Both Sides of the Law

Spy novelist Matthew Dunn, if his publisher's bio is to be believed, comes by his espio-knowledge the old-fashioned way, by having worked for the British MI6 intelligence agency. In Slingshot, his third "Spycatcher" novel, he continues to chronicle the exploits of Will Cochrane, an operative with a special joint MI6-CIA task force that handles jobs other agencies either can't touch or don't want to acknowledge need doing.

Though the Cold War may be over, the behind-the-scene game of spy vs. spy continues.  A Russian national wishes to defect in Poland -- although handled by Polish intelligence, word is that unknown operatives want the defection stopped, so Will and his team are called in to shepherd the operation. But it goes bloodily wrong.  Digging into the operation, Will learns that Russian intelligence wasn't behind the raid, and that a conspiracy with roots in the chaos following the breakup of the Soviet Union has plans that could bring death to millions. He and his team must track the conspirators while battling possible infiltration of their own ranks, while Will himself faces the reality that the man behind it all knows how to strike at him personally.

Over the course of the three books, Dunn has polished his narrative style and sharpened his gift for writing a high-tension action scene. Slingshot flows much better than the earlier two novels, although it still has to pause and stop for a discourse on character motivation now and again instead of weaving that information into the story itself. The resulting stop-and-start pattern is all the more frustrating because the way Dunn builds the character of a top assassin is integrated into the narrative, meaning he knows how but sometimes chooses the shorter route. Despite this and despite a more tangled cast of characters than he really needs, Dunn puts together a good spy yarn that doesn't waste a reader's time.

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Continuing his collaboration with Justin Scott, Clive Cussler brings Van Dorn Detective Agent Isaac Bell into the 1920s in his sixth adventure, The Bootlegger.

In 1921 Bell finds himself in the middle of the illegal activity spurred by Prohibition, as the title suggests. Agency founder Charles Van Dorn has been seriously wounded by a mysterious rum-running ship and Bell will bend all of the agency's resources to find the person responsible. But his quarry may be more than a simple criminal, with a plan that could endanger the entire country.

As usual with these "co-authored" thrillers, most of the work is done by the name in smaller print. Scott has been on the Bell series since the second book and keeps the story moving as Bell himself pursues his prey, from New York City to Detroit to the Florida Keys. He keeps Isaac smart, tough and resolute and his villains appropriately nefarious. He also helps nail down the historical setting, showing how organized crime began crowding out small-scale bootleggers and building the empires that would be ruled by the likes of Al Capone and how the Bolsheviks who seized power in Russia sought to export their revolution to other nations.

Though Scott may have been the hands on the keys, he hews closely to the Cussler formula of straight-ahead action, attention to technical and historical detail, enough characterization to help the reader know who's who and what they're doing and making sure everything has a satisfactory resolution. Sure, Bell is a stereotype of the tough, square-jawed man of action, and Scott draws him about an inch deep. But because he fits that stereotype, Scott doesn't need to waste more time telling us about him; we know the stereotype so we know the character.

Although it's certainly possible for a Cussler-franchise novel to offer less than that, it's also certain that those asking for more should pick a different writer.

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Psychologist Alex Delaware has dealt with his share of dangerously unbalanced people before, but most often it's been through his friendship and consulting with Los Angeles Detective Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. But Constance Sykes, involved with a child custody case in which Alex has been called to consult, proves herself a much more potent threat when the case doesn't go her way.

Jonathan Kellerman's Delaware series reaches number 36 with Killer, and it offers both a little bit of welcome spark as well as some confusion. The case of Sykes v. Sykes soon involves murder as well as threats on Alex's life, giving it a sharpness that some other recent Delaware novels have lacked. It also offers a larger part for his longtime partner, Robin Castagna, who has been more or less background for the last ten years or so. Alex and Milo have to sift through meager evidence that itself adds little to their understanding and in reality often confuses them even more.

Kellerman does a better job of outlining those red-herring characters and leads than he has done in some recent novels, giving them some real weight and depth. The presence of Robin in more than just the obligatory trip-to-her-shop scene is also welcome, and Kellerman has his usual sure hand at descriptions, dialogue and narrative.

The Delaware novels aren't really mysteries where the reader is given the same clues as the protagonists and can figure them out, but Killer is clumsier than usual about introducing its wrap-up act and does so in a way that points to the solution long before it actually arrives on the scene. Even so, some of the better touches make it a novel much more likely to stick in the mind than some of its more forgettable predecessors during the last decade.