Do you remember that great scene in Die Hard where Bonnie Bedelia has the epiphany about Alan Rickman’s slick terrorist, and says something like, “after all the posturing and political rhetoric, you’re nothing but a common thief,” and his all-telling reply, “I am an exceptional thief.” Remember that? That was awesome.
Take Hans Gruber’s relatively modest intent to abscond with some many millions of dollars worth from the vault of the Nakatomi Plaza, and inflate it to several times its size. Then add the chaos of war for cover and you’ve got some idea of the scope of Michael Robotham’s newest The Wreckage.
Robotham, who spent years as a journalist, (and celebrity memoir ghost writer – I love to hear those stories from a writer’s point of view) has plenty of grist for the story mill from what he saw and researched himself, but The Wreckage has its roots in journalists James Steele and Donald Barlett’s Vanity Fair piece from 2007 about the disappearance of nine billion dollars of US currency into the chaos of the reconstruction of Iraq.
Yeah. Nine-billion.
The Wreckage starts off with foreign journalist Luca Terracini arriving at the scene of a bloody bank robbery in Iraq, (by his count, the sixth such in Bagdad in the last two months – eighteenth for the year.) Bank guards are suspected of the heist. Of the six on duty overnight, three are dead and the others missing.
Meanwhile in London, returning Robotham character Vincent Ruiz is robbed by a pair of small-time, but slick confidence operators who have no idea they’ve picked a bad target to get over on. As he’s an ex-policeman with years of experience and many resources still at his disposal, it doesn’t take him long to catch up to the thieves. Unfortunately for them, Ruiz doesn’t get to them first. One of the pair is tortured and killed just before he shows up, and Ruiz switches gears from pursuer to protector of the remaining partner.
Invisible threads link the bank robberies, the murder of the thief and the disappearance of a major, world financial figure in this global conspiracy thriller which is not so much ripped from a random collection of headlines as it is an attempt to show the connective tissue between them. Am I spoiling anything to say that it's always really about money and power? I didn't think so.
Robotham knows his stuff, but doesn’t inflict the reader with the full weight of his research – thank you, sir, thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s impressively and intricately plotted, richly detailed and fast-paced enough to keep you turning pages rather than attempting to get ahead of the story. Everything from the hardware to the social customs are seen with an expert’s eye, but we’re mercifully spared any lectures.
Check out this great piece Robotham wrote about the book ‘s origins over at the Mulholland Books blog, as well as his two part interview with Mark Billingham here - part one and part two. Don't know about you, but reading that piece and the book have me stoked to check out Lee Tamahori's The Devil's Double in theaters this summer.
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
