Sun 26 Jun 2016
Mystery Review: CHARLES KNIEF – Emerald Flash.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
CHARLES KNIEF – Emerald Flash. St. Martin’s, hardcover, April, 1999; paperback, May 2000.
Opening paragraph:
Telling the story is ex-SEAL and now Hawaii-based private eye John Caine. Emerald Flash is the third of four recorded adventures.
Chasing Margo Halliday is her ex-husband:
Caine doesn’t see Margo again until seven months later, when she is accused of killing her ex-husband. Not only that, but hard on her trail is a gang of Colombian thugs, and for good reason. They think she is somehow in possession of a fortune in stolen emeralds. She remembers Caine, and she calls on him for help.
He does, but it isn’t easy. I was reminded of John D. MacDonald in a couple of ways, not only the obvious one, but Caine also has a philosophy of life very similar to that of a certain Travis McGee. But there is a difference: no matter how close he and Margo get as man and woman, they sleep in separate beds, and none of the McGee books had the same amount of firepower that is called upon in this one: rifles, grenades, Glocks, even an elephant gun.
Somewhat toward the end of the book:
And now it was over.
It’s not a perfect book. Too much of the story depends on things that happened in earlier ones, for example, and a long, lengthy portion of the book consists of Caine and Margo on the run, which with all of the aforementioned firepower is exciting enough for two or three books, but crammed into just this one, it somehow managed to slow the pace down rather than enhance it.
On the other hand, when things are going a little slower, Caine manages to get along with a brain as well as brawn, and is as quick with a quip as Jon Stewart on a good night, and that’s very good indeed.
The John Caine series —
Diamond Head (1996)
Sand Dollars (1998)
Emerald Flash (1999)
Silversword (2001)
June 26th, 2016 at 8:42 am
Charles Knief (as Chuck Knief) is on Facebook and still gets around in the mystery world even if he’s not writing anymore. He went on to other things (maybe more lucrative).
June 26th, 2016 at 10:26 am
There is a long interview with Knief here: http://www.crimepays.com/knief.htm , but it was done while he was writing the third Caine book.
More relevant to what he’s been doing lately is this update:
https://drmar120.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/charles-knief-update/
“It turns out that Chuck made the decision to end the Caine series, not his publisher St. Martin’s Press. It came after a potential deal to turn John Caine/Diamond Head into a TV series fell through, c. 2001. He subsequently spent several years doing contract work for the military—including providing handgun training in various branches of the service. Chuck also owns a construction management company. In 2010 he supervised the construction of the world’s largest MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain)—a 469-acre faux urban environment for training USMC and USN operators. He is just now breaking ground on a hotel project in Los Angeles.”
But he also goes on to say that he has a couple of unfinished additions to the series floating around somewhere in his head.
June 26th, 2016 at 2:46 pm
These were sort of Travis McGee meets Mack Bolan, save they had some of JDM’s skill with words so all the ammoerotica went down smmothly as a pros knowledge instead of misplaced phallicism. There I was reminded a little of Gavin Lyall’s carefully researched novels.
You always felt Caine was using the tool he needed for the job at hand and not just the biggest lethal toy the author could think of.
I was sorry to see the series end. Caine was lining up as a reliable and pleasant place to escape, and I suspect would have grown considerably given the time. It likely won’t happen, but one or two more outings would be welcomed.
June 27th, 2016 at 12:04 am
I’m going to have to dig out my copies of the first two, which I have in paperback. I didn’t know there was a fourth one, which I suspect came out in hardcover only.
July 2nd, 2016 at 11:16 am
I really enjoyed the first two, but lost track of Knief before 3 and 4 came out (didn’t even know there was a 4), so now I’ll have to find those and read them. Pity the series stopped.