Customer Reviews

Cape Disappointment: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

After a 10-year hiatus, PI Thomas Black returns with the strongest entry yet in this series.

The story begins with Thomas in the hospital recovering from injuries received when a bomb exploded near a political candidate for whom Thomas was working. That candidate's opponent had been killed weeks earlier in an airplane crash that also took the life of Thomas's wife, Kathy. As Thomas tries to remember what happened from the time of the plane crash on, he also has to struggle with what is real and what is a product of his medication. This is a terrible oversimplification of a complex plot that is complemented by the book's complex structure.

Emerson's writing is strong and the plotting is air-tight. The grimness of fresh grief is offset by the humor and the genuine warmth of Thomas's character. The conspiracy theories introduced by one of the secondary characters are fascinating. The reader can choose to buy into them or choose to read them purely as imaginative fiction, but the way Emerson tightly connects his fiction to reality is bold and breathtaking, and best of all is that he pushes his readers to think about the possibilities. One of the things I've always liked about Emerson's leading characters, such as Thomas Black and Mac Fontana, is that they are not shy about their opinions, that they think for themselves, that they have an innate and healthy disdain for politicians, bankers, corporate bosses, and anyone else whose profession involves lying on a daily basis.

One of the points Emerson makes -- though he never beats the reader over the head with a message in favor of telling a ripping yarn -- is how investigative journalism is now controlled by a few large corporations. What that says about the future of truth in journalism and the lack of transparency in government is truly scary. And you don't have to be a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist to know what a bad idea it is to have a few rich people controlling the media.

Thomas's struggle to remember becomes a race to find the truth. And the truth may be something that will haunt him forever. Few thrillers grip me as emotionally as this one did, start to finish. I think this is Emerson's best book ever.

I'd like to add that I'm disappointed that some readers cannot separate reality from fiction. That a number of conspiracy theories are expounded by a flakey fictional character in the book does not mean that the author intends for the reader to accept them as fact. I do think the author says that as citizens we have a responsibility to not merely accept 'spin,' but to do our own research and reach our conclusions based on fact and not journalistic pablum and certainly not on fictional stories intended first and foremost to entertain. We all know, for example, that had the financial press done its job, had we as citizens insisted that they do their job, parts of the economic recession we are now enduring could have been avoided, i.e. the bank failures and the Madoff larceny. I personally don't buy into too many conspiracy theories, but as a former employee of the federal government I also know there is a great deal of interesting information that never makes into the public domain for reasons that sometimes make sense and sometimes don't. That aside, I still think 'Cape Disappointment' is a tremendous story, one of the best thrillers I've read in the last couple of years.

It would be easy to dismiss this novel based on its somewhat incredible plot. But then there have been revelations of torture and worse sponsored by the US government, so that the premise that some rogue or quasi-official federal agents used nefarious tactics including assassination and a plane crash to influence a U.S. Senate race in the State of Washington might not be so far-fetched. After all, conspiracy theories abound from the Kennedy assassination to 9/11, and while many if not most may seem absurd or far out, many make for a good story.

As does this novel, in which Thomas Black, a PI, and his wife, Kathy, find themselves on the opposite sides of the Senatorial campaign: she for the popular incumbent, he, although his sympathies lie with his candidate's opponent, works for the challenger, fulfilling a long-standing obligation. The incumbent is running far ahead in the polls, and Thomas' side runs a more and more negative campaign. Then, the Senator and her staff, including presumably Kathy, take off in a chartered plan as Thomas watches it take to the air, only to plunge head-long into the Pacific, with all passengers obviously dead.

Thomas, himself, is the victim of a bomb blast, but he recovers from serious wounds. Then he begins to investigate the plane crash, and the seemingly obvious may not be in fact the truth. If one can get beyond the incomprehensibility of the premise that murder and other dirty tricks can be a norm, this tightly written political suspense story makes for an exciting read. Certainly, it is original, and recommended.

