Book Log 2013 #10: The Namesake by Conor Fitzgerald

The latest entry in the Alec Blume series, the title refers to a murder victim who shares his name with a magistrate investigating the 'Ndrangheta, Calabria's organized crime outfit. When that magistrate suffers a stroke while discussing the killing with Blume, the policeman sees an opportunity to help both of their investigations. What unfolds from that opportunity sees Blume mixing with police and intelligence agencies in Italy and Germany (as he's partnered with a German cop who has apparently gone off the reservation) and his partner/sort-of girlfriend Caterina Mattiola in danger.

Read this a while ago, and don't recall and specific issues I had with the book. Enjoyed it as I have the other entries in the series.

Book Log 2013 #9: The Last Secret of the Temple by Paul Sussman

The second book in the series featuring Luxor police detective Yusuf Khalifa, it starts with an investigation into the murder of an elderly hotel owner with a shady past whose interest in ancient artifacts is tied into the search for the missing treasures of the Temple, long considered lost after it fell to the Romans. This naturally interests Khalifa, who has an interest in history and antiquities as well, and he digs into the case, even in the face of opposition from his superiors.

Complicating matters is a militant Israeli group who is reoccupying buildings in Jerusalem and a crusading Palestinian reporter who dogs them. The Israelis would like the treasures for obvious reasons, and the reporter gets on the trail thanks to some documents sent to her by an unknown party. As the case broadens, Khalifa has to turn to the Israeli police for help, and winds up working with a detective whose dislike of anyone Muslim stems from the death of his girlfriend in a terrorist bombing a few years before. Can this odd couple solve the murder and discover if the treasures exist (and keep them out of the wrong hands - whoever they may belong to)?

I liked this more than I expected, and while I was able to guess a couple of the book's twists ahead of time I didn't think that detracted from the overall experience. There's a good chemistry between Khalifa and Arieh Ben-Roi (the Israeli cop), even if their relationship normalized a little quickly for my taste (it's a plausible result given the way the book turns out, I just would have liked the tension to last a little longer).

Anyway, as a thriller it's good, and I did like its treatment of the subject better than The Columbus Affair. It's a series I'll go back to.

So we have another year with a Senate election here in Massachusetts, filling the seat vacated by John Kerry when he became Secretary of State (which comes up for re-election next year, making it five straight years in which we'll have voted for a US Senator; Elizabeth Warren better keep a wary eye out during 2015). The election is tomorrow, so it's apparently time for another Blogalicious endorsement.

On the Democratic side we have US Rep Ed Markey, who's been serving in Congress for the last 37 years. He's pretty much what you'd expect from a Massachusetts Democrat, a lefty who's provided solid if generally unremarkable service to his constituents. On the Republican side we have newcomer Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL who has made a pile in the financial sector.

The race itself has been similarly unremarkable. Both have runs ads you'd expect for the candidates - Markey touting his experience while trying to paint Gomez as a 1 percenter, Gomez talking about his service and being a "new" Republican while trying to make Markey the poster boy for Congressional partisanship - and their three debates have done little to inject any spark into the race. There have been some third party ads (Gomez refused the "People's Pledge" to keep third party money out, as he needed that money to keep from having to self-fund his campaign), which have been as witless and partisan as you'd expect (though it did introduce us to the comically named Americans for Progressive Action).

So what we have is a standard Massachusetts Democrat versus a weaponized version of Mitt Romney.  Neither is particularly exciting, and neither candidate seems primed to change the Washington culture. Markey is taking his one best shot at moving up from the House, while Gomez's "new ideas" include linking Congressional pay raises to balanced budgets and term limits, which were fresh ideas during the Reagan administration.

And that might be my biggest problem with Gomez. He's trying to run the Scott Brown playbook by painting himself as an independent Republican, and he's tried to work the Romney pivot a little from his positions in the Republican primary. It's not working particularly well in this case, either, as his remarks pretty much place him in the current GOP mainstream. So while I'm not over the moon about him, in this race, Blogalicious endorses Ed Markey. Let's hope he uses his brief term to find an identity.

Book Log 2013 #8: The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen


A 20 year-old case of a murdered brother and sister keeps showing up on Carl Morck's desk. And while there's not much to suggest that this cold case will ever heat up, he eventually starts to look into it, with the help of his Syrian assistant and a new staffer, an unwelcome transfer from another department. As Morck and his "team" start to fill in some gaps, it becomes clear that the case is linked to some very important Danes - and one homeless woman. In order to close the case, Morck has to find the woman before the others do.

