4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
strong Mongolian police procedural, March 7, 2009
This review is from: The Adversary: A Mystery (Paperback)
In Ulan Baatar, Mongolia, Judge Radnaa is disturbed with the State Prosecution lawyer, Tsengal who asks for more time in the case against crime chieftain Muunokhoi as some of the evidence proves to befake. The defense attorney Nyamsuren insists his client be let go or the trial starts now. The Judge rules in favor of the accused as the prosecutor should not have brought the case to trial if they were not ready.
Embarrassed by the proceedings, the Minister assigns Nargui, former chief of Serious Crime Team, to conduct an inquiry as to what happened especially who leaked to the defense that some of the evidence was tainted. His personally selected replacement Dosipalam wonders why Nargui is involved. Police detective Tunjin, a thirty year veteran, is placed on suspension with pay pending the investigation as he is the one who planted the evidence. Muunokhoi wants Tunjin dead so he flees with the help of an elderly neighbor from the Mongolian capital. At the same time the investigation into the murder of Mrs. Toya, whose cousin works for the free media, and whose teenage son is missing ties back to the crime king and the judge.
The sequel to THE SHADOW WALKER is a strong police procedural with an exciting internal affairs like investigation, but as before it is the locations in Mongolia of a somewhat westernized Ulan Baatar and the remote Gobi Desert that make this tale stand out. Nargui may have been promoted from the police department, but he remains a superb cop as does his protégé. Part of the fun is their relationship as the more diplomatic Dosipalam egged on buy his wife who detests her spouse's former boss, wonders why he is back. The Tunjin and Mrs. Toya subplots add depth though the climax seems over the top of the Steppes. Fans will enjoy the second in-depth tour of Mongolia as several cops guide the audience around a country trying to balance the Russians, the Chinese and the West.
Harriet Klausner
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An OK second book/sequel, December 7, 2010
This review is from: The Adversary: A Mystery (Paperback)
I enjoyed Michael Walters' first novel, 'The Shadow Walker', and was looking forward to this, his second police procedural story set in Mongolia - particularly because it also features the 2 good characters from the first novel, Nergui and Doripalam. On the positive side, 'The Adversary' introduces two additional interesting characters - Sarangarel (a female judge and possible romantic interest for Nergui) and Tunjin (a fellow police officer in the hopeless-case-does-good-at-the-end category), and I did quite enjoy it. But I also found it somewhat more routine and less energised than the first book. To some degree, this may be due to the fact that the villain in the second book is 'just' an underworld crime boss, whereas the first book had a very involved plot combining a psychopathic killing spree with substantial polico-economic aspects.
I still find Walters' relatively precise and correct style of writing easy to read and to envisage the scenes he is painting, but I feel that he should take care not to cause Nergui to become too much of a superhuman character. Very calculating and competent with flaws makes for a more convincing and compelling hero, in stories like this at least, than one who is computer-like in his deductions and moves faster than a speeding bullet in the action scenes.
My second piece of advice (if I may be so presumptuous) for the author is to avoid the need for lengthy explanatory monologues by the characters to provide the details of an otherwise impenetrable plot to the reader. In reviews of 'The Shadow Walker', some comment was made about the very quick story wrap-up at the end combined with a lengthy explanatory speech by the villain (in the vein of a James Bond-type villain's confession just before 007's intended demise). But then, in 'The Adversary' there are monologues of this type (at different points) by BOTH the villain AND the hero (shades of Sherlock Holmes in the latter, perhaps). I find this mechanism feels dated as a writing technique, and unreal in the story - and it also comes across like an attempt to make up for the details not being progressively brought out in the course of the narrative and/or the story just being impossible to follow. More drip-fed details and less omnibus speeches please, Mr Walters.
Nevertheless, I will be looking to read a third instalment of Mr Walters' Mongolian crime series if it continues with these characters (now 4), as I enjoy his writing style, and I do find the primary characters, and the Mongolian setting, interesting. [But if the third story is too convoluted and only solved by a concentrated and lengthy verbal revelation, I think my enthusiasm will start to wane. My fingers are crossed ...]
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