COUNTERPARTS by Gonzalo Lira

Finished Fr 10/27/17 (very early on the day of the microwave/oven installation from Dick Van Dyke)

This is one of my old paperbacks that I found downstairs when I was going through the collection to get rid of 'the unwanted', and I decided to re-read this one. I first read it Fr 5/14/99. And according to the flyleaf, "Before Brandenburgs to sign the Sun City deposit box stuff". I don't exactly remember this incident, but I get the picture.

While I was reading the book I searched the internet to find out more about this author. He did write another book that continues with the character of Nicholas Denton, but he's left the fiction genre, and now primarily writes 'financial news'. In fact, I noticed some of his work at ZERO HEDGE which a one of those 'Russian Fake News' outlets (an unsecured website). He's a graduate of Dartmouth and his family is from Chile and he's related to some of the founding fathers of that country. His politics are the the radical right.

CHARACTERS:

Margaret Chisholm- She's the slightly unhinged FBI agent. In the first scene of the novel she is called to a stadium to interrogate a suspect who has planted bombs around the venue. In order for him to reveal their location, she grabs a fire ax and chops off the man's fingers. Even she realized that she went to far, but not enough to stop.  She begins to grasp that the ultra-violence is becoming far too attractive.

SEPSIS-  An international hitman similar to Carlos the Jackal. He's more into 'metas-murder'; he leaves the victim alive, but so damages his life that he would be better off dead. Ex.- kills every member of the person's family, but lets the target live. "There are some fates worse than death".

Nicholas Denton- He plays the role of a career bureaucrat within the CIA, but really he has organized a clandestine group that is the true power within the agency. He's mild-mannered, yet secretly ruthless.

Sister Marianne- A Catholic nun who is an expert on Vatican architecture. She and Edmund Gettier, her mentor, are employed to strengthen Vatican buildings. However, forces within the CIA are going to destroy the Vatican to help draw the West into the middle East. Near the end of the novel it's revealed that Gettier is actually a villain who was also a terrorist and a lover of Sepsis.

Federico Lorca- When the action moves to the Vatican, this man is the police coordinator with the Italian authorities.

Keith Lehrer- This is Denton's putative boss at the CIA and the arch-villain of the story. He's running an illegal operation called Archangel that will reap millions of dollars for him and a couple of other high ranking officials in the agency. He asks  Denton to join, but Denton kills him and makes it appear to be a self-inflicted bullet to the brain.

Storyline:

After the incident at the stadium, Margaret's boss assigns her to a case that might allow her to mentally regroup. A small religious order in New Hampshire has been attacked and all of the nuns, except one, have been killed in a bomb attack. And, while in custody someone takes a shot at this nun, so it appears that she is the real target.

The nun is invited back to Rome to make the structure of the Vatican buildings more strong and secure. She's an expert on ancient architecture. The CIA teams with the FBI to secure this operation and mayhem ensues.

Not a great book, but not bad. More 'plane' or 'beach' type of a novel. Lira's next novel was called ACROBAT and features more on the adventures of Nicholas Denton. It's out of print and fairly expensive. I'd read it if the library got it, but they don't.