Thu 2 Apr 2020
ROSS THOMAS – The Mordida Man. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1981. Berkley, paperback, 1983. Mysterious Press, paperback, 1994.
A terrorist with connections with Libya is kidnapped. The Libyans think the CIA was responsible, and so they take the Presidet’s brother as a hostage. They lop off his ear and send it to the President, who calls in the Mordida Man.
Who is Chubb Dunjee, an ex-congressman who who received his nickname in Mexico fo his ability to make a bribe count. He still has a reputation for setting events in motion.
Complications ensue. Thomas provides some very oblique tangents to what otherwise wold be a very direct story, and he has it all formly under control until the final minutes, when suddenly the plot seems to fall apart beneath his feet.
Don’t try to analyze Chubb’s final plan. It’s too elaborate to have been improvised on the spot, which is his specialty. It obviously wasn’t created on the spot, and yet there appears to have been no way he could have known what to expect ahead of time. Plots as intricately wound as this one need airtight support. This one doesn’t.
There’s a lot to like in what comes before. Thomas is unarguably a witty and clever writer. Somehow, though, this time I seem to have left all my ardor in my other pants.
April 2nd, 2020 at 10:01 pm
It’s not that Thomas is ever less than in control, only that sometimes, as here, he and his characters need a touch more chaos and a shade less control.
No one did the competent protagonist better, but once in a while he and his heroes are almost too smart for the plot. At his best the odds are so great that even knowing how competent the hero is we doubt he will pull it off.
Here there is a little too much time to see the mechanics work like an over explained magic trick.
At his best, and he was at his best far more often than not, he managed to pull off the kind of intricate plot style Hammett mastered in THE MALTESE FALCON with the protagonist who proves in the end to had been totally in control throughout the process even if the reader didn’t notice until the finale. Once in a while though the process was a bit more obvious than other times.
April 2nd, 2020 at 11:09 pm
Well said, David.
It was the ending that let me down with this one, but even so, Thomas’s worst is better than most other writers’ best.
This was Chubb Dunjee’s only appearance. I wonder why. Does anyone know, was there anything in the ending to suggest why? I no longer remember!
April 4th, 2020 at 12:04 am
There are some Thomas books I have not read because they have never been released on kindle or e-books, one is VOODOO LTD. Reportedly Chubb is mentioned in that book.
I have read THE MORDIDA MAN but don’t remember it that well to comment beyond I liked it. Thomas never disappointed me but Bleeck did. All of Thomas’ characters had a lack of respect for themselves and what they did, but Bleeck’s St Ives really worked too hard on his self-hate.
April 4th, 2020 at 8:52 am
I think of them as Bleak stories.