Reviewed By: Sarah - RAM
The Day of the Dead
Amazon UK PB
John Creed
Class/Genre: Mystery
Series: Jack Valentine
2003
A minor caveat, to begin. John Creed is also Eoin McNamee, a writer I pretty much worship and will read anything he ever writes and will write. So when a shiny copy arrived in my mailbox last week, it was like getting the best Chanukah or birthday present ever. And even better, it was a present that lived up. I had thought last year's THE SIRIUS CROSSING was one of the best thrillers I'd read in a long time. This one, simply put, is even better.
Jack Valentine has, for all intensive purposes, retired from his days as a spook for various agencies. He's tired, trying to live the quiet life, and dealing with the aftermath of the effects of his last big mission. So naturally that's when an old friend of his, Paolo Casagrande, comes to him with a plea for help. His daughter, Alva, is in the clutches of an enigmatic mover-and-shaker and heroin supplier named Richard Xabarra. Casagrande wants his daughter back, and though at first Valentine resists, a pipe bomb that nearly takes his friend's life clinches the deal. Soon, he's off to New York, meeting up with his best pal Liam and starting the chain of events that soon go very, very wrong.
For Alva is no conventional damsel-in-distress, there are crazy Puerto Ricans ready to kill at every moment, and Xabarra is not just well-connected, he's a charming son-of-a-bitch as well. And the action is absolutely relentless. Just when Valentine & co. have overcome one obstacle, here comes another one. From the streets of New York to the seamy side of Mexico during the "Day of the Dead" feast, the twists and turns are so fast that by the end not only is Valentine much worse off, the reader is struggling for breath.
How Creed/McNamee managed to pack so much into such a short book, at 246 pages, is a mystery. There's more going on here than in a book 50 percent longer. But the author has truly learned how to get the most out of the words he picks to convey action, character and mood. Even as the plot progresses furiously, more layers are uncovered about Jack, Liam, and Deirdre, the woman Jack loves but is frustratingly, tantalizingly out of reach.
As I read THE DAY OF THE DEAD, a favorite song picked just that time to get stuck in my head, with its driving tune and plaintive vocals:
"I can see the light in the distance Trembling in the dark cloak of night Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing A waltz on All Souls' Night"
For The Day of the Dead is also All Souls Night, and the passion and wonder of Loreena McKinnitt's lyrics and vocals are so very much what is in this wonderful thriller. I expect THE DAY OF THE DEAD to stick in my head from now on and return at opportune moments, too.
Sarah - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Sarah - RAM
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