Tag Archives: James Scott Bell

Fiction, Reviews

‘Romeo’s Fire,’ by James Scott Bell

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I was tired. Tired of thinking about death. I remembered something Kafka said, that the meaning of life is only that it stops. I wanted to punch Kafka in the face. But he’s dead too.

James Scott Bell’s Mike Romeo books are pleasant, fairly light action mysteries in the hard-boiled genre. James Scott Bell, a top-level Christian novelist, knows his business. His main character here is a former cage fighter who now works as an investigator for a wise old Jewish attorney in Los Angeles. Mike is a great reader, always quoting the classics.

In Romeo’s Fire, they have a new client, a homeless boy who killed another homeless man with a knife. He claims self-defense – it’s the use of a knife in California that got him in trouble. Mike’s boss thinks he can plead down to manslaughter and get the kid off with no jail time. They get him remanded to a group home, from which he promptly disappears. Now it’s Mike’s job to find their client.

One amusing element in this story was that after Mike gets arrested (of course he gets arrested. Doesn’t every private eye get arrested in every private eye novel?), he solves the problem the old-fashioned way, by just bulling through a police guard. He makes it work too.

Also notable is the realistic depiction of today’s Los Angeles, especially its homeless problem and impotent police protection. There are also Christian themes, which author Bell renders more palatable through making Mike a seeking agnostic.

The Mike Romeo mysteries are always fun. I recommend Romeo’s Fire, and James Scott Bell is a fine storyteller.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Sins of the Fathers,’ by James Scott Bell

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But then the guy smiled. His teeth were like pylons coated with ocean grime.

I’m a great fan of James Scott Bell, one of our best Christian thriller writers (after Andrew Klavan, of course). But for me at first, Sins of the Fathers labored under a few handicaps.

First of all, there’s a female protagonist. I just avoid them in these days of Mary Sues (not that a male writer is likely to write a female Mary Sue.)

Secondly, the setting is early in the 21st Century, when conditions in our country (and specifically in Los Angeles, where this story is set) were somewhat different from today. This was the days of tough, lock ’em up LA prosecutors (I believe one of our current presidential candidates was part of this). It was a very different environment from what we see in California today.

Finally, this is an expressly Christian novel. It’s not the kind I generally prefer, where the Christianity is mostly subtextual (though Heaven knows I don’t practice what I preach in my own books).

So I was a little slow getting into Sins of the Fathers. But it won me over, decisively.

Lindy Field is a defense attorney, but she hasn’t worked in a while. She suffered a bitter defeat in the case of a minor she defended, and she suspects a police cover-up. She actually suffered a psychological breakdown, and hasn’t worked for a while.

But her legal mentor asks her to take on a fresh case. It’s a high profile one, concerning a boy who opened fire with a rifle on a middle school baseball game, killing several boys and one coach. Public anger is high. A powerful victims’ advocacy group is calling for the maximum penalty.

Even worse, the assistant DA who beat Lindy on the last case will be prosecuting this one.

But her mentor thinks she can win. Get a sentence of mental incapacity for the kid. He says he believes in her. So she takes the case.

It will lead to frantic social pressure, media scrutiny, and an attempt on her life. But Lindy – for personal reasons that are only gradually revealed – needs to hold on. She needs to save this kid.

In terms of characterization and plot, I’d say Sins of the Fathers is as good as any thriller novel I’ve ever read, whatever the intended audience. There were delightful surprises, and I was moved by the book’s resolution.

I’ll admit I thought there was a little too much “God talk.” People bringing up Christ and faith in casual conversation, so that the message of the book could be explicitly stated. Of course, this was nearly 20 years ago. Society was different then. You could probably discuss such things in an LA courthouse in those bygone days.

Anyway, if you’re looking for an overtly Christian thriller, written at the very highest level, I can wholeheartedly recommend Sins of the Fathers.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Romeo’s Justice,’ by James Scott Bell

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This will be a short review – probably shorter than the book deserves. But I’m busy playing Viking in Minot, snatching a few minutes before bedtime, and I’m kind of tired (the festival is going fine; thanks for asking). Anyway, I love all the Mike Romeo books, so what is there new to say about Romeo’s Justice?

Mike Romeo, erudite Los Angeles private eye working for Ira, an ex-Mossad attorney, beats up an obnoxious type at the very start of the book, just to set the tone. The guy deserved it. Then he has a date with his girlfriend Sophie, who is learning to coexist with Mike’s forceful ways.

Ira asks Mike to take on a case from Noel Auden, a mother whose son recently (ostensibly) committed suicide. He had left their Catholic faith to explore spirituality at a school called the Roethke Spiritual Center, out near the Salton Sea. According to his suicide note, he did it because of global climate change, but Noel wants to be sure, in light of the seriousness of suicide in Catholic doctrine.

