Thursday, May 27, 2004

Bad news for all you criminals out there!

As the Times reported yesterday, the NYPD is going to be collecting and processing DNA traces from all manner of crimes, including those against property.

"The lab will use DNA samples previously considered too minuscule to collect, like skin cells left in a smudged fingerprint or a ski mask, and match them against databases of convicted felons, suspects and DNA profiles from crime scenes and rape kits."

This is the first time a city in the US has taken such aggressive steps to utilize DNA evidence.

It's an interesting move forward for high tech crime fighting, even though it seems to be of dubious value in most circumstances.

Lee Child, one of the best of the unsung thriller writers, returns with another book featuring former military policeman Jack Reacher. The Enemy (Delacorte) is a prequel to the rest of the series, flashing back to Reacher's army days in the early 90s.

As the book opens, Reacher has been transferred to a base in North Carolina where he is placed in charge of the installation's policing operations. It promises to be another dull, routine assignment -- at least until a high-ranking office turns up dead in a fleabag motel room just off-base.

What follows is a terrific military police procedural that finds Reacher pursuing the case -- and its cover-up -- across the country and even overseas to Europe. By doing so he places not only his career, but also his life in jeopardy.

Reacher remains one of the most intriguing characters in the genre, a complex loner who mixes brains and brawn in equal measure. He might not be the most realistic creation, but he never fails to be fascinating.

If you've never read Lee Child before, The Enemy makes an excellent place to start. If you have read him...well, then you already know how good he is.

Michael Connelly, author of the brilliant Harry Bosch series, sends his detective into The Narrows (Little, Brown, $25.95) on a mission to track down the serial killer who calls himself "The Poet" (and who appeared in Connelly's earlier book of the same name).

Following on a series of extraordinary, powerful mysteries featuring Bosch, The Narrows changes things up with its emphasis on thrills and suspense, rather than mystery and police procedure.

Connelly is such a master of his craft that his story shifts between multiple, connecting perspectives so smoothly that most readers will hardly even notice. They will be swept away by the story, just as the story's hero is by one of the city's aqueducts (the "narrows" of the book's title).

In some ways, The Narrows is like a "greatest hits" volume for Connelly, as it brings back several of the faces who appeared in his earlier works. Because of that, it will probably appeal most to fans that have already read those books.

Even a reader who is coming to Connelly for the first time, though, will still find a lot to enjoy here.

The Narrows is crime fiction at its best.

Monday, May 03, 2004

I received a bound galley today of a book that I definitely have mixed feelings about: The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader. "Hmmm," you might be thinking to yourself, "Didn't Robert Ludlum write a series about a character named Bourne?" He did, indeed. A trilogy, in fact: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The first two were terrific books; action-packed, paranoid thrillers of the kind that the late Ludlum did so well. (The third one wasn't nearly as good, suffering as it did from the character's advancing age and weariness, both of which were reflected in the book itself.)

Of course, Jason Bourne has become something of a cottage industry over the past few years. In addition to Ludlum's original books (and the 1988 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith), we have Matt Damon appearing as Bourne on the big screen, first in 2002's The Bourne Identity and later this summer in The Bourne Supremacy. It's an overdose of Bourne!

At least the movies are understandable; such adaptations are a regular part of both the movie and the book business. Even if the filmed versions are not particularly faithful to their literary predecents, they are respectable efforts in a new medium. That's all kosher.

A new book, though, is a very different thing. As you probably know, Bob Ludlum died 3 or 4 years ago. So what the hell is this Bourne Legacy? Well, as the ARC loudly splashes across its front cover, it is "Robert Ludlum's Bestelling Character Jason Bourne in The Bourne Legacy -- A New Novel by Eric Van Lustbader." Definitely a mouthful, although it does a good job of spelling out the basics.

Van Lustbader is a somewhat well-known author in his own right, but apparently he has fallen on hard times since the dying out of the whole ninja phenomenon of the 80s, which he benefitted from in slew of novels with names like The Ninja and White Ninja. (I read one or two of them, back in the day, and found them to be decent.)

According to the press materials, Van Lustbader and Ludlum were good friends and admirers of each other's work. I'm sure that's true, but the whole project is still rather unseemly and desperate. If Van Lustbader's writing was worthy of Ludlum's admiration, then surely it deserves to flourish on its own.

It's like people who spend their time writing "fan fic," using characters from Star Trek or Buffy or some other cult production. If something is worth writing, it's worth using your own voice, your own ideas, your own characters. It might be fun to write a story using other people's characters, but in most cases it's little more than literary masturbation.

Probably the worst example of this in recent years was the disgusting graverobbing that John Gregory Betancourt inflicted on the great Roger Zelazny. (That case was particular noxious, as Zelazny had been adamant during his lifetime that he never wanted anyone else to write books set in the world of Amber that he created.)

I don't think I'll be reading this "new" Bourne. I prefer to let the memory of Robert Ludlum, a writer for whom I had a great deal of respect and affection, rest in peace.

Sunday, May 02, 2004

My latest column in the Sun-Times ran this morning. It has reviews of 6 recent crime fiction books, all of which I enjoyed.

This month includes:

Denise Hamilton -- Last Lullaby
Julia Spencer-Fleming -- Out of the Deep I Cry
Terrill Lee Lankford -- Earthquake Weather
Chris Mooney -- Remembering Sarah
P.J. Tracy -- Live Bait
Jonathon King -- Shadow Men

I recommend all of them!