FICTION: THRILLER
Edge by Jeffery Deaver, $26.99
Corte, the protagonist of Jeffery Deaver’s new thriller, is a “shepherd” for a shadowy Alexandria, Va.-based organization known for offering “bodyguards of last resort.” His job involves watching over “principals” — trial witnesses, whistle-blowers and others — who’ve been targeted either by “hitters” (assassins) or by “lifters” seeking information and willing to resort to “physical extraction” to get it.
The jargon suggests that this agency is another of today’s deadening, dehumanizing bureaucracies, and the truth is, those “principals” are considered by their shepherds as just so many packages. But the work takes on even bleaker tones when the bad guys enter the picture. For them, torture is simply part of an afternoon’s chores: filing another corpse in the “out” box.
Corte’s latest assignment poses several problems. Washington cop Ryan Kessler can’t fathom why he’s been targeted: Does a forgery case involving a Pentagon analyst threaten national security? Is an apparent Ponzi scheme a front for funding terrorism? Equally pressing: The lifter here, Henry Loving, killed Corte’s mentor, and Corte is torn between the conflicting duties of babysitting his charges and bringing a killer to justice.
Along with a complex investigation and a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, “Edge” also boasts some high-stakes political drama: pressure both from the attorney general’s office, boosting its own agenda with Kessler’s case, and from a Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry into Corte’s methods.
Rumors are that “Edge” might kick off a new series for Deaver — a new direction from his Lincoln Rhyme detective novels and his spinoff series featuring interrogation expert Kathryn Dance.
Corte’s combination of professionalism and duplicity offer the chance for conflicts, both internal and external, to deepen. In the meantime, Deaver has been commissioned to write the next James Bond novel — a golden opportunity he’s clearly earned.
NONFICTION: HISTORY
Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World by Sam Howe Verhovek, $27
The thrill of flying is gone. An airline, an industry executive once said, is regarded by most of the traveling public as little more than a “glorified bus operation.” Just ponder: How many times during your last cross-country trip did you peer out at the prairie more than 5 miles below? Never mind. On your next flight, pass the time reading Sam Howe Verhovek’s new book, “Jet Age.”
Verhovek definitively traces the humble beginnings of commercial air travel. The stars of the book are the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jetliner; and the Boeing Dash 80, a hulking machine that came to be known as the 707.
The Comet’s progenitor, Geoffrey de Havilland, had designed fighter planes for the British air forces and was determined to push the boundaries of conventional air travel by introducing jet technology to the public. On May 2, 1952, the first passenger-carrying Comet, in BOAC livery (now British Airways), took off from London bound for Johannesburg. The jet arrived two minutes ahead of schedule.
American manufacturers tried to catch up, but two years went by before airline passengers could board an American- made jet, the 707, which was developed under unusual circumstances.
In the 1950s, Congress enacted an excess profits tax “intended to prevent military companies from making out too well because of increased demand during (the Korean War).” Seeing an opportunity for both a deep investment and a tax deduction, Boeing’s president, Bill Allen, called for the development of the 707 and allotted $15 million to the project — nearly a quarter of the company’s net worth.
While the Comet was the first jetliner to take to the skies, the 707 turned out to be the better-designed plane. A fatal flaw with the Comet’s square-shaped windows caused three of the jets to lose cabin pressure and explode midflight. The success of the 707, meanwhile, transformed Boeing.
Before the jet age, the company had less than 1 percent of the market share and now it is one of the leading manufacturers in the world.
FICTION: COURTROOM DRAMA
A Special Relationship by Douglas Kennedy, $16
Already a best-seller in England and France, Douglas Kennedy’s “A Special Relationship” begins with a promising romance and ends in a seesaw courtroom drama. In between, it manages to sensitively portray the weighty subject of postpartum depression.
The plucky narrator, Sally Goodchild (the name is sledgehammer-ironic), is pushing 40, on assignment in Cairo for a Boston paper, when she meets British journalist Tony Hobbs on an emergency trip to Somalia. Tony is charming and reckless, though reticent about his personal life, which Sally attributes to his English heritage.
When Sally becomes pregnant after a short affair with Tony, the pair decide to marry and return to London, where Tony accepts a new assignment at his newspaper. Sally finds a job, too, but is forced to resign when her pregnancy takes an ominous turn, propelling her into the hospital until her son is born in a premature, and dicey, delivery.
Intensely worried that baby Jack has suffered brain damage during delivery, Sally descends into a classic postnatal depression. Violent mood swings, hysterical crying and insomnia continue to plague her once she and Jack come home, but Tony, who has pleaded overwork and frequent assignments abroad during Sally’s hospital stay, is now too preoccupied with the novel he’s writing to relieve Sally of baby-tending chores.
Pushed to her emotional limits, Sally calls his office and tells his secretary that unless he comes home immediately, “I’m going to kill our son.” She doesn’t, of course, but the threat is a bad move that will haunt her once Tony’s real agenda is revealed and Sally is forced to fight for her child.
While some readers may find Sally’s postpartum ordeal too graphic, it’s a buildup to some jolting plot twists and a suspensefully detailed courtroom battle. Like the heroines of Kennedy’s previous books, “Leaving the World” and “The Pursuit of Happiness,” Sally is drawn with empathy and insight, an admirable woman who surmounts marital instability and professional setbacks to forge an independent life.
