No Comebacks – Frederick Forsyth, 1982 ★★★★

Forsyth in a Different Vein

Why didn’t Frederick Forsyth become the biggest name in thriller writing?

This short-story collection, published toward the end of a great run of commercial and critical success, posits the idea that while forging an approach to his genre others like Ludlum and Clancy would pursue more diligently (if with less talent) what Fred really wanted was to be O. Henry.

People who picked up No Comebacks in the spring of 1982 expecting ten quick doses of the sort of top-notch thriller writing Forsyth had been producing since 1971’s The Day Of The Jackal (which continued up through 1984’s The Fourth Protocol, his last great novel) were disappointed. I know I was. A few stories offer suspense of this kind, but the overall body count is low and tension is of a more everyday variety.

Secrecy And Power: The Life Of J. Edgar Hoover – Richard Gid Powers, 1987 ★★★★

The Making of a Swamp Thing

Sometimes without trying, I pick up a book with present-day relevance. What better way to delve into that mysterious monstrosity of the moment, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, than with this old biography of its legendary founder?

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens, 1837-39 ★★★½

Waif Takes on the Big Bad City

A cruel disposition can be a positive quality when writing a novel. Case in point: Oliver Twist.

Charles Dickens’ torture test for his titular boy hero saves his book from mawkish excess and, along with its brilliant depiction of a harsh urban landscape, imparts readability and drive, not to mention a steady undertow of savage black humor. The result, marred at times by bathos and coincidence, is a bracing change-up from the author whose prior, first novel was the whimsical, often-pastoral The Pickwick Papers.