Seattle P I Thomas Black wakes up in a hospital after surviving a bomb explosion at a campaign appearance for a US Senate candidate for whom he is providing security services. He was badly hurt and his memory of the explosion and other events is problematic. Nor is he certain whether his wife, Kathy, is alive or dead. Gradually, through a series of fragmentary memory flashbacks, we learn that Kathy was supporting another candidate, a woman who is the incumbent senator. The Senator was killed in a seemingly inexplicable plane crash, and Black eventually realizes that Kathy was supposed to be on that plane.

Soon Black is working with identical twin friends of his who are deeply paranoid, one more than the other. The more paranoid twin claims to have been a "black ops" agent and assassin for the government and believes that the plane crash, the explosion and many other untoward events are the result of nefarious government actions, all in furtherance of the continuing control of the world by a cabal of billionaires. How far Black goes with this is a bit unclear, but he certainly seems to buy the "evil government conspiracy" part, and that is enough to generate the usual paraphernalia: The evil doers know everything, electronically spy on everything, control all media and information, alter records, run the authorities etc. In short, the foe is omniscient and omnipotent, and the novel proceeds accordingly.

From a writer's viewpoint this presents both an opportunity and a problem. The opportunity is thrilling people by the courage and skill of more or less ordinary people seeking to escape such power. The problem is that, if the foe is omniscient and omnipotent, then (as the famous line goes) "resistance is futile."

Solutions to this problem exist, but are credible only in the hands of extraordinary writers. For all the past appeal of the Black novels (I read them with enjoyment back in the day), Emerson does not bring it off in this one.

The return of Thomas Black and Kathy Birchfield was long overdue, but well worth the wait. Emerson greatly expands his writing style in this novel. The original Black stories were in the flavor of Chandler or Hammett, and I liked Emerson's take on this style. This novel moves away from that formula, into a more complex style; shifting focus, timing, and characters in a way that mirrors Black's reawakening from being caught in a bomb blast. Emerson shows a lot of writing skill in pulling this off as well as he does.

I'm also grateful that Emerson had the courage to write a story reviving some of my favorite characters that also plumbs the depths of what current American society has become. The line between what our leaders have proven to prepared to do, and what would appear to be a conspiracist's raving has blurred in recent years. Emerson takes this issue head on, and weaves a scintillating mystery around a very important issue.

Well done, Earl Emerson!

Thomas Black is back. But he should have remained in retirement. In his early works Earl Emerson created a private investigator in the hard-boiled detective fiction of McDonald, Hammett, and Chandler named Thomas Black that lived and worked in Seattle, Washington. The stories were well written, very locally grounded, and contained dialogue that was grounded in everyday experience. But Emerson started a new character, Matt Fontana, a small town fire chief, and the writing continued along the line of universal truths derived from common experience. Apparently all that changed and Emerson decided to follow Dan Brown into the world of dark, hidden conspiracy plots that would sell large numbers of copies (and could be made into movies).

In the process, Thomas Black becomes a much less interesting character and the rest of the cast is polarized into "good guys" and "bad guys" of different political parties. The plot is twisted and nonsensical and leaves a reader wondering if politicians are this venal and stupid, why do they get elected?

In short, pass on this Thomas Black "come-back" book and wait for Emerson to resume writing about what he does so well; firefighting and firefighters and leave the Illuminati fiction to the Dan Browns of this world.

A couple of years ago when I heard Earl Emerson speak he promised that he was working on a new Thomas Black book, and that the publisher had okayed it after years of saying they'd rather he continue to write firefighting thrillers. The only catch was that he had to write a "big book" that wouldn't turn away the new readers he had garnered. Last year he said that he was writing the new Black book as a thriller, hoping to catch the spirit of the old books with the characters and snappy dialogue we all loved which were written as mysteries (more slower in pace). Well, I'm here to tell you that for me he succeeded big time!



