More consorting with the Criminal Element led me to read someone else’s book about a disgraced architect: The Fallen Architect is an atmospheric novel featuring an intriguing mystery, a sympathetic lead (who can also draw and paint), and a (literally) theatrical supporting cast, all set effectively in a colorful milieu….
Criminal Element: Ghost: My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent
My other recent run-in with the Criminal Element lands me on the right side of the law, with a review of FBI memoir Ghost: The career-end autobiography seems to come in two flavors. The vanilla version is from the person who truly, intensely believes in the organization to which they…
Come the Revolution: The Sympathizer
Once again, I’m entangled with the Criminal Element, this time with a review of Edgar-nominated war story The Sympathizer. While it’s likely that the Vietnam War spawned many bookshelves full of novels written by Vietnamese authors, an awfully small number of these are in English. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer is…
Criminal Element: Bad Paper, by Jake Halpern
I’m entangled with the Criminal Element once again. Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld follows the strange-but-true exploits of a cast of scalawags in the only slice of the financial industry that can make derivatives trading look honest: debt collection. Journalist Jake Halpern brings you bankers,…