Mike goes out and starts poking around, asking questions. As you’d expect, there is pushback from some nasty characters, as well as from the police, most of whom are in the pay of a local energy tycoon. But that’s all in a day’s work for Mike Romeo.

Romeo’s Justice was not full of surprises, but it was full of Mike’s personality and Bell’s prose, the things that bring us back. Important issues are addressed. A resolution is found in the end.

Good book. Well worth the price.

Authors, Fiction

James Scott Bell interview

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Above, an interview — a few years old — with author James Scott Bell. Among the topics touched on are whether writers are born or made, and if a series character can have a character arc.

He mentions his blog, Kill Zone, which I wasn’t aware of. You can find it here.

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The Moster Play, and other matters

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I did something today I never do. I quit a book I actually liked. I’ve outgrown the idea that you have to finish every book you start reading. Life’s too short, especially at my age. So if I think a book is badly written, or if it offends me, I’ll just remove its download from my Kindle.

But why would I drop a book whose values please me, and which I find well-written?

Because I’m a wimp. Which will not surprise our regular readers.

I should at least give the author credit. He’s one of my favorites, James Scott Bell. The book is Can’t Stop Me. It’s about an ordinary guy, a lawyer and family man, who is suddenly targeted by an old college acquaintance who seems to have no purpose other than to force himself into his life. The stalker employs innuendo and suggestion to threaten the hero, always keeping within legal limits. The worst thing is, he happens to know the hero’s oldest and darkest secret.

This is an old book of Bell’s which he’s revised slightly for re-release. It shows some signs of being early work, but is overall very well written.

And it gave me the willies. This kind of story – the kind where ordinary people face dangers they’re not prepared for, really bothers me. I suppose it’s because I know I wouldn’t survive ten minutes in such a situation.

A writer ought to have thicker skin.

Anyway, if you’re braver than I am, I recommend it, even though I chickened out a third of the way through.

In other news, I remembered today that I need to renew my passport. I’d put it away with the unpaid bills so I wouldn’t forget it, and got so used to seeing it there that I forgot it. I should have done it earlier – now I’ll be passportless for a short while. Not that I expect to need it. I tend to use a passport one time before it expires. This one I’ll probably never use at all.

But I like to have one. I’m an international man of affairs, after all. I never know when I’m going to be summoned to receive a medal from the king of Norway.

But 130 bucks for a passport? I’m pretty sure my first one, back in the ’80s, cost $40.

Speaking of Norway, I mentioned Mosterøy in Norway in yesterday’s post, and said not to confuse it with Moster on Bomlø. I visited that Moster last summer too. It was the home of the mother of King Haakon the Good (who was related to Erling Skjalgsson’s family). They do a historical play in an amphitheater there every year (video above). My two guides, Tore-Ravn and Einar (the two on the left in the photo below, with the historic Moster Stone), are extras in the play, and take great pride in it.

Authors, Writing

James Scott Bell’s best writing advice

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Still haven’t finished the book I’m reading for review. This would seem to argue that I’ve been busy and productive, but I don’t feel busy and productive. However, this is irrelevant. I learned long ago that my feelings are of very little practical use.

So, another video tonight. Here’s a short clip from one of my favorite authors, James Scott Bell. He’s talking about a discipline many writers have found valuable — giving yourself a daily quota of words to produce. Like compound interest, this practice yields remarkable results over time.

I have written this way at times in my long life, but it’s been a while. Most of the time, I can write only so much at a sitting. After my small ration of creativity has run out, I end up sitting at the keyboard, frustrated. I am then overcome with guilt and turn to drink and drugs.

Okay, I don’t turn to drink and drugs. But I understand the appeal.

Anyway, I just took up rising early to write, and that’s upped my output considerably. So get off my back, James Scott Bell.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Romeo’s Rage,’ by James Scott Bell

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Sometimes somebody has an idea that just works. When an author comes up with a series character who engages mind and heart, and places him or her in stories that mean something to the reader, he’s got gold. James Scott Bell has produced gold in the Mike Romeo series, about a one-time cage fighter and certified genius on a quest for virtue. Romeo’s Rage entertained me and moved me.

Mike Romeo gets a call from a friend, a reformed gang member who now does Christian ministry with urban youth. It’s a hush-hush thing – the friend knows about a “package,” a child being delivered for prostitution purposes. He doesn’t have to ask twice for help in intervening. Mike and his friend execute a professional extraction and get the little girl to an “underground railroad” site.

Then things turn bad. The girl is taken again, and Mike’s friend is killed. They underestimated the bad guys.

Mike was mad about this criminal operation from the start. Now he’s really mad. And they won’t like him when he’s mad.

As Mike makes his plans and implements them, he’s assisted and restrained (somewhat) by his boss, Ira Levin, a wheelchair-bound ex-Mossad agent and current lawyer. Also he’s reevaluating his relationship with his girlfriend Sophie. He truly loves her, but feels her being close to him will make her a target – if not now, someday. If he loves her, he feels, he’s got to break it off.

