Andrew Klavan’s After That, The Dark: The Best Cameron Winter Book Yet

After That, The Dark is the fifth novel in Andrew Klavan’s Cameron Winter series, and it is the best one so far. Cameron Winter is a very interesting character who has shown more and more depth to his personality as the series has progressed. He is a former “black ops” agent who is still intensely loyal to his former commander, the Recruiter. However, the Recruiter has had to go underground, due to political pressure that has been fomented by the ultra-wealthy tech mogul, Thaddeus Blatt. For the first time, there are cracks in Winter’s unquestioning trust in the one person who gave his life meaning.

Winter is currently employed as a professor of English Romantic poetry at a small college outside of Washington, D.C., but he manages to get embroiled in various murders that seem open and shut cases until he starts asking uncomfortable questions. In After That, The Dark, the murder in question is brought up by Gwendolyn Lord, a therapist he met in the third book, The House of Love and Death. He was immediately attracted to her, but it took him quite a while to screw up the courage to ask her out. While they are on their first date, she mentions an “impossible murder” that her friend in Tulsa, OK told her about. 

Owen McKay was a loving and devoted husband who suddenly snapped and went crazy, killing his wife and year-old son. When he is arrested, he is put in a holding cell and before the jail psychiatrist can evaluate him, he is found dead, shot through the heart. No one is on video as having visited him in the cell. 

Winter’s curiosity is piqued, and he decides to fly out to Tulsa and investigate. Everyone he talks to who were involved in the case have been terrorized into silence, and he can’t get anywhere with them. Finally, the doctor who performed the autopsy agrees to meet Cameron, and he tells him that he found some kind of device with wires embedded in McKay’s brain. However, the final report has scrubbed all of his notes about it. 

When Winter returns, a very creepy tattooed man is waiting for him in his apartment and nearly kills him. He is obviously getting close to something big. Then, he reads about another murder that happened in Connecticut that has eerie similarities to murders McKay committed. When he goes up there to investigate, it’s clear the murders are connected. 

And so, Cameron Winter finds himself neck-deep in a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the federal government, an unscrupulous tech company, and an amoral venture capitalist. He’s also under constant threat from the mysterious Tat Man.

To leaven the darkness, Klavan develops the relationship between Gwendolyn and Cameron. She is a devout Christian, and he is, at best, an agnostic. And yet, he has respect for her faith, and a small gift she gives him ends up saving his life. They fall in love with each other while feeling as if they were destined to do so from the beginning of time. 

I also enjoyed Klavan’s lampooning of faculty politics. Lori Lesser is the woke administrator who has it in for Winter, because he insists on teaching only classic poetry and not including subpar literature produced by minority authors. Besides, how many people of color have written English Romantic poetry? There is a very funny scene where Cameron and Lori are meeting with the dean in his office, and Cameron has trouble focusing on Lori’s jargon-laden arguments:

What was she saying? Winter sometimes wondered as the meeting dragged on. But too late: He had lost track of it and was too distracted to catch up. It had something to do with racialism and historic injustices and the systemic metaphorical violence of favoring the poetry of John Keats over whatever blithering doggerel had been scrawled by lesser and justly forgotten versifiers of some oppressed minority or other. So he assumed, anyway, because Lori was always talking about such things, and because some of her catchphrases seemed to leap out at him as if made momentarily visible in the office air.

Klavan, Andrew. After That, the Dark (Cameron Winter Mysteries Book 5) (p. 238). Penzler Publishers. Kindle Edition.

After That, The Dark is a turning point in Winter’s development. His long-time therapist (who has a bit of a crush on him, despite being much older) realizes that his crisis is behind him, and he is becoming comfortable in his own skin. Comfortable enough to risk being vulnerable with Gwendolyn. His relationship with the Recruiter has also matured, to the point where Winter no longer carries out his directives unquestioningly. It will be fascinating to see how an fully integrated and confident Cameron Winter handles his next case!

