Book Notices | A Spy's Guide to Taking Risks by John Braddock / Recursion by Blake Crouch / Judgment by Joseph Finder

John Braddock, A Spy's Guide to Taking Risks

Amazon   John Braddock is back with another brief, highly readable entry in his Spy's Guide series. This time, he walks us through a meeting with a source while explaining an approach to minimizing risks by adding extra conditions into the risk equation. It's always enjoyable to watch Braddock unpack potentially dangerous situations, and I think the information about risk taking in this one may be more potentially useful in the real world for me than the information in previous stories in the series. Another good, quick read.

Blake Crouch, Recursion

Amazon   As he did in Dark Matter, Blake Crouch explores the repercussions of cutting-edge science in his latest novel, Recursion. Helena Smith's research into memory retrieval is funded liberally by an eccentric billionaire who sometimes seems to  know more than he should about her project. Turns out, he has ulterior motives, and her research has practical applications she's never dreamed of. Once her life's work is completed, there's another lifetime of work ahead of her as she tries to deal with the consequences of her creation. Along the way she teams up with Barry, a policeman, who unwittingly stumbles into the nightmare Helena's research has created. Recursion is a complex, mind-bending story that may even merit a second read. I liked it as much—or nearly as much—as Dark Matter, which is to say, quite a lot.

Joseph Finder, Judgment

Amazon   I've been a fan of Joseph Finder's for more than fifteen years, and I've read the majority of his books. This is not one of the better ones, I'm afraid. The setup is very promising: A usually cautious judge makes a rash decision while out of town that leaves her vulnerable to blackmail and threatens to ruin her life. I love a story like this, where a relatable person gets in over their head and is thrust into impossible circumstances through a series of understandable decisions. But this time the setup never thrills. A lot of the story has to do with the minutiae of a legal case the judge is presiding over, and a lot of that is related to finances—not the stuff of thrillers, really. More importantly, while there's real physical danger involved, it's not treated as real. The protagonist is nearly choked to death, for example, but while she's shaken, she doesn't seem to have any visible bruises the next day. The judge's family is in at least as much danger as she is, but when she finally bothers to tell her husband (so that maybe he can keep a closer eye on their son, say), that conversation—which I'd been waiting for for chapters—takes place off-screen! The family is treated throughout as an afterthought. There was a lot of potential to rack up the tension there, but it all just falls flat. And the denouement is tepid. If you're new to Joseph Finder, give this one a pass, because it's really not representative of his talents.