A Strange Habit of Mind (Cameron Winter Mysteries)

Wonderful edition to Cameron winter's life and story, I wasn't sure more was needed but now I'm glad there is

I'm half way through. I'm enjoying it more than When Christmas Comes (which I read in one sitting). It's a great story; but just has this depth about it. I need to pause and process this, even as I want to just devour the chapters. What an accomplishment!

I am re-reading Dashiell Hammett’s short stories and Raymond Chandler’s novels, and “A Strange Habit of Mind” is up there, but in it’s own way and a 21st-century way. I’ve never written a book review for fiction before, but this one was really good. Not to give any of the plot away - This novel has a classic hardboiled style, More modern thriller characters and plot, Addresses hard “R” subjects smoothly with a more golden age of Hollywood subtlety (though not that subtle), Has a solid plot that holds up through the end, Though it is interesting and exciting, it is not “comic book” like so much modern storytelling, Has complex characters and interactions across sex and race, A third person narration that is able to smoothly express first person perspectives, Addresses issues like mega-wealth and Christianity in America like a 19th-century English novel might address class and the church as part of society, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly, Some philosophic type discussions that fit the plot without dragging, While dealing with hard subjects it does not wallow in delight in the characters suffering as some novelists have a tendency to do, It is tough without the bloated “steroid” type displays of masculinity, hard boiled without posing, And with all of the above, it’s just a book someone could pick up and enjoy. Again, this was a good, fun book, one that might become one of the classics in hardboiled writing. While I have enjoyed some other books by Andrew Klavan, this one really stands out. It is not a book for kids and I think that maybe a number of women wouldn’t like its darkness, but if you want a fun book to read that is very insightful and solid in an enjoyable way, I think it’s worth the price.

Andrew Klavan's (I hope I'm spelling that right) most recent literary contribution, A Strange Habit of Mind is a strange and wonderful book. So far as I can tell it's unlike anything being published at the moment. It is a psychologically complex thriller, masterfully plotted and paced, with all of the excitement and suspense one could ask for. It is populated with an array of compelling characters who feel eerily real. Happily, it also deals (albeit obliquely) with themes that few authors dare touch today in any sincere way, in our postmodern, God-is-dead secular culture. The story revolves around the guilt-ridden, former spy, now English professor, Cameron Winter, who made his debut in the marvelous When Christmas Comes. In his mind, he has done terrible things; thus the guilt. As a member of The Division, an ultra-secret unit within the U.S. intelligence community (presumably fictional), Winter has served his country. This service entailed death. More precisely, it entailed killing. A lot of it. Throughout the book, he is tortured by his conscience. Brooding on his supposed transgressions, he finds some relief in therapy. Margaret Whitaker is his psychologist. She is more a priest masquerading as a psychologist. In a wonderfully satisfying literary device, Klavan uses Whitaker to reveal Winter's secrets and sins (at least a few of them). Thus we get to know him and his past. Moreover, through Whitaker's ministrations Winter begins to regain the wholeness that he lacks and desperately needs back. Winter also has his titular strange habit of mind. When needed, he can enter a diffuse state where facts, impressions, and thoughts take shape of their own accord, leading him to the truth about a given mystery or problem. This ability comes in handy over the course of the story, giving him an edge that he will need if he is to match wits with his formidable antagonists. One of them is Gerald Byrne, a tech billionaire with the God complex endemic to people with that kind of wealth. Byrne has a problem: he thinks (and acts as though) he is a god--a real titan. As such, he feels entitled to god-like powers: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. An all too familiar type in our day, Byrne, owner of Byrner (an influential social media platform) wields his power against his enemies with impunity. That is, until he lands on the radar of Cameron Winter. And so the story goes, dotted with extraordinary characters and scenes. E.g. The Recruiter: Winter's shadowy mentor. A devout Bible thumper full of certainties about God, life, and man's duty to country. A psychologist par excellence, who can penetrate into a man's being with preternatural ability, he appears periodically throughout the book to aid Winter in his campaign to bring Byrne low. Reading this book was a pleasure. Knowing that the author is a true American p...