Final Acts [Hardcover]

Charlie Morrell returns in a third adventure for the high-flying Cuban- American lawyer and author who made his first appearance in Alex Abella's The Killing of the Saints. This time Charlie's on the run from a murder charge involving the ritual slayings of two women linked to a murderous Havana cult, which gives the author a chance to demonstrate his expertise (and treat the reader to a travelogue) about Cuba in the waning days of the Castro regime. Given the state of geopolitics, it's a useful lesson in what's going on in other corners of the globe, too, as a security agent who uses Charlie's quest for his own purpose--to trap an American gangster--explains: "Perhaps you remember what happens in the final stages of a, let's say, authoritarian regime. Factions develop, differing interests struggle to position themselves in a restricted reality so as to reassert control and expand their particular spheres of influence. Moves are made to eliminate competing factions, which answer in kind, which leads to even greater instability, the whole thing being ultimately solved by either the hegemonic triumph of one factor or the imposition of a new extraneous order which takes advantage of all the infighting among the competing centers."

Charlie manages to stay one step ahead of an old foe in the LAPD, who thinks he killed the women to revive his career as an author and show his own lawyer, the redoubtable Rita Carr, how to do her job. This fast-paced read suffers from two shortcomings. Charlie's characterization is about an inch deep, and much of the story is recounted in a novel within a novel that's stylistically awkward and not as satisfying as a more direct approach might be. But Rita is a heroine to watch--maybe next time Abella will give her her own book. --Jane Adams

The rites and rituals of Santeria as seen through a thriller lens lay a gory groundwork in Abella's (The Killing of the Saints; Dead of Night) latest, once again starring lawyer/ author/private investigator Charlie Morell. Picking up where Dead of Night left off, when Morell's own Santeria beliefs result in his arrest for two brutal cult murders in Los Angeles and Alameda, this novel begins as Morell turns to Latina lawyer Rita Carr to mount his defense. Carr is skeptical when her client claims to be the victim of a massive conspiracy involving the L.A. County prosecutor's office, but the theory gains credence when Carr and Morell learn that prosecuting DA Phil Fuentes was indeed part of a coverup surrounding the supposed suicide of state senator Tom Decker. Abella employs an awkward technique, alternating Carr's Philip Marlowesque first-person narrative with the story Morell is writing of his own case as events ensue. He does little to flesh out a very thin plot, jumping into the murder scene without providing sufficient background on either Morell or the Santeria cult. The role of the cult remains largely undeveloped through most of the narrative, but Morell is given numerous opportunities to spout a peculiar spiritual psychobabble that slows down the plot and adds little to the story. Carr's engaging character is never fleshed out, and the appearance of a demonic cat burglar in her apartment provides a slapdash resolution to the book, which should satisfy the author's fans but won't do much to broaden his reader base. Agent, Joseph Regal, Russell & Volkening. (Dec.)
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