hist's Full Review: John J. Le Beau - Collision of Evil
I'm of two minds about John J. Le Beau's Collision of Evil, torn between subject matter and quality. On the good side, it's so refreshing to see a book that doesn't hide the current state of the world, where terrorism is a danger against which we should always be vigilant. Le Beau is an ex-CIA agent, so he definitely knows that of which he speaks. On the other hand, it's just not a very good book. Cardboard characters, awkward plotting and a bit too much propaganda bring the novel down way too far in my estimation. I am very glad I read the book, but I wish it had been much better. This is Le Beau's first book, so I'm hoping that subsequent ones will be a bit more polished.
An American tourist in the Bavarian Alps is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hiking in the mountains during a rainstorm, Charles Hirter stumbles upon a cave with a large stack of old crates in it. On the way back down the mountain, he is murdered. Kommissar Franz Waldbaer is in charge of the investigation. Was it a random murder, or was it planned? His life is complicated further when Hirter's brother, Robert, shows up not only to bring the body home but to help in the investigation as well. Robert's much more than he seems, and their investigation begins to reveal a terrifying plot that will jolt German society, and Western society in general, to its very core.
Collision of Evil is a very plot-heavy novel, and there isn't necessarily anything wrong with that. For the most part, it's the plot of the novel that is Le Beau's strength, as he slowly reveals the plan to the reader as Hirter and Waldbaer discover pieces of it. We do see things from the villains' points of view as well, but Le Beau only gets clear with these viewpoints once our heroes have more of an understanding of what is going on. He plays his cards close to his chest in the meantime, which adds a sense of menace to the whole proceeding. As said before, it's also nice to see a plot which actually is taken from current headlines rather than manufacturing villains for the sake of avoiding them. As the plot is executed, the book turns almost riveting, just wondering whether or not our heroes will succeed in stopping it.
Unfortunately, this is the extent of the praise I can give the novel. While plot-driven novels are ok, I find them extremely boring if the characters aren't that interesting to read about. In this case, they generally aren't. Le Beau gives them just enough characterization so that the book can't be considered an essay, but nowhere near enough to make them interesting. Waldbaer comes closest to actually being fleshed out, but even he suffers. Le Beau illustrates his characters through their mannerisms, with the occasional infodump as one of them explains to another some piece of their own history. Sometimes they do it because it might have some bearing on the case, and other times it's to showcase that these two are beginning to respect each other. Never is it that interesting. In fact, I found the digressions back to the final days of World War II more interesting at times than the lead-up to discovering what's actually going on in the novel.
The prose is also rather wooden and Le Beau annoyingly includes some asides that I assume are supposed to add to the characters but instead just seem pointless. Hirter and a CIA technician back home, Caroline O'Kendall, have some kind of weird flirtation going for no real reason. They've met once, I believe, maybe twice. When Hirter is first told of her, he remembers that she is "pretty." O'Kendall kind of remembers that he was nice-looking too. But that's pretty much all there is too it, even when they do eventually meet in the novel. The fact that these characters weren't that interesting to begin with makes these lines even more off-putting than they already were.
There are many other things wrong that either make Collision of Evil look sloppy or make it look like it has its own ulterior motives. These include editing mistakes and plot elements that are just there to make a point. First, a man sneaks up behind another man and kills him, but as he's doing the sneaking, Le Beau tells us that the second man's jacket is missing buttons. Since the scene is from the point of view of the attacker, how could he know this? Then, the lead bad guy has a vision that they're in danger of discovery, and this prompts them to move just as Hirter and Waldbaer are about to discover them. This seems horribly out of place in a "regular" (i.e. non-fantasy or religious) novel, a way to move the plot forward because Le Beau couldn't think of anything else. Not the fact that he has a vision (religious fanatics have them all the time), but that the vision is actually true.
There are also a couple of propaganda points in the novel that were irritating, despite the fact that I probably would agree with him on them. First, Le Beau takes a veiled shot at the German health care system by noting in passing that Waldbaer's wound (when he gets shot) gets infected in the hospital.
Secondly, and more egregious, is a scene where he has a German committee deciding how to act on the intelligence that the CIA has given them about the plot. There is one very vocal woman who seems more interested in whether or not the information was obtained through torture than she is on what they can do to stop the plot. Le Beau describes her in such an ugly way that it had to be on purpose, especially considering he calls her boss "fit and sleek." She is described as the committee chairman's "corpulent deputy." Later in the meeting, Le Beau says: "With a tug at the red-patterned silk scarf intended to conceal her multiplicity of chins..." Finally, there's "The heavy woman shifted in her chair, which groaned in rebuke at the strain." I have no sympathy for this woman's point of view, but even I'm offended! Come on, Mr. Le Beau. Don't they teach subtlety in the CIA?
I will give Collision of Evil props for the plot, but I really wish it had been a better book to showcase that this type of book is very important in modern times. As it is, I can't recommend the book at all, despite really liking the overall intention of the book. The pace is slow, the writing is wooden and it was just a chore to get through. This is an exciting plot! But told in a very dull, misguided manner.
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