Liars & Thieves: A Tommy Carmellini Novel (Hardcover)

The plot and characters have been reviewed here so I won't repeat what others have already said. My criticism is that the Tommy Carmellini character is tissue thin. All the other characters, including the redoubtable Jake Grafton, are transparent, contrived and entirely unbelievable.

You can see where Coonts get his bad guys in this one: parts of Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Bruce Lindsey and the late Vince Foster, familiar to any news junkie, are all there. This wouldn't be bad if there was some suspense involved - but there isn't.

Finally the editing and proofreading in this book are abominable.

Despite the unbelievable plot and characters, Coonts' style is intact and this is a quick read. It just isn't a satisfying read. I do hope that this is the exception and not a precursor of things to come. In any event, when the next Coonts novel appears, I will snap it up. I just hope it won't be as disappointing as "Liars & Thieves."

Jerry

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For ardent Admiral Jake Grafton fans, you will be glad that he & Callie, are back to assist in sorting out who's after whom & who ordered the mayhem, even as a presidential convention gets under way in New York City.

Rebeccasreads recommends LIARS & THIEVES as packed with rib-tickling humor, loads of weaponry, plentiful & bloody skullduggery, spasms of hysterical liberalism, frequent sly deceits, with an unabashed undercurrent of honor.

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Mr. Coonts does an admirable job here making the young, wisecracking Tommy Carmellini the bedrock about which to build "Liars and Thieves." Kind of like an offshoot of successful television series in the '70's, Michael Connelly did this with the Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb books.

This is a pretty good story reminiscent of a great old movie, "3 Days of the Condor," where a CIA agent returns from buying coffee and donuts for his colleagues in a 'safehouse' (in the Robert Redford role) only to find every one of his colleagues has been murdered in the 15 minutes he was on the 'donut run.'

Here Tommy Carmellini is assigned guard duty at a CIA safe house only to stumble upon the killing of all of the occupants. The story starts off with a bang along with the natural, "why?'

That Mr. Coonts keeps this from us for several hundred pages is a pretty good indication of the level of his skill. As I read along getting into the 300's, I still wasn't certain how he was going to tie it all together. Really, quite an interesting read that is a good mystery/airplane/train/beach/summertime novel.

Detracting from it were little oddities that I found . . .well, odd. It seems believable that the CIA would hire ex-felons to do their undercover/confidential informant work. I have trouble believing they would hire two of them and put them on the weekly payrole in their own offices inside the CIA castle.

Secondly, for a guy who professes love for a former colleague as much as Tommy does, he sure sleeps around a lot. I have no problem with that. It just seems Mr. Coonts is appealing to conflicting sides of individual natures.

The character of Tommy Carmellini is complex and he's a nice adjunct to the "tough as a two dollar steak" loyal Navy Vet, Jake Grafton. But, how can I say this? In "Liars & Thieves," he's on his own. Maybe he should be more focused and less like a fraternity boy. A fraternity boy with an M-5 automatic rifle. 4 Stars. Recommended. Larry Scantlebury

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