The title I just finished is Scorpion’s Dance. A novel that I enjoyed, but not for the reasons I
thought I would enjoy it—the plot meandered a little, there wasn’t much action,
but there was the trademark humor, and the characters where damn fun.
The United States and Russia form an elite joint-task
force to counter an active terrorist organization called Tenterallah that is
led by the illusive Abu Beka. As the novel opens Tenterallah is executing a
successful ambush at Da Vinci Airport in Rome; seven passengers are killed and
another 24 are injured.
The surviving terrorists are arrested, but quickly
escape with the help of an outside party. At least that is how it seems until
the escaped men are found dead hanging—in the hollowed husks of pigs—from a
statue of the Madonna in the plaza in a small Italian village. The dead men
have two notes attached that read:
“To
the killers of babies and women: your turn in the pigskin is coming.”
and
“You
Tenterallah butchers have run out of time. Abu Beka, you are next.”
The terrorists quickly become the victims of their own
terror and the operation is controlled from the business offices of Mark
Donovan. Mark is a wealthy businessman who, along with a Russian KGB officer
named Petrov, plans to wipe Tenterallah off the map in a small and very well-funded
operation. Unfortunately the pair has an unwitting mole on the fringe of their
group and as they make the war personal for Abu Beka, Mr Beka brings the terror
to their doorstep.
Scorpion’s
Dance didn’t focus on the grass roots operation of Donovan
and Petrov, but rather it was presented as a wide-angle perspective. Mr Murphy
created a world for the two protagonists that included family, friends, lovers,
and social events. It also included the occasional foray into the dark world of
spies and law enforcement, but those scenes were rationed and used as climax
pieces to unsettle and then pace the story; quite effectively too.
This quality made it very different from the usual
thriller fare of the 1980s—it was published in 1990—when the Tom Clancy style
thriller was king and it was a similar story, but Murphy cast his own unique
storytelling on the entire operation. There was humor—the first few chapters in
particular Murphy cast a humorous and telling light on journalism. When there
is no news, they interview each other. And then do it again. The prose was
smooth and very readable. The characters were witty and charming, and the bad
guys were bad.
Scorpion’s
Dance is an entertaining novel. It showcases Mr Murphy’s
vast talent, and while it is not his best work, it is worth reading simply
because it entertains in a smooth and easy style. It runs nearly 500 pages, but
it doesn’t drag or bog and when it ended I was sorry to see it go.
I have a bunch of Warren Murphy's work the non-Destroyer variety that is in my TBR pile. Including the whole Trace detectiv series he wrote. Along with countless Destroyer adventures.
ReplyDeleteBruce. The Trace and Digger novels are terrific. It is probably my favorite of the Warren Murphy canon. Although I have read a few of his thrillers from the mid- to late-1980s--SCORPION'S DANCE, THE HAND OF LAZARUS, THE CEILING OF HELL--and I have really enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteBen
Ben - I've read one of the Trace books, which deals with Trace on a movie set. Shades of the Remo Williams movie misstep come through loud and clear with some of the characters involved
ReplyDelete