Baldacci back with End Game

‘Artemis’ realistic

By Jeff Ayers

nd Game’ (Grand Central Publishing), by Assassins Will Robie and Jessica Reel are forced to become detectives to solve a baffling disappearance in David Baldacci’s latest thriller, “End Game.”

When the US government wants to quietly eliminate a threat, it relies on Robie and Reel to take out the target. Their boss, known as the Blue Man, takes a rare vacation to visit his hometown in a rural part of Colorado. When he disappears, his superiors call on the Robie and Reel to find out what happened. They both work better hidden and seeing the world behind a sniperscope than confronting potential suspects directly.

The citizens of the small town of Grand have issues with strangers asking questions. Both Robie and Reel have stumbled into a vast conspiracy that will probably get them killed, but they persevere for the sake of their boss.

It doesn’t help that they are having personal issues. Robie has fallen in love with Reel, and he thought his feelings were reciprocated. So why is she giving him the cold shoulder?

Baldacci is a gifted storyteller, and while he has used a similar theme of taking his main characters and tossing them into a small town where they are a fish out of water and are forced to confront justice and injustice, it still works.

“Artemis”

Andy Weir, author of “The Martian,” takes readers to another desolate world, but instead of the Red Planet it’s the moon, in his new novel, “Artemis.”

Weir takes readers on an exploration of the colonization of Earth’s nearest neighbor in outer space, and it’s not too far into the future. Most everything needed for the modules of the city of Artemis can be reasonably manufactured on the surface, along with the occasional supply and tourist runs from home. Each living habitat is named for a prominent member of the original Apollo programs, but each has distinct features associated with it, whether it is for the affluent or those barely able to scrape by and survive.

Living in the poorer end of Artemis is Jasmine Bashara, aka Jazz. She has talent and is quite intelligent but chooses to skate by. She works as a porter for the tourists and the citizens who sometimes want their packages from Earth handled discreetly. She blows a field test that would have gotten her a job taking tourists in EVA suits to explore the area around the original landing site of Apollo 11. Upset and not thinking clearly, Jazz receives an offer that promises more money than she can imagine if she can successfully pull off a dangerous assignment. She has the skills and the knowledge, but does she have the luck and equipment necessary to keep her in the clear when damage control begins?

Jazz is a compelling character, both clever and sharp. Weir has created a realistic and fascinating future society on the moon, and every detail feels authentic and scientifically sound.

Weir knows how to make cuttingedge science sexy and relevant without losing the story.

NEW YORK:

(Crown), by

Also:

Baldacci

A newly discovered Raymond Chandler story has everything from an indictment of the medical industry to some mysterious scribble.

“It’s All Right: He Only Died,” the title suggesting a macabre Bob Dylan song, is a brief, bitter narrative about a doctor who refuses to treat a patient and the consequences of his decision. The story appears in the holiday edition of The Strand Magazine and comes with an author’s note from Chandler and a puzzler for readers. The Strand’s layout includes some handwritten comments by Chandler at the bottom of the manuscript, so illegible the magazine is asking for help. (Individual words, such as “suddenly” and “she,” can be deciphered).

“Whenever we get stumped, we call on our readers’ skills and intelligence to save the day,” reads an editor’s note. “Email us your ideas to unlock the ‘Chandler Code’ at chandlercode@strandmag.com.”

Chandler, who died in 1959, is known for “The Big Sleep,” “Farewell, My Lovely” and other fiction featuring private eye Philip Marlowe. Sarah Trott, author of “War Noir: Raymond Chandler and the Hard-Boiled Detective as Veteran in American Fiction,” believes that “It’s All Right” was written between 1956 and 1958.