Customer Reviews

Missionary Stew (Crime, Penguin)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Missionary Stew by Ross Thomas is a wickedly irreverent satiric novel that is both fast paced and hilarious.
There are two main characters, Draper Haere and Morgan Citron. Haere makes his living in the world of politics. He's not a politician himself. Rather he operates behind the scenes to advance the agendas of politicians he works for. Morgan Citron is an investigative reporter who has been traumatized by a rather unpleasant 13 month stay in an African jail and is conflicted about returning to work.
An incident of some sort has ocurred in a Central American country. The details of this incident are sketchy, but it seems that whenever someone learns what has happened, that person winds up dead.
Haere's current client is Baldwin Veatch, the governor-elect of California and a presidential hopeful. Haere has reason to believe that the incident being covered up constitutes an embarassing scandal for the sitting President. Therefore, if he can expose the secret, his client's chances of becoming President will be greatly enhanced. So, Haere hires Citron to use his investigative skills to unravel the mystery.
The plot of Missionary Stew is exceedingly complex. As the narrative advances, the reader learns of all manner of complications. Playing key roles are: a redneck Floridian drug runner, the CEO of a National Inquirer type tabloid who happens to be Citron's own mother, a corrupt Central American general, as well as various and sundry members and ex-members of the intelligence community.
Suffice it to say that the book's characters are all very interesting and delightfully eccentric. Moreover, the dialogue is quite snappy and has an understated wit about it that is genuinely entertaining.
If you like your political novels to have byzantine plots, quirky characters, clever dialogue and cynical points of view, by all means read this book. You'll love it.

This book is one of the most curious political thrillers that I've read. It's a byzantine kind of world in which the hero doesn't really want to be involved, but he gets dragged into successively stranger and deeper situations--yet none seem contrived. Its Elmore Leonard with a political twist. Says one character of a bad guy, "he's called Hallmark. He's who they send when they want to send their very best."

Like all of Thomas's books, this one presents the reader with a world where just beneath the surface of ordinary reality danger and betrayal lurk just waiting for the hapless figures he creates to step in whatever new qucksand he has perpared. This book is vintage Thomas with believable characters, great dialogue, memorable lines, a convoluted but engrossing plot - full of surprises and ultimate satisfactions.

I just can't believe that most of his books are out of print. This stuff is great reading. There is nothing else like it.

The story is a good four-star tale. I have purchased this in book form twice in the past. I was pleased to see it in the Kindle Store, and I bought it again. I enjoy having my books available to me at any time. My issue is the apparent total lack of concern when the file was created. Mr. Thomas wrote so well that total immersion is guaranteed. Sadly, this Kindle file has so many grammar issues that the reader is jolted out of the story repeatedly. Whatever software that was used to create the digital copy of the manuscript left far too many hyphenated words in the middle of a sentence, and an almost comical number of three-word run-ons, suchasthis. Folks, this file costs ten bucks. Even if only nine other buyers are found, haven't we paid enough for an editor to load the file in a word processor and look for errors? I don't want to appear naive as I say that a company selling books should be more protective of its authors; we all know that the books sold here are a simple commodity, just like the gigabit switch I bought here last month. Still, shouldn't someone be trying to convert these books accurately?

If ever an author died too young, it was Ross Thomas. Sara Paretsky concludes her introduction to the reprint of "Fourth Durango" by saying she wishes he were still here to make sense of the current evil for us. I can only agree.

Thomas's speciality was exposing the rottenness beneath the glossy surface. His politics were almost certainly old-time, idealistic-but-unsentimental socialist: practically every novel has a protagonist with a connection to socialism, often to the fight against fascism in Spain.

"Stew" is one of his more complex plots. Something happened in a Central or South American dictatorship and was covered up, creating a ticking bomb big enough to blow the current right-wing regime (Reagan's, by the date) out of office in Washington.

Enter Draper Haere, who raises money for leftie candidates during the political season and for good causes (he hopes) outside it. He learns about the existence of the coverup, though not what it is, and narrowly escapes being killed in the process.

Enter Morgan Citron, a very good writer-researcher who's now back in the States suffering from PTSD after having been imprisoned in Africa by an Idi-Amin-type psychopath.

Haere wants to get the details of the scandal so he can use them for political improvement. He hires Citron to do the research.

Enter two psychopaths, who threaten to kill Haere's cat to get his attention: they want him to let the coverup alone.

From there the plot thickens and speeds up to a scary, but thoroughly satisfying conclusion. That was Thomas's strength: he showed that it was possible for evil to overreach itself and be defeated by people whose only special virtue is a willingness to persist in the struggle. It's a warming thought, in times like these.

I'm a sucker for Ross Thomas and this is a fine example of his work. Starts with an interesting look at the former Central African Empire from the perspecutive of our hero who is a prisoner in one of their jails. It then moves to the usual Thomas complex but understandable political plot. Thomas just has a feel for topics that blend a foreign event with domestic political dirty tricks. It's just a good read.

This book is extremely interesting -- not at all in the style of most mysteries, it offers a surprisingly introspective look at the key characters. The beginning is rather bizarre. Get through it, and you will really enjoy the rest.

Ross Thomas just had the knack of creating unusual situations, and unusual characters, and then having everything interact toward a satisfying conclusion. This book is another one of his well-crafted thriller-type writings, where you are introduced to a disparate cast of characters who seem totally unrelated to each other but, by the end of the book, all fit nicely into the confines of the plot. This one is a bit more gruesome than some of his, for there are several deaths, but they are all in the service of advancing the plot line. Read this book and see a master of the genre at work!

This is my favorite Ross Thomas novel and that's really saying something, the competition is fierce. The writing is spare and tight and the dialog is first-rate, nobody writes (wrote?) with such a keen ear for the way people speak. Thomas is funny and cynical, this complex story unfolds at breakneck speed. Thomas had an interesting history, working for a union, in business and as political consultant (slipping in time to write some fine novels and a couple of screenplays, one for the interesting movie Bad Company). How did he accomplish so much in this novel in only 70,000-odd words? Pure magic.

Ken Coffman is the author of Steel Waters, Alligator Alley, Twisted Shadow and other novels.