rich and the powerful. But he does have one unique talent, he’s a gifted journalist and has utilized his skills to become the most widely read columnist in New York City. His daily column, “Stop the Presses,” is a glorified gossip feature he uses to attack corrupt politicians, crooked cops and even his own ex-wife for having had the temerity to leave him. Clay sees himself as the champion of the average man who must labor for the pleasure of the social elite. Thus is verbal attacks are constant and brutal. In short he is a fellow many would like to see dead.

Which is where Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin enter the story. Len Cohen, the newspaper writer and friend of the pair, goes out on a limb and implores Wolf to grant Clay an audience. The irascible columnist has been receiving threatening phone calls that have him convinced he is the target of a would be killer. Against his better judgment, Wolfe acquiesces to Cohen and allows Clay to visit his brownstone office and put forth his case.

The meeting between the two is one for the records as Wolfe, by some herculean task, endures Clay’s ramblings and from them gleans that nervous journalist suspects one of five people as the unknown caller. Wolfe begrudgingly tells Clay to either go to the police or hire a bodyguard. Both options are refused and Clay exits in a huff. Several days later he is found in his home with a bullet hole in his head. After a search of the premises, Inspector Cramer of the NYP calls the death a suicide, though no note is found at the scene.

Reading the account in the papers, Wolfe and Archie see it as a conclusion to the entire sordid affair.  Alas they are proven wrong. The publisher of the newspaper Clay worked for is convinced his popular staffer was murdered and hires Nero Wolfe to investigate. In his typical, methodical fashion, the heavy set, beer-drinking detective sets out to investigate each of the five people the dead man had claimed to be capable of murder.

Once again Robert Goldsborough delivers another fine Nero Wolfe puzzle and throughout plays fair with the readers. As the suspects appear and tell their stories, clues are dropped and the challenge as always is to solve the crime before Wolfe does at the traditional office gathering in the finale. Goldsborough ability to capture Archie’s voice is brilliant and each of his books would have made creator Rex Stout smile. This one sure had that effect on this reviewer.

THE MUNICIPALISTS

THE MUNICIPALISTS

By Seth Fried

Penguin Books

264 pgs

Henry Thompson has a deep abiding love for cities. He sees them as the true salvation of mankind with each giant Gotham moving progress forward via both science and art. That is why he works in Suitland, home to the United States Municipalities Survey, an organization devoted to the improvement of cities. When the biggest of them all, Metropolis, comes under the attack of a maddened terrorist, Thompson is sent there find the villain and stop him by any means possible.

Before he can adequately come to grips with the assignment itself, he then learns he will have a partner named Owen to accompany on his mission.  All well and good until he discovers Owen is the name for the company’s computer A-I and has no corporeal physical being. Owen is connected to Henry via a sophisticated tie-clip which can project both Owen’s voice and an image construct allowing other people to both see and hear him. Only Henry knows Owen really isn’t there…for real.

In “The Municipalists” author Seth Friend has created a humorous action buddy story that envisions a world where machines are gradually taking over the world in very subtle ways. Enough so that the underlying foundations of the futuristic utopias Henry has always applauded may actually conceal a corrupt core adept at exploiting the poor and downtrodden. In the course of their adventure throughout the super city after the fanatical terrorists, Henry’s naïveté experiences a soul shaking education; one that will leave him changed forever.

“The Municipalists” is both eye-opening and entertaining. Two traits every good science fiction novel should contain. This one has them both in abundance.

EARLY RISER

EARLY RISER

By Jasper Fforde

Viking Books

400 pgs

On an alternate Earth, a brutal ice age dominates the planet and four months a year, the human population hibernates in order to survive. A pharmaceutical company named Hiber Tech has developed Morphenox, a drug that induces dreamless sleep. Thus an individual, after bulking up with fatty foods, can sleep away their winters. Now to keep these thousands of slumberers safe there is the Winder Consuls; or for want of a better designation, Winter Police.

Charlie Worthing, a young man raised in a government orphanage, is recruited as a Winter Consul and sent to the most remote sector of the empire. There he discovers a mixed-bag of non-sleepers. Apparently Morphenox isn’t always one hundred percent safe and he learns that a small percentage of users awaken early…brain dead. They’re called the Nighwalkers and having little or no cognitive capabilities, are trained in doing repetitive menial task. If they are unable to function even at this animal level, they are deployed; i.e. terminated and their body parts sold.

Then there are the insomniacs who refuse to take Morphenox and prefer to endure the frigid times as best they can without succumbing to mindnumbing boredom. There are also entire clans known as Villains, who live out in the country and also refuse to take part in hibernation. Among them is the legend of a Winter monster known as the Gronk. The Gronk seeks and out targets that are “unworthy” and eliminates them while singing Broadway showtunes.

This quick introduction to Winter leaves the naïve Charlie afloat as he tries to discern who among his new acquaintances is telling him the truth and who are carrying out their own secret agendas. All of which center around the rumored possibility that there exist a viral dreamscape that connects people via their dreams.

Jasper Fforde’s tale is strange, original, funny and totally captivating. At its core is the essence of good vs. evil, reality vs. dreams and how they can easily become confused in a landscape that is devoid of both natural and human warmth. “Early Riser” is both mesmerizing and unsettling. In the end it is a reading experience the reader will remember long after the last page has been finished.