Of course, Sophie might have something to say about that herself.

I want to be Mike Romeo when I get younger. Romeo’s Rage was thrilling and moving. I shed manly tears. Highly recommended.

Fiction, Reviews

‘No More Lies,’ by James Scott Bell

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I’ve become a big fan of James Scott Bell, one of the very few really good Christian mystery writers out there. So I picked up No More Lies, a newly released revision of one of his earlier works. The book shows obvious signs of a writer still in the learning stages, but it also showcases a lot of the virtues that make Bell such a good storyteller.

The location is the small town of Pack Canyon, once the site of Old West movie sets, in the western San Fernando Valley. Arty Towne is out hiking in a wilderness area with his new wife, Liz. Arty has recently become a born-again Christian, and has left a good-paying job on principle. Liz doesn’t get this. Money is everything to Liz. It makes her very angry. Tragedy follows.

Caught up in the ensuing drama is Arty’s sister “Rocky,” an insurance investigator whose life has been blighted by a facial scar she acquired in childhood. And “Mac” MacDonald, an ex-con and new Christian who’s trying to keep straight in spite of numerous pressures, including recurring headaches from wartime injuries.

No More Lies is a tight, convoluted tale with lots of surprises (some of them a little far-fetched). Lots of “Noir” elements – weak-willed people wading into crime and getting caught in the undertow. I liked the characters, and the book contained moments of laughter as well as pathos.

What didn’t work – and it pains me to say it – is the “God talk.” One of the hardest things for a Christian writer trying to write for a secular audience is making the God talk sound natural. And it’s strained here. (No doubt it’s often strained in my own books.)

Also, there’s a weird anticlimax scene that serves no dramatic purpose I can discern.

But other than that, No More Lies is a lot of fun. Excellent entertainment. No cautions for language or themes.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Trouble Is My Beat,’ by James Scott Bell

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I’ve become a big fan of James Scott Bell, an excellent mystery-and-thriller writer who also happens to be a Christian. So when I saw he’d published a collection of novellas in hard-boiled style called Trouble Is My Beat, I snapped it up. It was excellent value for money.

Bill “Wild Bill” Armbrewster is a World War I veteran and a successful pulp mystery writer. But it’s hard to make a living doing that, even back in the late 1940s. So he works as a “fixer” for a Hollywood studio. That involves getting stars out of dangerous or illegal situations, avoiding scandal, and sometimes putting the scare on them to keep them on the straight and narrow. It might bring him up against rival studios, or gangsters, or dangerous dames, or the cops. He won’t let himself be intimidated, and he’s a hard man to fool. And at heart he’s a decent guy.

Bill Armbrewster is the kind of simple, old-fashioned hero you don’t run into much anymore, on the page or on the screen. Author Bell does a good job of writing in the hard-boiled voice, though his similes and metaphors aren’t up to Chandler and Hammett’s standards. No effort is made to shock the reader into a raised consciousness. The language is generally mild, and one story involving a Christian evangelist treats him with respect.

There was pretty much nothing I disliked about Trouble Is My Beat. Highly recommended.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Romeo’s Town,’ by James Scott Bell

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I didn’t grow up here, but when you come to stay in L.A. it adopts you. It’s a wild crazy aunt of a town, dressed up in boas and bangles and laughing too loud, sometimes getting angry for no apparent reason and throwing a screaming fit, only to calm down and pull you in for a forgiving embrace even though you haven’t done anything to be forgiven for.

I genuinely love James Scott Bell’s Mike Romeo novels. As I’ve said too many times already, there aren’t a lot of Christian writers today who can write a story worthy to play with the big kids in the industry. Bell’s books are that good, and they manage to keep the language mostly PG. Mike Romeo is a particularly interesting hero, a genius, a Harvard drop-out, a martial arts expert and former cage fighter. He’s on a spiritual journey, facilitated now by his new employer, a disabled Jewish lawyer named Ira for whom he serves as investigator.

As Romeo’s Town opens, Mike rescues a clerk in a bookstore from a knife-wielding attacker, braining him with a large volume on Shakespeare by Harold Bloom. Almost predictably, it’s Mike who ends up in trouble with the law. Then he and Ira go to see a new client, a teenaged boy attending an elite private school, who has confessed to dealing drugs. His mother, who hired them, thinks the boy is covering for another student. Mike’s investigation (punctuated by frequent fights, sometimes to the death) leads him into the intersection between the social elite and the narcotics rackets. With some nasty surprises for him personally. Plus a reunion with the love of his life.

Mike Romeo is a fascinating character, and (in my opinion) author Bell does hard-boiled narration better than anybody writing today, but with a sly personal slant. Highly recommended.