Books: Put a Lid on It By Donald E. Westlake (2002)

"Francis Xavier Meehan is in federal prison for hijacking a mail truck he thought contained computer chips. A presidential reelection official offers him a pardon with a Watergate-type scheme: Meehan must steal a video that, if made public, may prevent the president's reelection. Meehan's court-appointed lawyer cuts the best deal she can for him, and we're off on the caper as Meehan assembles his heist crew, figures the logistics and cases the estate of the elderly, right-wing gun collector who has the video. Egyptian and Israeli spies, plus a plethora of presidential aides provide intermittent interference. By the time Meehan learns the video involves national security and he's superfluous, we've also learned that he's a lot smarter and more savvy than the better-educated president's men"

As one who appreciates Westlake’s comic capers, with sometimes silly, often cartoonish anti-heroes, Put a Lid on It does feature another of his luckless crooks. While I felt this novel sort of plays out like a little more serious John Dortmunder book, if things in his life went differently, it still has some of the writer’s trademark humor. Still, like Dortmunder, Meehan abhors violence and does not believe in carrying a gun.  Anyways, the plot is pretty ridiculous (and I think we’ve seen a variation on this story many times before), but under Westlake’s deft hand, he succeeds in many ways, as the book also plays out as a political satire with caper aspect always hanging around.

Still, it’s clear that Westlake had little liking for either political parties –he lays out the fact that both Republicans and Democrats play dirty tricks. And while neither party is actually mentioned here, there are two sides here – those who want to re-elect the POTUS and those on the Other Side. Westlake does take pot shots at some of the more extreme folks, in particular 80 year-old Clendon Burnstone IV, who is an unabashed racist.  

“To watch a mind like that at work,” Jeffords said, and shook his head in admiration. “He processes the same information from the world that you and I do, and turns it into something from another universe. It’s like listening to some from the Flat Earth Society, or those people who believe the moon landings were faked on soundstages in Hollywood.

Meehan said, “It almost sounds as though you admire the guy.”

“I admire the effect,” Jeffords said. “If I could tap into the subtext of fears and prejudices and prides and misunderstood history the way he can, only with a little more self-awareness, bring it out a little smoother, a little blander, I wouldn’t be a groundling in the CC, I’d be running for president myself.”

The novel ends with a typical twist, but all-in-all, this is a very focused tale, even somewhat economical, because this was a stand-alone novel, meaning Westlake could say what he needed to say and then moved on back to Parker and Dortmunder.

Books: Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death By Thomas Lennon (2020)

 

"Ronan Boyle may be the youngest and lowliest recruit to the secret Garda, but he’s determined to save his captain from the harpy that dragged her into Tir Na Nog at the end of book one. He may not be the strongest, or the smartest, or the best looking, or the most dexterous . . . so why was he picked for this mission? He’s not entirely sure. But he may be the captain’s only hope—if he can escape man-eating elves, escape a job in a unicorn’s lounge act, and find the captain before she’s sacrificed to a spooky cult trying to resurrect its leader. Eventually Ronan must battle the scariest monster of all: impostor syndrome."

 

While a slightly slower-paced tale than the first book, I still enjoyed this adventure with Ronan Boyle. Much like the first book, there is a mix of action and humor (there is plenty of fart jokes and other pubescent humor to amuse middle-school boys), but Ronan Boyle and the Swamp of Certain Death emphatically draws more heavily from the Harry Potter playbook than the first book –which can be distracting. The footnotes were great and some of Lennon’s other humor is seemly directed at adults (and I’m not sure many middle school boys and girls know who Judi Dench is) who are either reading it on their own or to their kids which was another distracting thing.

 

Again, actor Thomas Lennon borrows many themes from Rowling, while trying to write in the style of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and even Neil Gaiman. He succeeds most of time here, as his characters do grow –especially Ronan. I do think boys will enjoy this series more than girls, even though it contains many strong female characters (Log is wonderful creation). Who knows, really?

 

I assume there will be at least one more book, though we get less of a set-up than the first book.

Books: Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire By Dan Hanks

"An ex-Spitfire pilot is dragged into a race against a shadowy government agency to unlock the secrets of the lost empire of Atlantis. In post-war 1952, the good guys are supposed to have won. But not everything is as it seems when ex-Spitfire pilot Captain Samantha Moxley is dragged into a fight against the shadowy US government agency she used to work for. Now, with former Nazis and otherworldly monsters on her trail, Captain Samantha Moxley is forced into protecting her archaeologist sister in a race to retrieve two ancient keys that will unlock the secrets of a long-lost empire - to ensure a civilization-destroying weapon doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But what will she have to sacrifice to save the world?

Much like S.A. Sidor’s The Institute for Singular Antiquities series, Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire plays off the same themes as the Indiana Jones, The Mummy, Hellboy, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow films have done for the last forty years. I enjoyed this book a bit more than Sidor’s, but they certainly have a lot of similarities. I was a bit surprised that author Dan Hanks opened the book in 1945 with the super secret government organization seeking out Sam Moxley, and then jump to 1952 and we hear only tidbits of her time with The Nine. I’m curious if a follow-up book (no cliffhanger, but it does set up a sequel) or prequel will deal with her seven years she spent with this clandestine establishment. Yes, hints are dropped throughout, but now I kind of want to hear that story.