Contract killers and abandoned first wives

I'VE read a crime thriller, a domestic noir, and a love story and have come to the conclusion that crime and madness fascinate me more than love, even if it's middle-aged, imperfect love with an agenda and a lot of baggage. But millions of readers can't be wrong.

Gregg Hurwitz is a best-selling author of crime thrillers, screenplays and comics. His Orphan X books are devoured by readers. I got on the bus late last year with The Last Orphan; by then it had quite a line of precursors. It captivated me and I resolved to go look for the others in the series, but never got around to it. Until his latest landed on my desk: Nemesis.

Orphan X or Evan, also known as the Nowhere Man, lives under the radar. As an orphan he was trained to be a killing machine as part of a secret government project, and then left to his own devices. He continues to practise his only skill, but, surprisingly, with his own kind of morality: He only kills people who make the world unbearable, and only to help powerless people. The person he aids then has to give him the name of another person who is in need because some monstrous person is threatening them. The executions are cleanly done, without emotion or satisfaction, and completely free of charge. Unlike Jack Reacher and others, Evan is not particularly tall or handsome. He blends in with his surroundings.

A moral dilemma

It's very suspenseful, but what kept me reading were the relationships between characters. Like Stieg Larsson, Hurwitz succeeds in creating ones you can believe in, who you care about. And the dynamics between some of the more eccentric characters are heart-warming. There's a teenager, Joey Morales, whom Evan takes pity on, a seasoned hacker reminiscent of Lisbeth Salander – on the spectrum, awkward, furious. There's the sexy, deadly Candy, also an orphan and member of the expired programme, who had also been left out in the cold. There's Evan's almost-friend, the arms manufacturer Tommy Stojack – a lawless cowboy of a man with a philosophical streak and a good heart, for the most. Now Evan finds out that Stojack also supplies weapons to scumbags who wipe out children and who tried to kill Evan himself.

It's a moral dilemma, and he confronts Stojack, who doesn't even try to explain himself. They are now arch-enemies who want to take each other out. Stojack is a formidable adversary and this time it's emotional too.

But then Evan is ambushed by five thugs at Stojack's house and nearly obliterated. Is Stojack behind it, or was he actually the target? Four psychopathic hitmen follow close behind. Stojack has angered someone powerful. Evan is caught in the crossfire.

I highly recommend this voluminous book because of the skill of characterisation and the author's sophisticated sense of humour.

Nemesis by Gregg Hurwitz is published by Penguin Random House UK and costs R335 at Amazon SA.

The Crash is essentially domestic noir; it had me by the scruff of my neck and didn't let go until the very last page. Freida McFadden is a Boston brain surgeon and one of the most successful suspense writers at work today. She has written three Housemaid novels (The Housemaid, The Housemaid's Secret and The Housemaid is Watching). They have sold over a million copies in total. 

Tegan is 22 and beautiful. She works in a supermarket – long shifts, even though she is eight months pregnant. She is sensible and careful, but after a party where alcohol is involved, has a one-night stand of which she cannot remember much. The man, Simon, is prominent, wealthy and his lawyer negotiates a settlement for a considerable amount to be paid into her account in exchange for her silence – he is married. She is looking forward to a better place to live and a better life for herself and her child.

The smell of his aftershave ...

But in order to sign the contract, Simon comes with his lawyer to her shabby flat and the smell of his aftershave brings back memories: He had put something in her drink that night and raped her repeatedly in the flat. She has had nightmares about it ever since, but believed that's what they were: nightmares. She refuses to sign the contract and declares that she is going to charge him with rape.

The night after her last shift, she drives to her brother's house; the one person she has left in this world. However, she gets caught in a snowstorm and wraps her car around a tree. Her ankle is broken and she is trapped in the car, until a bearded, grim giant of a man who looks like a yeti frees her and loads her into his pickup truck. She ends up in his basement, on a hospital bed, and with his submissive wife looking after her. What awaits her now?

It's extremely suspenseful, the reader is barely able to breathe. Of course, things are not as they seem and many surprises pop up. I've devoured so many of these types of books now that I was able to see at least a few of them coming.

String-taut tension, excellent distraction in these days.

The Crash by Freida McFadden is published by Poisoned Penn Press and costs R215 at Amazon SA.

When the whole world is raving about an author or a book like Eat Pray Love, I know in advance that I'm not going to like it. That's how it was for me with Jojo Moyes. A few readers have pointed out that she knows how to tell a story. She's a fixture on the bestseller lists. I have browsed through her books in the bookstore and got the impression that they were light, populist, chick-lit, straight love triumphing over trials.

Until Kerneels Breytenbach, our book guru, recommended one of her novels. I read it and determined that if someone had mastered her craft that well, at least it was admirable. 

Now I've taken up a second novel: We All Live Here. I should have been content with one. I struggled on, acknowledging that this recipe appeals to millions of readers, like a cake one keeps baking because so many people like it.

Once more we have a marriage on the rocks, a woman overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood and slightly bedraggled, whose husband was stolen away by a younger, voluptuous, glamorous divorcee neighbour. Now he lives a few houses away with his young bride and her son. Lila struggles with anger and resentment and her two daughters are becoming rebellious and unmanageable. In addition, her late mother's second husband, her stepfather, is temporarily living with them to help out. Every night he cooks lentils and steamed chicken, food that the daughters detest. He is a neatness freak who tidies the house in militaristic style. Lila is grateful but wishes she could like him more. Moreover, he seems to be permanently settling in.

Entertaining, but predictable

She drops her youngest daughter off at school, the same school the second wife's son attends and notices that the younger bride is pregnant. As if that weren't enough, her biological father also drops in: down and out, the one who had turned his back on her and her mother to conquer Hollywood and had never kept in touch. You could cut the atmosphere between him and her stepfather with a knife. Her oldest daughter decides she doesn't want to go to school anymore. A cute landscape architect also looms on the horizon.

You get the picture. Chaos. Yes, it's quite entertaining and funny sometimes, but not my kind of book. It's predictable and all is spelled out. Feel free to read it and disagree with me.

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes is published by Penguin and costs R350 at Amazon SA.

What are we listening to?

Miley Cyrus sings “Wrecking Ball":

♦ VWB ♦

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