Jack Gatland’s Silver and the Sunday Cypher

After slogging my way through the enjoyable but lengthy Bleak House, I decided to pick up a new book that Amazon’s algorithm recommended to me: Jack Gatland’s Silver and the Sunday Cypher. It turned out to be the perfect follow-up to a relatively dark Victorian masterpiece.

Silver and the Sunday Cypher is a fun and fast-paced thriller that features 64-year-old widow, Laura Carlyle, who is thrust into a cloak and dagger world of secret societies, murder, espionage, and international diplomacy. It begins with the assassination by poisoning of Harry Farrell in broad daylight in front of a London church. Farrell has been compiling a dossier on a shadowy group that is called The Calendar. Its members go by days of the week (shades of G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday), with a mysterious “Mr. Sunday” at the top of The Calendar’s hierarchy.

Laura is visited by Farrell’s widow, Rebecca, who tells her her late husband left instructions to contact Laura is he died under mysterious circumstances. The official explanation for Farrell’s death is natural causes, but Rebecca has her doubts. Laura has no idea why Farrell would be connected to her, but he reluctantly agrees to look into the case, and before she knows it, she is a target herself.

Fortunately, she has the assistance of her elderly yet active Aunt Celia – whose acerbic wit is a highlight of the novel – as well as her college-age grandson, Kyle. She is also being shadowed by a silver-haired man who, according to Laura’s neighbor, looks like “Pierce Brosnan”. This man turns out to be Sebastian Silver, agent extraordinaire. He always wears a trilby hat and carries a walking stick that is sometimes a taser, sometimes sheathing a sword, and sometimes just a stick. Whenever Laura gets into a tricky situation, Sebastian is there to rescue her.

However, he is a slippery character who never reveals too much about himself. Is he a retired member of The Calendar, trying to atone for past misdeeds? Is he an MI5 agent, or a lone wolf? As the story progresses, Laura learns to not trust anyone, even what she thought was true about her late husband.

Gatland does a great job keeping the reader on the edge of his or her seat, and even when very surprising details about Silver are revealed, it’s not the end of the story. Silver and the Sunday Cypher was just published in September, and there are already plans to publish another adventure in December. It looks like this is the start of a very entertaining adventure/mystery series!

Kurt Schlichter’s and Irina Moises’ Lost Angeles: Noir, Humor, and Fantasy Combined

Kurt Schlichter, author of the excellent People’s Republic/Kelly Turnbull novels, has just released a new book co-written with his wife Irina Moises, Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip. Perfect timing, since it is an homage to the pulp noir detectives Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler wrote about in the 1930s and 40s, and I recently read Chandler’s The Lady In The Lake.

Schlichter’s and Moises’ detective is Eddie Loud, and he is obviously modeled on Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. He’s tough and wisecracking, while struggling to live up to his moral code. However, things get really weird, really fast. Set in 1940 Los Angeles, Loud specializes in cases involving “demigods” – people who are part divine and virtually immortal. In the universe of Lost Angeles, the ancient Greek gods exist. However, with the advent and rise of Christianity, these “demigods” have retreated into an uneasy truce with mortals, rarely being seen in public. The male ones, like Apollo, Zeus, and Poseidon, occasionally sleep with a mortal, sometimes creating an immortal. Half-breeds are truly immortal, but quarter-breeds can be killed with a silver bullet or other weapon. With less than 1/64 divine blood, they’re basically mortal humans.

The case in this story involves a rare half-breed, Charles Gaultier, who has been kidnapped. His majordomo, Constance Showers, hires Loud to find him. As he begins his investigation, he is soon thrown together with another private investigator, Trixie Gamble, a gorgeous woman who traces her lineage back to Cassandra of Troy. Millennia ago, Apollo fell in love with Cassandra and bestowed on her the gift of prophecy. However, she spurned him, and in revenge he cursed her to be able to foretell the future, but never be believed. Trixie has inherited this gift/curse, and the results are hilarious.

