False Allegations by Andrew Vachss

First published in 1996

False Allegations isn't the best of the Burke novels but it might be the most interesting. Taking on the serious problem of false allegations of sexual assault, Vachss provides a mountain of evidence to establish that accusations of sexual assault are too often false, that false accusations are incredibly destructive even if the truth is eventually revealed, and that false accusations are very difficult to overcome since the accusation itself (if believed) is all the proof the law requires. Of course, every false accusation harms the real victims of sexual assault by fueling the skepticism they encounter when they report the crimes.

A woman with a "recovered memory" of being a sexual assault victim is represented by a lawyer named Kite. Kite hires Burke to determine whether the accused, Brother Jacob, actually assaulted the woman when she was a child. Kite makes his living exposing false allegations of abuse, and is intent on developing a rigorous investigative technique that will become the gold standard of abuse investigations. To have credibility, however, he must conclude that at least one allegation is true, and he wants Burke to assure that the victim he wants to represent in a suit against Brother Jacob is telling the truth. The novel tracks Burke's thorough investigation. Of course, I won't reveal the ending, but I can say that it's both clever and unexpected.

Having said that, I viewed the ending as something of a cop-out (for reasons I can't discuss without spoiling it for those who haven't read the novel). Moreover, Vachss is ultimately an advocate for abused children, not for falsely accused abusers, and the novel can be justly criticized for its unsupported assertion that "recovered memories" are often worthy of belief.  Still, I appreciated Vachss' relatively evenhanded assessment of the nature and causes of false sexual assault allegations, and (as always) I enjoyed his spare, razor-sharp writing style. I also enjoyed Burke's interaction with the usual friends and colorful cronies who populate the Burke novels. This novel lacks the dramatic tension of the best Burke novels, but it's worth reading, if only for its educational value.

RECOMMENDED

The Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry

First published in 1973

Paul Christopher, a character in The Miernik Dossier who appears in most of Charles McCarry's subsequent espionage novels, writes in a report: "There is an artistry to what we are doing: spies are like novelists--except that spies use living people and real places to make their works of art." McCarry knows something about the similarities of spies and novelists, having been a CIA operative himself before commencing his career as a writer of spy novels. The Miernik Dossier is his first, and it is excellent.

The story is told in a series of documents: reports, transcripts of recorded conversations, cables, diary entries, and the like. A drawback of this format is the difficulty of developing a character's personality through documents. McCarry solved that problem by having Christopher (an American agent) write very thorough, engaging reports, complete with verbatim accounts of dialog, descriptions of clothing and scenery and body odors, discussions of his observations, fears, and thought processes, and other material that helps set the scene and flesh out the characters. (Amusingly, a document prepared by one of Christopher's handlers complains that Christopher's reports lack organization and are filled with extraneous information.) Perhaps real spies don't write entertaining reports that work well as chapters in a novel, but maybe McCarry did just that when he worked for the CIA. In any event, Christopher's reports (and to a lesser extent, his British counterpart's and Miernik's diary) provide the flavor that makes the novel work as well as it does.

And it does work well. The story is filled with intrigue as the American and British agents accompany a member of the Sudanese royal family and a Polish diplomat on a road trip from Geneva to Sudan. The two spies are operating under diplomatic cover; each knows that the other is an operative but neither can admit it. They suspect that the Pole is also a spy and that he may have something to do with a Soviet-run terrorist group that has recently formed in Sudan, but they're never quite sure what role the colorful, irascible Pole is playing: is he a spy, and if so, what is his mission in Sudan? Add to the mix the Pole's sister and the British spy's girlfriend, both of whom join the trip, and the story becomes almost comical as everyone suspects everyone else of being something other than what he or she seems. Of course, when things are not as they seem, there is a potential for mistaken actions, and in this novel, that risk leads to a powerful ending. Some fast-paced action scenes in the desert add additional excitement to a story that is never in danger of becoming dull.

The Miernik Dossier teaches a lesson that applies not just to intelligence agencies but to all law enforcement agencies: once an intelligence analyst (or, for that matter, a police detective) begins to theorize that someone is a spy (or a criminal), they are likely to look for evidence to support that theory and risk losing their objectivity. For its excellent illustration of that principle as well as its riveting story and sympathetic characters, I recommend this novel.

RECOMMENDED

Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein

First published in 1950

Farmer in the Sky revolves around the colonization of Ganymede, which is being terraformed to accommodate human life. Most of the first colonists are homestead farmers who are offered land in exchange for their efforts to make the land productive. Young Bill Lerner is the key player in Heinlein's story; through his eyes the reader learns about his father's decision to take a new wife and to become a colonist. The colony struggles with hardship and Bill often wonders whether he'll be able to continue his farming life or whether he'll have to return to Earth.

