Hush of Night compelling with ‘realistic’ characters

‘Storm’ probes B’desh history

By Jeff Ayers

“In the Hush of the Night: Novel” (Skyhorse Publishing), by

A special agent for the FBI works to bring down a sex trafficking ring with origins in Russia in Raymond Benson’s latest crime novel, “In the Hush of the Night.”

Annie Marino works for the FBI out of Chicago. When a car crash produces more than a dead driver, she learns the woman stashed in the trunk has a tattoo of bloody bear claws on her neck. Several women with the same tattoo have been found over the years, all suspected of being victims of a human trafficking ring. With no leads or suspects, it’s been frustrating for the FBI and Marino, who wants to stop these criminals and rescue the women from enslavement and probable death.

Marino’s neighbor, Jason Ward, is a recent college graduate whose fiancee’s family has Russian ties. The more he questions the motives of his future in-laws, the more he begins to worry.

A young woman from St. Petersburg, Russia, is lured to the United States to pursue her dream of being a fashion model. When she makes it to the US, she’s thrown into a nightmarish situation. She realizes that she’ll have to fight if she wants to survive.

The lives of Marino, Ward and the young Russian woman are destined to collide, and their strength lies in hope and sheer will to overcome impossible odds.

Benson has crafted a compelling story with realistic characters. He doesn’t focus on the graphic elements of the story, letting readers fill in the blanks.

By Jennifer Kay

a

“The Storm: a Novel” (Atria Books), by Arif Anwar

Arif Anwar’s debut novel, “The Storm,” arrives just in time for the Atlantic hurricane season with a subtle, circular tale about the individual effects of poor disaster planning and even poorer governmental response.

The novel’s inspiration was the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which struck what is now Bangladesh and killed up to half a million people, primarily because of storm-surge flooding.

I’ve covered hurricanes in Miami for nearly 15 years, and I expected Anwar, who was born in Bangladesh and has worked with large non-governmental organizations on poverty and public health issues, to delve into the details of that storm, which should still serve as a cautionary tale for coastal communities. The storm data seems a rich mine for storytelling: hostile relations between India and what was then East Pakistan that hindered communications about hazardous conditions, how the storm’s landfall took so many by surprise, or its legacy as one of the world’s deadliest natural disasters.

But Anwar doesn’t take such a macro view of the storm. It’s a catalyst for the narrative, but it’s also something that happens almost entirely offstage.

Instead, Anwar drills down to an almost microscopic viewpoint to explore Bangladesh’s struggle for independence through intimate, interconnected stories that span 60 years.

The result is less like a catastrophic flood and more like an illustration of the butterfly effect: a Japanese pilot crashing his plane in World War II ripples through the lives of a British doctor, a poor fisherman and his wife, a wealthy couple displaced by the Partition of India and a doctoral student trying to navigate US immigration policy to stay with his US-born daughter in the wake of Sept 11. The fears they face and the choices they make loom larger than any weather phenomenon.

“The Storm” ends up as a richly realized, instructive tale about what to do with people set adrift by major disturbances, and about filtering broad strokes of storm data to study individual people who follow some rules and break others to find security and do what they think is right.

“The Crooked Staircase” by

Jane Hawk continues her quest to bring down a vast conspiracy in “The Crooked Staircase” by Dean Koontz, a follow-up to “The Silent Corner” and “The Whispering Room.”

Hawk is the most wanted woman in America and being on the run makes it hard to rest or trust anyone. She can’t see her son, and the only people she can truly rely on are keeping him hidden and safe. When her husband committed suicide, she knew it was murder. Her investigation put a target on her back, and now she goes after the corrupt organization Arcadia, a giant octopus of a group that she pursues arm by arm until she brings the entire thing crashing down. But every move she makes is met with a counter move by her enemies who have the resources and determination to eliminate her once and for all.

While she methodically goes after the next name on the list hoping it will lead to someone higher up in the group, the novel also focuses on a brother and sister who are young writers. The material the writers have created potentially poses a threat to Arcadia and its ultimate goals. This brings urgency to the story, showing that it is more than a personal vendetta for Hawk at this point. Hawk is the one person who understands what Arcadia wants to accomplish, and the group wants to take her out while she wants to destroy the organization.

Koontz has written another stellar tale with Hawk. She’s easy to root for, and “The Crooked Staircase” is a gripping read for almost 500 pages, though in retrospect, not much really happens to propel the story too far forward. With at least two more novels coming with Hawk, hopefully Koontz will give this saga closure soon while pursuing other potential opportunities for her to shine under different circumstances. (AP)

The story line does veer a bit into the torture realm this time around,

(Bantam),