Trixie offered to give me a ride in her little red convertible. I told her that if anybody saw me sitting in the passenger seat, they would think I was a swish. She got that faraway look in her eyes and said that someday most men wouldn’t mind that. I laughed. She was always saying crazy things.

Schlichter, Kurt; Moises, Irina. Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip (p. 44). Kindle Edition.

“The question is who tipped them off we were on the case. Dufrasne?”

“Maybe Goldman,” Trixie said. “He should have listened to me. But regardless, we’re on the Nazis’ radar now.”

“Their what?” I asked, baffled.

“I don’t know what that means,” Trixie said, confused.

Schlichter, Kurt; Moises, Irina. Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip (p. 69). Kindle Edition.

Vivien Leigh’s pic was staring down from the wall into my tomato bisque. Across the way, the genuine article was nibbling on a lobster salad when she wasn’t berating her fiancé, Laurence Olivier, about something. The tabloids were calling her a homewrecker for stealing him away from his wife.

“She doesn’t seem to care much about the scandal,” I observed to Trixie.

“You don’t have to when you just won Best Actress,” Trixie replied. Leigh had picked up a little naked gold man for Gone With the Wind.

“Hooray for Hollywood,” I said and slurped a spoonful of soup.

Trixie got that strange, far-away look again. “Someday, a man will be nominated for Best Actress. He might even win.”

I about spit out my mouth full.

Schlichter, Kurt; Moises, Irina. Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip (p. 71). Kindle Edition.

Trixie is on a similar case, trying to find out where a demigod has disappeared to. His mortal lover has hired her. Unfortunately, she found him dead, in the trunk of a car, which is supposed to be impossible. Before she could figure out how that happened, the FBI showed up and whisked the body away.

So, Trixie and Eddie decide to team up and get to the bottom of who kidnapped Charles Gaultier and why. Before too long, they are tangling with German and American Nazis (remember, this is set in 1940, just before the US entered WWII), Hollywood and Russian communists, and mobsters. It’s all a lot of fun, with tons of Schlichter’s trademark sense of humor. He and Irina have dropped dozens of Easter eggs throughout the book. Here are a couple of examples:

As she finished her Dewars, I counted the bills. “Trust but verify” is my motto. I picked it up at The Trocadero one night when I overheard Ronald Reagan saying it to Jane Wyman at the next table.

Schlichter, Kurt; Moises, Irina. Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip (p. 18). Kindle Edition.

Others gambled at tables set up along the walls. As we passed, a satyr dealt a blackjack to John Wayne. Clarke Gable, sadly, busted after being dealt a king on his twelve showing. He shrugged, frankly not giving a damn.

Schlichter, Kurt; Moises, Irina. Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip (p. 157). Kindle Edition.

There’s even a reference to “Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters”, a fictional beach movie band that was in the Tom Hanks movie, That Thing You Do.

In one respect, Loud is very different from Philip Marlowe: he has no hesitation using his gun, and in practically every scene he and Trixie leave behind a trail of carnage. The fact that the dead bodies are all Nazis and Commies makes it acceptable, though!

As the story works its way up to the climax involving the Nazis, the Soviets, the FBI, and the Mob, Schlichter and Moises engage in some interesting conjecture: what, exactly would it be like to be immortal? Would it be a blessing or a curse? They make a very good case that living forever among mortals would be the latter.

In the Afterword, Schlichter and Moises assure us that this is the first book in a projected series, which I think is great news. Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets on the Sunset Strip is a very entertaining read, and I love all the digs they get in at contemporary Hollywood culture. I was laughing out loud at several jokes, and the plot is very engaging. It’s a perfect mix of gritty noir and fantasy. Highly recommended if you are looking for a modern spoof of classic noir fiction.

