Released October 2008 (Vanguard Press) * 220 pages * ISBN-13: 9781593154875
I’ve read almost all of David Morrell’s books and there are some that I absolutely love and there are others that are okay but not on my reread list. The Spy Who Came For Christmas
The story of Paul Kagan and the baby suffers from a pacing problem. The story takes place mostly with the characters under siege in the Santa Fe house. In fact, the characters remain under siege for 187 out of 233 pages before the bad guys storm the house. That is a particularly long period for the characters to be confined to a couple of rooms. There are flashbacks to liven things up and add background information, but I still found myself losing interest in the characters and situation. As for the kidnapped baby, a strong case is never made for why this is child is so important to the Russian mafia (or the rest of the world for that matter). There are hints that this child is supposed to mirror the birth of Jesus but as a reader I need something more concrete than that to buy into the story.
I don’t have much to say about the retelling of the nativity story. I get the nagging feeling that in order to get the full effect that Morrell intends a knowledge of Christianity is necessary as well as assumed. That’s a departure for Morrell who has had religious themes in his books before, but has never depended so much on the reader’s knowledge to impart the story.
Although David Morrell is one of my favourite authors, I’m not a fan of this particular book. If you’re new to Morrell, I recommend The Brotherhood of the Rose
6 Comments
I haven’t read Morrell yet – The Brotherhood of the Rose sounds like it would be a good one to start with.
Belle @ MsBookish´s last blog post..More Library Decadence
In seeing this one around different blogs I thought it would be a lot better. Looks like I’ll be passing on this one.
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I actually read this at Christmas but I think the paperback came out recently so that may be why it’s on other blogs. I’ll have to go read the other reviews to see what is being said.
Morrell has a new book coming out in July so I’ll still be reading that one if I can track down a copy.
If anyone is looking for other Morrell books to start with I rememberThe Fifth Profession as being good though it’s been years since I’ve read it.
I read this one at Christmas time because I always enjoy the holiday short stories and novellas. I thought this was going to be one of them but it really wasn’t. I tried to like it but as you said, it fell short. My mom loved Creepers and I just found it this month at a library sale. I grabbed it but haven’t had the chance to read it yet. I’m glad to hear you liked it too.
Creepers is awesome because every detail mentioned is important. It seems like just random stuff is being mentioned but as the story goes on you realize it’s all relevant to the plot. I thought that was very well done and very rewarding for the reader to know that nothing was included just because or as a red herring. I hope you enjoy it.
The whole idea of the Nativity is what makes this story come to life. If you missed that one of two things are at fault. Either you don’t know the Christmas story, or you have bitterness towards Christianity. Without Christ there is no Christmas, and Christ’s life was quite the life of espionage. “Not getting it”, or even not liking it though, doesn’t change the past or the future for the plan of this world.