I don't know that I liked this better than The Keeper of Lost Causes, as I find centering things on a conspiracy of the rich and powerful a bit stale. That being said, the book does keep things interesting, and I do like the way the relationship between Morck and his colleagues is developing. But I could have used just a bit more of Morck's home life and the ongoing fall-out of the botched raid that left one of Morck's fellow officers paralyzed (although I'm interested to see how things will work now that those two subplots are merging a bit). Still, enjoyed it and am looking forward to A Conspiracy of Faith, which I've not been able to snag at the library.

Book Log 2013 #7: The Watchers by Stephen Alford

I never finished this book about espionage during the reign of Elizabeth I, and looking at reviews I am likely in the minority in how I feel about this book. Based on the jacket I was expecting an account that would feature the likes of Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen's principal secretary and sypmaster, but it mostly focused on individual spies.

That on its own might not have been a problem if there was more primary material about their lives and duties. But as you might expect, these folks (who were typically young men who entered Catholic colleges in France and Italy to root out plots against the queen) didn't leave much of a paper trail, for both professional and personal reasons. The story derived from what does exist (and some speculation) is interesting, to a point, but after a few stories about Englishmen suddenly appearing in Rome to ingratiate themselves with some mid-range cleric I lost interest.

But as I said I may be off on this one, so if the subject/period is of interest, it couldn't hurt to give it a go.

Book Log 2013 #6: Caveat Emptor by Ken Perenyi

This book caused a minor stir when it came out earlier in the year, as in it the author covers what's been a lifetime of forging paintings by mid-level artists, a profitable sideline (though often not that far to the side) to his legitimate work as an antiques dealer and restorer.

An indifferent student, Perenyi found his way into a branch of New York's art scene in the 1960s, and while his interests were more contemporary, his mentor steered him into reproducing older paintings as a way to develop technique. His mastery of technique, coupled with the influence of some less than savory characters, led him down the path of forging paintings for fun and profit (and some outright stealing to boot).

As regretful as Perenyi may sound at times, you do get the sense that he feels like the art world got what it deserved by stamping so many of his fakes as originals. Can't say I go along with that - as incompetent as some of the buyers were, it's still fraud - but it does strike me as a fitting point of view from someone who was marginalized from the "legitimate" art world.

All that aside, I did find the book interesting for its depiction of the New York art scene in the 1960s and '70s, and for the technical details of how Perenyi developed his techniques. It does descend into name-dropping at times - Andy Warhol merits multiple mentions, even though the two never met - and at times gets a little breezy for my taste. Overall, though, it's one of the better general audience books about art forgery I've read.

Following up a news story from earlier in the year, the IOC's executive committee recently short-listed three sports that are in the running to replace wrestling in the 2020 Summer Games. The sports short listed were squash, baseball/softball, and... wrestling. Yes, wrestling may replace itself, which is a pretty good indication as to how the IOC works.

It's ridiculous that things got to this point to begin with, though I suppose the bright side is that the federation for wrestling used the dumping from the Olympics to clean house and refocus itself on promoting the sport. Still, it's a little too much blame the victim for my taste.

So we're down to these three sports, two of which should be in the Olympic program regardless (wrestling and baseball/softball) and a third, squash, which is pretty popular internationally and certainly worthy. In my book they'd all be in, and in the interest of whatever the IOC is trying to do by dropping and adding sports, I have suggestions on what to cut to allow all three in.

Add wrestling, drop taekwondo. I have nothing against taekwondo, I've gone with it mostly under the "last hired, first fired" philosophy. It also doesn't help that over a third of all medals have gone to just three competitors: China, South Korea, and Taiwan Chinese Taipei.

It'd be more fitting if wrestling replaced boxing, which has lost a lot of its luster thanks to issues with scoring and refereeing. But we'll stick to the LIFO approach for now.

Add squash, drop table tennis. I don't mean to be picking on the People's Republic, but when a sport sees more than half of its medals go to one country, you have to question if it has enough competitive balance to be part of the Olympics. Squash should be somewhat better in this regard, though recent world championship results suggest a fairly small group of countries at the top.

Alternately, you could drop tennis, considering that the Olympics is, at best, the fifth-most important tennis tournament of the year.

Add baseball and softball, remove field hockey. The most imbalanced team sport is probably basketball - especially on the women's side, given the recent domination of the US team - but it's too popular (and too lucrative) to pull.  Going through the other sports there's not a great argument to be made for getting rid of of any of them. I still think the best bet would be to move an indoor team sport to the Winter Games, but that's not likely to happen, so I went with what seems to have the least mass appeal of the team sports.