It is a big book. It does capture the spirit of the Northwest and the jauntiness of the characters that we all loved from before. The only catch is that I can't tell you too much about the story without spoiling it for you. I want you to have the same experience I had of reading it without knowing more than you should ahead of time - no spoilers here! So all I'm going to tell you is that it starts with Thomas in the hospital, not remembering much of anything. He knows he's hurt, he sort of knows who he is, he's vaguely aware of where he is. He thinks Kathy has come to visit him, but there's this redhead who keeps floating through his consciousness. Definitely not Kathy!



The subtext is about politics, politicians and their trustworthiness, and crazy conspiracy theories. I didn't know where this was going to end up until right towards the end and then I just sat back and watched Thomas Black do his thing with a huge smile on my face! I was suffering from the flu at the time, and reading Cape Disappointment made it a little easier to forget about coughing and breathe! I swear! Wonderful read! "

This was my first experience with Emerson and his character, Thomas Black, so I have little historical context from which to judge. "Cape Disappointment" was an exciting political suspense thriller that was difficult to put down at times. The pacing is taut and breakneck for the most part. Emerson's characters are believable, well fleshed, and intriguing.

Thomas Black awakens in a hospital, severely injured, and under heavy medication. Through a series of flashbacks, not always in the same continuum, Thomas ultimately reconstructs that his wife, Kathy Birchfield, has apparently been killed in a plane wreck along with the senator she worked for and a number of coworkers--a plane crash that he, himself, witnessed. Days later, Thomas was nearly killed by a bomb that may have been intended for the senatorial candidate for whom he worked.

After a period of mindless grief, Thomas, supported by his sometimes investigative companion, Elmer "Snake" Slezak, begins to investigate the plane crash and the inconsistancies that keep arising in the government investigation and in the media. Elmer's twin brother, Bert Slezak, a former CIA sniper who may now be little more than a paranoid conspiracy theorist (or is he?) quickly enters the story and things get really intriguingly complicated.

To say much more of the plot would be dangerous to the interested reader. I will say that for a time, I was bothered by the jumbled conspiracy theories and positing of wrongdoing especially by one political party, including a timely riff on the inadequacies of torture. However, it is a compliment to Emerson that he was able to weave a tight suspense thriller around political chicanery and theories of government run amuck to capture so intensely this reader's interest. A great thriller filled with mystery, suspense, and even some humor. Despite a few unwrapped loose ends, this is a recommended read.

There comes a time in every series when the author loses interest and as a result, the stories lose their special crackle.

Earl Emerson had a good run with Thomas Black, but probably carried it a book or two past his actual interest in Black, and I wouldn't have been upset if the wisecracking Seattle private eye had faded from the scene with 1999's "Catfish Cafe." Once Thomas and Kathy Birchfield, his longtime best friend turned lover, got serious and got domestic, the pilot light slowly faded out of this snarky mystery series.

But, 10 years later, Emerson and Black are back in "Cape Disappointment," and while it was nice to see old friends in action once more, this felt more like Black Emeritus than Classic Black. The book is darker than previous efforts in this series, with a stretch into geopolitical-thriller territory that doesn't rest easily on the shoulders of this traditional Seattle-centric formula-mystery series. The humor seems subdued, even perfunctory, and the laughs that should have come from the sleazebaggery of the Slezak brothers simply aren't there.

Frankly, everybody seems tired.

Nonetheless, the final act delivers some surprises (but not the ones you'd expect -- come on, you didn't REALLY think Kathy had been killed in that plane explosion, did you?) -- and the political machinations do give one at least a little pause.

That said, this was second-rate Emerson and second-rate Black, and it felt like one long somber, sluggish post-concert encore from both.

I found Earl Emerson a long time ago. The fun part is the fact that he lives in my home town and works in Seattle . Hence he often uses places I am well acquainted with. That adds to the fun. His books are usually fast paced with fairly strong characters. He also has a great sense of humor which comes through. I am always waiting for the "next" book.

Purchased this book as a gift and recipient said it was good but not quite up to Emerson's other books.