As most of the hijackers responsible for the 9/11 outrage were Saudi Arabian, it stands to reason that the US would take the kingdom to task. Instead, Washington turned its ire on Afghanistan and Iraq. How could that be? In fact, it made sense. America is Saudi's biggest oil customer and didn't want it to stop flowing, the more than 3,000 dead at New York's Twin Towers notwithstanding.
A deal was made with Riyadh to clean up its act and lean on the culprits. Al Qaeda took credit for the outrage that Osama bin Loony masterminded. Not so, asserts Stateside novelist Vince Flynn in Enemy Of The State. Surely Isis did the deed. This ignores that, unlike other Muslim extremist groups, Isis isn't into suicide, even when 48 virgins are thrown in.
The story's plot has it that the Saudis are showing signs of reneging on the deal. If they do, the US president might not be re-elected. To put the Saudi king wise to the consequences of having second thoughts, he turns to the CIA, particularly to its assistant director.
Enter Mitch Rapp, Flynn's invincible creation. Regardless of what his foes do to him, he's indestructible. His mission is so secret and delicate that he must resign to carry it out his own way. Mitch proceeds to recruit a band of mercenaries to cause mayhem in Saudi, the US asked by the king to clear it up. But it isn't that clear-cut.
He learns that the royal family is dysfunctional. King Faisal is old and weak. The succession isn't clear. An ambitious relative, with Isis support, means to grab the throne. His first act will be to kick out foreigners. Not to be underestimated, Saudi intelligence knows about Mitch's brief.
The president turns on Mitch, as do the Saudis, who capture him. Isis intends to bury him alive. The mercenaries are a mixed bag, loyal only to those who pay them, changing sides to the highest bidder. Aware that Mitch can't be killed, there's no suspense on that score.
If the author is to be believed, Isis is destroyed and the king lives on. Mitch is taken off everybody's hit list.
If wishful thinking ruled, imagine how happy we would be. Alas, it doesn't. Yet novels, like fairy tales, tend to end unrealistically with good triumphant. Oh, well.
An infected city
Though deadly, the demand for narcotics is unabated. In the war against drugs, hundreds of thousands are imprisoned, yet the number of users and distributors is increasing. Addicts crave it whatever the price. So much money is being made from the vast number begging for it that corruption in all walks of life is rampant.
Even law enforcement officials are on the take to turn a blind eye to it. Medical warnings are ignored. The voices of the good cops and judges are barely heard. Cartel heads are the worst kind of criminals. Indeed, more than a few are praised as Robin Hoods, tossing coins to a few of the needy.
Novelists and cinemoguls make clear that the wages of drugs are death. Who listens?
The Silent Widow by Sidney Sheldon/Tilly Bagshawe goes after drug lords with a double-barrel shotgun. The big cheese, Luis Rodrigues, passes himself off as a businessman and philanthropist in Mexico City and its environs. What he produces in his factories is heroin.
Kissing his wife when he leaves for work and when he returns, Luis finds time to seduce Charlotte, an 18-year-old American au pair. Her disappearance causes no waves, except to her parents. They hire a Stateside private eye to see if he can find her. He contacts an LA psychologist to assist. Dr Nikki Roberts lost her husband in a traffic accident. The subplot has a US serial murderer, the Zombie Killer, culling California's denizens. It develops that all this is connected.
If the authors are to be believed, perps prefer to torture their victims to death -- vividly described here -- to shooting or knifing them. A bent cop is of no use to the searchers, but an honest cop is. Alas, Nikki's late spouse. Also a head doctor, he was neither faithful nor honest.
At the finish, Nikki decides to pull up stakes. Los Angeles is a sick city, violent and dirty from top to bottom, incurably infected. Its Chamber of Commerce is likely to take umbrage at that. The Silent Widow does its job of condemning drugs. This reviewer hopes it helps would-be junkies take heed.