Raymond Chandler’s The Lady In The Lake – Classic Noir

The Lady In The Lake (1943) is the fourth novel by Raymond Chandler. He wrote quite a few short stories for pulp magazines before hitting it big with his first novel, The Big Sleep. That one introduced his hero, private detective Philip Marlowe, memorably played by Humphrey Bogart on the silver screen.

The Lady In The Lake is a far cry from the genteel and relatively sedate mysteries of Ngaio Marsh and Agatha Christie. The first word that comes to my mind is gritty. Marlowe is a tough man doing a tough job in a tough town, Los Angeles, CA. He is dogged in his pursuit of truth, and he tries to do the right thing, even when it could cost him his life. Surrounded by corrupt cops, unscrupulous businessmen, and scheming women, Marlowe never wavers from his desire to get to the bottom of the case, regardless of where it takes him.

This case begins with a high-powered executive, Derace Kingsley, hiring Marlowe to find his missing wife. She disappeared a month ago, and he received a telegram from her informing him that she was getting a Mexican divorce and marrying a Chris Lavery – a notorious young womanizer. Before too long in his investigation, Marlowe has discovered a woman who was drowned weeks ago in a lake, and who is married to doctor who provides drugs to a select clientele. This doctor lives across the street from Lavery.

Kingsley is having an affair with his office assistant, Adrienne Fromsett, whose handkerchief Marlowe finds at Lavery’s house. It’s very complicated, and the police are constantly giving Marlowe a hard time while he tries to unravel the web of deceit and corruption.

I really like Chandler’s style, especially when he describes a setting. He is the master of the unexpected yet apt metaphor and simile. Here are some examples:

On the wall there was a huge tinted photograph of an elderly party with a chiselled beak and whiskers and a wing collar. The Adam’s apple that edged through his wing collar looked harder than most people’s chins.
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 184-186). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

The clerk on duty was an eggheaded man with no interest in me or in anything else. He wore parts of a white linen suit and he yawned as he handed me the desk pen and looked off into the distance as if remembering his childhood.
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 1287-1288). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

The Rossmore Arms was a gloomy pile of dark red brick built around a huge forecourt. It had a plush-lined lobby containing silence, tubbed plants, a bored canary in a cage as big as a dog-house, a smell of old carpet dust and the cloying fragrance of gardenias long ago.
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 2155-2157). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

A wizened waiter with evil eyes and a face like a gnawed bone put a napkin with a printed peacock on it down on the table in front of me and gave me a bacardi cocktail.
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 2723-2724). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

I smelled of gin. Not just casually, as if I had taken four or five drinks of a winter morning to get out of bed on, but as if the Pacific Ocean was pure gin and I had nosedived off the boat deck. The gin was in my hair and eyebrows, on my chin and under my chin. It was on my shirt. I smelled like dead toads.
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 2900-2903). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

I got my knees under me and stayed on all fours for a while, sniffing like a dog who can’t finish his dinner, but hates to leave it.
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 2915-2916). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

You get the idea! There’s also a dry sense of humor that Marlowe employs to leaven the general grimness.

Degarmo lunged past the desk towards an open elevator beside which a tired old man sat on a stool waiting for a customer. The clerk snapped at Degarmo’s back like a terrier. “One moment, please. Whom did you wish to see?”
Degarmo spun on his heel and looked at me wonderingly. “Did he say ‘whom’?”
“Yeah, but don’t hit him,” I said. “There is such a word.”
Degarmo licked his lips. “I knew there was,” he said. “I often wondered where they kept it.”
RAYMOND CHANDLER. The Lady in the Lake (Kindle Locations 3143-3147). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

Plot-wise, The Lady In The Lake holds up very well. Chandler does an excellent job making sure the reader can keep all the various threads of the mystery clear, despite it being complicated. And I was genuinely surprised by a major plot twist near the end. The Lady In The Lake is an example of American noir fiction at its very finest. Even though it is set in 1940s LA, it could just as easily happen today.