Spies and soldiers, ghosts and girls
Charles Finch, author of the Charles Lenox mystery series (whose latest installment is An Old Betrayal), is on the case as he takes the measure of a new batch of mysteries and thrillers.
Few genres are now as rigid as the spy thriller, with its blend of exotic cities, name-brand weaponry, moral weariness and superhuman competence. But in this eighth novel about ex-CIA man John Wells, “the best field agent ever,” Berenson again sets himself apart. His knowledge of spycraft, geopolitics and technology is incredible, and he integrates it seamlessly into a plotline about a team of mercenaries trying to entice the United States into war with Iran. This late in the series, Wells is no longer so much a good man in complex situations as an ethically pristine saint, but that flaw doesn’t matter when set against the book’s assured and graceful skill. Like Wells, Berenson seems, in a few snappish moments, as if he might want out of the spy world himself — the monotonies of this style, this hero. His readers won’t.
New England, with its long history, old stone buildings and deep snowfalls, has always been where America looks for its ghosts. McMahon sets this chiller in a haunted Vermont town, alternating between two families who live on a farm there a century apart. The first, in 1908, is that of Sara Harrison Shea, whose daughter is murdered beyond the woods’ edge. The second belongs to a contemporary teenager named Ruthie Washburn, who, with her younger sister, is drawn toward the same woods by their mother’s disappearance. The historical half of the book is mysterious and scary, but its present-day counterpart is a mess — full of groan-inducing choices (don’t go up those stairs!) and onedimensional characters. Still, The
Winter People is eerie, and some of its darker supernatural flights are reminiscent of Stephen King.
George Foss has spent the two decades since college wondering what became of his beautiful first girlfriend, Liana, who got into trouble halfway into freshman year and vanished. So when she shows up in a bar near his Boston apartment, asking him to drop off a bag of money for her, he jumps at the chance with all the canny patience of a drunk chimpanzee. It’s only the first in a series of absurdly stupid decisions that lead George into danger, and Swanson’s novel relies too much on these errors to move its plot along. But George is likable, Liana is convincingly enigmatic, and most importantly, the book has pace to burn. It feels like a throwback to Ross MacDonald’s flawed but relentless work — down to its undercooked noir style, which nevertheless glimmers with bright and original moments.
A lonely ex- Special Forces hero haunted by a personal tragedy: This must be the protagonist they issue, along with your diploma, when you graduate from Thriller Academy. The hero here is Sam Dryden, who’s out jogging one night when he bumps into Rachel, a preteen being chased by an ominous government search party. After he decides to help her, the hunt is on. The result is, whatever its claims to originality, a superbly engrossing novel, distinguished by both a lively intelligence and a surprisingly subtle and persuasive development of its characters. A great deal of meticulous scientific hokum goes into explaining the supernatural ability that makes Rachel special, but Lee is smart enough to keep the focus on the escalating desperation of the duo’s flight, and the quick but believable bond it creates between them.