THE VENETIAN JUDGMENT
David Stone
Jove
Thriller
Hardcover: 9780399155734
Paperback: 9780515147780
David Stone is my primary “cross the street” author. People who know me cross the street when they see me coming because I will probably begin and end the conversation by telling them about the new David Stone book, or his last one, or all of them. Instead of crossing the street, they should listen. Stone is the real deal. Even if that is not his real name.
David Stone has three novels to his credit under that name --- THE ECHELON VENDETTA, THE ORPHEUS DECEPTION, and the newly released THE VENETIAN JUDGMENT --- and combined they would make one long, wild, 1,200-page book that would read as fast as a 20-page short story. They feature a CIA cleaner named Micah Dalton, who is not in the best graces of his agency due to a penchant that compels him to pursue a course of conduct that more often than not goes against orders but results in his usually getting the job done better than anyone else. While complete in itself, each volume also picks up immediately from where the last left off.
So it is that THE VENETIAN JUDGMENT begins with Dalton in Venice pursuing a bloody vengeance against the Serbian gang of thugs who shot and grievously wounded his lover in THE ORPHEUS DECEPTION. Quickly finding himself to be persona non grata for turning the romantic city into his own personal killing field, Dalton is handed a golden opportunity to keep his hands busy and happy while possibly putting himself back into the good graces of his erstwhile employer.
A small group of CIA employees known as the Glass Cutters specializes in decryption. While working on a top secret project that involves Deacon Cather, Dalton’s erstwhile mentor, one of their London members is brutally murdered after being subjected to unspeakable tortures. Worse, photographic documentation of the act was emailed to her friends, family and employer. The killing appears to be the work of Kiki Lujac, an exotic fiend who had been left for dead by Dalton in a previous encounter.
Accompanied by fellow agent Mandy Pownell, Dalton begins his quest by attempting to determine if Lujac is in fact deceased. Their inquiry kicks over a hornet’s nest that results in Dalton and Pownell pursuing, and being pursued by, a shadowy group of murderers with ties to the former KGB. The ghost of Porter Naumann, Dalton’s friend and Pownell’s lover, is along for the ride as well, popping up at times opportune and otherwise, and dispensing advice to Dalton. An aside here: Stone handles the existence of this shade incredibly well. In lesser hands, the appearance of a ghost in the middle of a narrative would be silly; in Stone’s capable hands, the occurrences are Shakespearean in quality. He even provides an almost-plausible explanation, made more so by the fact that the shade never appears to anyone else, including Pownell.
What Naumann does not reveal, however, is that Lujac has managed to insinuate himself into the life of Briony Keating, another Glass Cutter. Keating, a very capable 62-year-old New York divorcee with a voracious sexual appetite, is quite taken with Lujac, even as she senses that all is not right with him. For his part, Lujac is feeding Keating’s appetite and biding his time for the moment when he can treat himself to a repeat performance of his actions in London. The suspense, to say the least, is heart-stopping, with the storyline cutting back and forth between Dalton and Pownell escaping the jaws of death and Keating seemingly jumping wholeheartedly into them. There are a number of endings that wrap (almost) everything up, leaving just enough threads for yet another volume.
Stone is a marvel. Possessed with a canny sense of how the world works and a historical view that hasn’t been distorted by the talking heads, he pulls back the curtain and reveals the hidden history of the last 60 years while never once losing the sense of his narrative. You will want to read this one twice. At least.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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