(5) = Best; (4) = Better; (3) = Good; (2) = Fair; (1) = OK
These abstracts serve as reminders to myself; they serve to "jog" my memory on what a book was all about. That's all. This is not a literary critique, not a social commentary, and certainly nothing profound to warrant further discussion.
(5) = means that I really enjoyed this book; (1) = means I finished reading it but wonder if my time could have been better spent elsewhere.
I think this is one of Cussler’s better mystery stories. Read the first chapter where a railroad train is discovered in Flat Head Lake in Montana, April 15, 1950. The cold water preserved the contents of this train. Then, jump to the last chapter of the book on April 16th. It tells you what they discovered, but it doesn’t give you the details of what the novel is all about.
You’ll have to read and savor everything in-between the pages to see how Cussler weaves his story about the Butcher Bandit, and how the Bandit manages to kill all the eyewitnesses in bank robberies across the western states. Law enforcement is dumbfounded; there are no leads. And, finally, the Van Dorn Detective Agency is contracted to find and catch this bandit.
Instead of Dirk Pitt, Isaac Bell is introduced as the new hero detective in this novel. This is a radical departure for Cussler. Bell comes from a wealthy banker family in Boston. The closest analogy I can draw from Isaac Bell is that of Sherlock Holmes. He is intelligent, methodical and cool; he is relentless in examining insignificant detail much along the lines of CSI on TV. The intelligence of these two men – the Butcher Bandit and Bell – lies at the heart of the story. Cussler does a creditable job here. (5).
What I like about Cussler is his imaginative way of twisting the facts of history in order to spin his tales. In this case the burial site of Genghis Khan is unknown, but in this novel a British archaeologist had unearthed a mysterious box in Mongolia that contained a tube with a rolled up silk fabric painting that showed Kahn’s burial site. On his flight back to civilization he decides to open up the tube to check his find. Its missing! He correctly deduces that his Assistant had stolen the silk fabric. Moreover, the plane crashes with all the contents of his excavation and the archaeologist is killed. This sets the stage for the rest of the book.
We learn a generation later that the children of that Assistant Thief are wealthy beyond measure. The older son is an evil despot and his sister is just as bad. Dirk Pitt appears on the scene, manages to foil the evil doers, discovers the wreckage of the airplane, and embarks on a new adventure in Mongolia. In the process, he uncovers the burial site of Kublai Khan, a site that is equally as fabulous as the Genghis Khan site. I’m not doing justice to this book here…I’ve skipped 90% of the novel. (4)
The story is about two friends who grew up together: Amir is son of a wealthy upperclass family, the other is Hassan, the illiterate son of a servant in Amir’s household. We learn there is a class distinction between the rich and the Hazaras, the poor. The Hazarases are to be shunned. But, of course, the two boys could care less about such distinctions. They send a lot of time playing, and Amir reads to Hassan. While they are good friends, Amir teases Hassan for his ignorance.
Assef, the neighborhood bully, can’t understand why Amir is so friendly to Hassan. He beats up on Hassan. We see this attitude much later in life when they become adults, and Assef becomes a leader of the Taliban with his brass knuckles. He continues to be the bully he has always been.
The Taliban overthrows the ruling family and Amir’s family escapes and moves to the United States. Amir graduates from college and becomes a Writer. Amir falls in love with Soraya and asks his father to talk to her father to see if he would give permission for the two to marry. Both families agree. Soraya decides to disclose “her secret” to Amir to see if he still loves her. There is a touching description of his response: “my iftikhar, wasn’t stung at all that she had been with a man…it did not bother me a bit, but I had pondered this quite a lot in the weeks before I asked Baba to go to khastegari. And in the end the question that always came back to me was this: How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?”
“Does it bother you enough to change your mind?” “No, Soraya. Not even close,” I said. “Nothing you said changes anything. I want us to marry.” She broke into fresh tears.
Amir had his own secret – of his betrayal of Hassan – but kept it all to himself. We learn later that Hassan had died and left an orphan son. There is a family mystery. Why was his father so insistent he watch over Hassan and take care of him? His father, ’seemed to care more for Hassan than to me?’ says Amir, silently to himself. We learn later in life that Hassan was actually a half brother to Amir. Hassan’s mother worked dutifully in their household, and the father was never able to publicly acknowledge his love for Hassan’s mother!
Amir goes back to Afghanistan and searches for Hassan’s son. Finds him. And adopts him.
This is a powerful story of friendship, betrayal, father/son relationships. It gives us a glimpse into Afghanistan culture and the challenges we find today in the war against the Taliban. (5)
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