Customer Reviews

Black Sheep

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jonas Lamb, the protagonist in R. J. Kaiser's BLACK SHEEP, is an unrepentant skirt-chaser, a serial ex-husband, and a man of flexible ethics. He's also a decent guy. When his estranged microbiologist son approaches him with an astonishing and entirely legitimate business proposition, Jonas is both moved at his son's consideration and excited at the prospect of becoming obscenely wealthy. But the business of making the transition from prospective obscene wealth to the real deal is far from easy. This is bad news for Jonas, but great news for readers.

Patrick, Jonas's son, has bio-engineered a way to use corn to increase the energy yield of fossil fuels. The potential of Patrick's discovery --- code named Black Sheep --- so threatens the world's oil establishment that government agencies from various nations, including the U.S., are moved to dispatch a collection of agents, assassins and assorted bad guys to surveil, curtail and otherwise prevent Patrick and Jonas from upsetting the global energy applecart.

Equally bent on stopping Patrick's research is the local chapter of Save the Seeds, a group of militant environmentalists. They've already torched Patrick's lab, and now they're ready to move on to plan B.

But Jonas's problems don't end there. Elise, his sixth and perhaps most understanding wife, and silent partner in his new venture, has succumbed to cancer, leaving Jonas at the mercy of Melanie, Elise's shrewish daughter. Melanie is convinced that Jonas is up to something illegal and is determined to undermine his plans.

Also concerned about these plans is Tess, Patrick's mother. Her re-entry into Jonas's life after nearly thirty years rekindles a mixture of confused feelings for all concerned. This condition is exacerbated for Jonas by Crystal Clear, his extramarital honey, who has decided to dump him to seek out more stable and marriageable prospects.

The cast of characters expands to include a shady private investigator, a number of European espionage-for-hire types, and others, bringing the cast up to near Cecil B. DeMille proportions. But Kaiser deftly handles the multitudes and keeps a tight hold on the reigns of the complex narrative, allowing the story to unfold at a pace that is both relaxed and irresistible.

BLACK SHEEP is Kaiser's seventh novel --- his ninth if you count the two novels written under the name Janice Kaiser. The discovery of that bit of literary crossdressing only reinforces the impression left by BLACK SHEEP that R. J. Kaiser is a man with a deep appreciation for wit and irony, and has the temperament and skill necessary to infuse his pages with a great sense of fun. There is simply no excuse for not reading this book.

--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart

I raced through this book at the speed of sound, breaking only between 1 AM and 6 AM to catch some sleep. It is written almost like a movie script, cutting quickly between scenes in a variety of places, Hong Kong, Davis (CA), San Francisco, Paris, etc. The main character, Jonas, a 50-something ne'er-do-well with six marriages and several dozen affairs in the bag, has the opportunity of a lifetime to make it "big" when his son (from his second wife) re-enters his life with a scheme to turn the world's energy situation upside down. Although he thinks he is worldly, the rest of the world proves him to be an actual innocent, a relatively small player in a big shark tank. How he, his second wife and sixth wife, his mistress, son and a handful of other interesting and sometimes nefarious characters resolve all the plot angles is great reading!

Veering towards sixty, Jonas Lamb has been married six times with five ending in not so harmonious divorces. Currently wife number six is wealthy and dying; Jonas does what he does best, muddle relationships by having an affair with another woman angering his stepdaughter.

Jonas' son Patrick has discovered a cheap oil substitute that will rock the pillars of modern geo-politics. The amoral Jonas sees this as a chance to gain affluence and power while reconciling with his son who he has ignored forever. Jonas needs seed money so he goes to an almost as sleazy friend, Hong Kong billionaire Jimmy Yee for the investment capital. However, a secret of this magnitude and impact cannot stay hidden for long. Soon the Feds want to control "BLACK SHEEP", not necessarily for altruistic reasons. To do so they and others will gladly slaughter the two Lambs.

This is a fast-paced, dark and gritty thriller that never slows down for a moment. Perhaps except for Patrick and his mother there seems to be no good guys including the lead rogue, whose behavior lacks anything remotely ethical or at least facetiously charming. Though there is a minor romance subplot, fans of grim action-packed story lines will want to read this testosterone thriller.

Harriet Klausner

We are supposed to sympathise with a main character who is on his sixth marriage, with a wife who is dying a terrible death, and whose troubles are primarily caused because he needs a mistress for his (natural) urges. Sheesh. At the same time, his son reappears with an opportunity to change the world. See all the fawning reviews for a more complete plot outline.

Action, babes, and more. If a character appears for a page or two, odds are he is having sex. If two main characters are together for a night, there they go! Busy, busy.

The bad guys are one dimensional cartoons written so that we cheer when they are defeated. I mean really, the nerve of the step-children, being hostile to a guy who is upfront about marrying for money, and who sleeps around because his wife is too busy dying to put out.

It had potential on the action side, but a shoot-out between two spies is mentioned after the fact, as our hero is inconvenienced by police tape in front of his office. It's all just going through the motions, and we never actually feel like he is in any kind of danger.

But then there are the shots at Bush and Cheney. Too obvious and they feel like they were planted after the fact. Was this the point to the book?

I am giving two stars because I liked the cover. Spiff picture of a grinning black sheep. It's just a boring book that never really grabbed my interest, and I am not motivated to try any other book by this author.

See storyline above.

In his latest novel Kaiser focuses on GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms), specifically one that would ruin the oil business with a modified version of ethanol. There is action as well as romance. Much of the time is focused on Jonas Lamb's (the protagonist) relationships--a man who has had six marriages. It moves at a satifying pace with a satisfying ending.

Recommended.