I enjoyed Heinlein's juveniles when I was a teenager, and again upon rereading them in adulthood. Heinlein's juveniles offer an education in science that is too basic to be horribly outdated, always written in language us non-scientists can comprehend: in Farmer in the Sky, the reader learns lessons of physics, agronomy, ecology, even "population bionomics" (although Heinlein's take on the inevitability of population growth outpacing food supplies might not be well grounded in modern experience, at least as applied to human populations). At least equally interesting, I think, are the Heinlein values that shine through in his novels, and this one is no exception: his distrust of government and bureaucratic institutions; his fierce belief in individualism, coupled with a corresponding belief in the need for individuals to work cooperatively as friends and neighbors and families.

The plot of Farmer in the Sky unfolds a bit more slowly than the stories in some of Heinlein's other juveniles. Frequently mentioned is Bill Lerner's joy in being an Eagle Scout and his love of scouting in general. A shorter version of the book was originally serialized in Boy's Life magazine--perhaps Heinlein included the scouting references to enhance his chance of selling the story, but since they continue to appear (often) in the novel, I suspect Heinlein simply placed great value in scouting. The scouting references don't contribute much to the story (unless you're a real scouting fanatic), but they don't detract from it either.

In short, Farmer in the Sky is fun, educational, but a bit less exciting than some of the other Heinlein juveniles. For the Heinlein completist it's an essential read, but readers seeking the furious action of Starship Troopers might be disappointed.

RECOMMENDED

The Defection of A.J. Lewinter by Robert Littell

First published in 1973

A.J. Lewinter, a physicist specializing in ceramics who does military research on missile nosecones, defects to the Soviet Union (the novel was published in 1973, when the Soviet Union still existed). His knowledge of ceramics isn't likely to be helpful to the Russians, but Lewinter may have obtained accurate knowledge of missile trajectories--information that could enable the Soviet Union to develop an effective anti-missile defense. The American government isn't quite sure whether Lewinter was able to memorize the trajectory formulas during his brief time with them, while the Soviets aren't quite sure whether Lewinter is a genuine defector with useful information, a genuine defector who has been given false information to fool the Soviets, or an American agent.

Littell's novel takes a fun look at the games played by espionage services. The Americans want the Russians to believe Lewinter's information is useless. The Russians, in turn, need to figure out whether they're being played by the Americans. The novel takes us through the reasoning processes employed by both sides. The characters, on both the American and Russian side, are interesting albeit one-dimensional. This is more of a cerebral novel than an action-packed thriller, but the twists and turns taken by the Americans and Russians as each side tries to out-think and to out-deceive the other make the novel a gripping read.

RECOMMENDED

Skinner by Richard S. McEnroe

Published by Bantam Books in December 1985

Skinner is the third (and, apparently, the last) novel in Richard McEnroe's "Far Stars and Future Times" series. There is an ad in the novel's back pages for a fourth book titled Chains of Knowledge, but it isn't included in McEnroe's bibliography and I've found no evidence that it was ever published.

Skinner begins on the planet Wolkenheim, where most of the action in Flight of Honor (the second book in the series) takes place. The Earth emigrants who settled Wolkenheim (the First Wavers) have implemented a scheme to make sure their hard-won prosperity isn't supplanted by newly arriving immigrants: anyone setting foot on Wolkenheim who can't establish his financial solvency is forced into indentured servitude -- serving, of course, the First Wavers. Chavez Blackstone has been scraping by on Wolkenheim, but after engaging in a drunken brawl with a member of the power structure, he's declared insolvent. He seeks off-world passage from ship's captain Moses Callahan, a character in The Shattered Stars (the first book in the series), but before he can make his escape he's captured and taken to the planet Trollshulm where he's put to work for the powerful Santer Family. The Santers make their living by producing dragonskin, a fabric that comes from dragons that are native to Trollshulm. The dragons are docile creatures until someone tries to kill them, which is the difficult job given to skinners -- and Blackstone's new vocation.

Seamlessly merging with the main plot is a story of economic and political intrigue as Eli Santer fights to save his fabric monopoly from a competing product, from a disloyal employee, and from new flight technology that will undermine his way of doing business. Joining the two plotlines is a woman who works for (and sleeps with) Santer, who feels compassion for the skinners he economically enslaves. Political machinations run through the story, but politics and economics take a back seat to the action, making Skinner a very readable novel. It's almost as good as Flight of Honor, although it feels like it was written a bit hastily, as if McEnroe had to cut some corners to meet a deadline. Still, Skinner is a worthwhile, intelligent read for sf fans. It's unfortunate that McEnroe didn't continue the series beyond the three fine novels that he produced.

RECOMMENDED