THE GENEVA DECISION

The author sent me an autographed copy of this novel to review:

Seeley James has created a dazzling crime-stopper, and she is Pia Sabel of Sabel Security! She’s Daddy’s super rich daughter, who just happens to be a world class soccer player and a hand to hand fighter of extraordinary skill. Daddy has just turned the operations  of Sabel Security over to his daughter, Pia. Untested, Pia has to win the trust of all the agents before she can lead this billion dollar company. She is surrounded by battle hardened agents, who need to be assured that the pretty rich girl can become a leader. She is assisted by some of her staunch agents, such as; Major Jonelle Jackson; Tania, a cantankerous and loveable agent; agent Marty, a ex-marine; and agent Miguel. Mr. James does a good job in the empathy department, since I felt myself caring for quite a few of these gnarly gumshoes. This novel is the first in a series of Pia Sabel mysteries that Mr. James states he will write. If this is true, I’ll have a few suggestions on how he can improve the series later in this review.

Pia’s first client, Clement Marot, a Swiss banker, is assassinated in front of her eyes. This incident triggers a stirring thriller that includes money laundering, piracy, murder, and betrayal. Why was the banker murdered in broad daylight in a park in Geneva, Switzerland? Pia captures the assassin, and turns the criminal over to Capitaine Villeneuve and Lt. Alphonse Lamartine, who are on loan to Geneva from the French police. The killer escapes while in custody. Four more bankers turn up dead! Pia’s first case is not drawing any confidence out of her employees. Pia, with the help of Major Jackson,  plunges into this brainteaser of many suspects and motives, including the assassin Al Jabal, the arcane Elgin Thomas, Marot’s son Philippe, Calixthe Ebokea ( is that really her name? ), Conor Wigan, and the unknown kingpin, Le Directeur. The clues take Pia and her agents to Cameroon where they are momentarily sidetracked into rescuing captured slaves, or is this a ambush? It seems that everywhere they go, assassins are waiting for them. Who is the mole tipping off the agents whereabouts? The amazing concept of this novel is how Pia and her agents fight the bad guy’s Sig Sauer pistols and AK47 rifles with Glocks armed with darts! What? No, I’m not kidding. Anyway, the story does get confusing from time to time, but the reader manages to follow the storyline. Near the end, Pia remembers someone saying “chain of custody”. Can this be the clue to put the final piece of the puzzle together? I’m going to recommend this first time novel by Seeley James, because I think this series has great  promise and longevity. By the way, the prose is also pretty good.

Now, how to improve this series? First of all, the “thank you for saving my life” and “jabs to the throat” lines are repeated too often. Repetitive lines are irritating to the reader. Next, scrap the darts! It’s not believable that you can fight hardened criminals armed to the T using sleeper darts to thwart them. What would Indiana Jones be without his bullwhip? What would Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer be without “Betsy”, his Colt .45? Would Ian Fleming’s James Bond  be James Bond without his Walther PPK 7.65mm? No! No! Mr. James, Pia needs to come up with a respectable weapon. A harpoon would be better than a sleeper dart. Lastly, Pia needs a esoteric lover who could appear in a novel once in awhile. I thought Alphonse was that man, but no, you know what you did to him. I liked this novel, otherwise I wouldn’t make any propositions.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Lets talk about some of the authors that have made a success with one character. I loved Mickey Spillane, who wrote 13 Mike Hammer Novels, and six more completed by Max Allan Collins after Spillane’s death. Mickey Spillane said that it only took him 19 days to write his first novel, I, the Jury . Some of Spillane’s famous quotes according to Brainy Quotes  include: “Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn’t. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still...you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt.” He also said: “I’m a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.” And finally, Mickey talking about Mike Hammer said: “Imagine this guy hits Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coat hanger and knocks him out. You hit Mike Hammer with a wooden coat hanger, he beats the crap out of you.

Clive Cussler is a prolific writer of adventure stories. My favorite hero from Clive’s lineup of characters is Dirk Pitt. The first Dirk Pitt novel was Pacific Vortex , but it wasn’t published until 1983. So far, there are 22 Dirk Pitt novels, some have been made into movies. Some of Clive’s quotes according to Brainy Quotes are: “When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I had studied most of the other series heroes and I figured it would be fun for mine to be different and put him in and around water. So I dreamed up Dirk Pitt.” Clive is not too fond of some actors: “As far as talent goes, Marilyn Monroe was so minimally gifted as to be almost unemployable, and anyone who holds to the opinion that she was a great natural comic identifies himself immediately as a dunce”. Way to go Clive! And what does Clive think of himself? “I don’t think I’m really a rude person, but now I see myself on television, I think ‘Oh, God, that is a bit strong.’ And I wonder if I’ve always been like that and I haven’t been aware of it.

Ian Fleming wrote 14 novels and short stories about the famous 007 British Secret Service agent, James Bond. After Fleming’s death in 1964, a number of authors have continued the novels. In Casino Royale Fleming writes how Bond orders a martini: “A dry martini, he said. ‘One. In a deep champagne goblet’...Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?” Why am I thirsty? Nobody can accuse Ian Fleming of being a coward. When he first met Sean Connery, he said to Sean: “I’m looking for Commander James Bond, Not an overgrown stunt man.” Wow! His two famous quotes about life and death are: “You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.” And: “I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.”