Isle author weaves exotic, intriguing tale

"Good as Gone," by Douglas Corleone (Minotaur, $24.99)

Review by Oline H. Cogdill

(South Florida) Sun Sentinel

Simon Fisk, the hero of Douglas Corleone’s new series, could easily be a cousin of Jack Reacher.

Like Reacher, the hero of Lee Child’s best-selling novels, Simon is a loner constantly on the move, with a background in law enforcement and a penchant for coming to the rescue of those in need.

And like Child, Corleone delivers an adrenaline-­fueled plot with believable, complex characters. Reacher and Simon could indeed be cousins, but each is a distinct character. As "Good as Gone" proves, Corleone — who lives in Hawaii — shapes Simon with a unique personality and background, intriguing enough to maintain a long-running series.

A former U.S. marshal, Simon has found a niche as a private contractor, finding and rescuing children kidnapped by their own estranged parents or other relatives. As Simon knows all too well, most of these parent-kidnappings are done not out of love but because of revenge, greed and even perversion.

Simon’s one rule is that he refuses to investigate kidnappings by strangers. But rules are made to be broken, as he shows in "Good as Gone." The French police want him to find out why — and how — 6-year-old Lindsay Sorkin disappeared from her parents’ luxury Paris hotel room during the middle of the night when the family was asleep. Simon usually has a starting point with parental kidnappings, but this seems to be a random crime. Simon’s investigation takes him from myriad Parisian locations to Poland, the Ukraine and Portugal, pitting him against mobsters and petty criminals in each of those countries.

Corleone seamlessly weaves in Simon’s haunted background, which includes the unsolved kidnapping of his own daughter more than 16 years before, without slowing down the action. Simon’s compassion for children who are exploited or used as pawns by adults gives him an unyielding motive. Simon also knows he can’t take on the entire European mob. He knows he isn’t "Jason Statham. But I’d seen enough of his films to give it a go." Of course, his training as a U.S. marshal helps, too.

Corleone’s international settings put him in the same echelon as Jeff Abbott’s suspense-laden Sam Capra novels. He captures the essence of each country, even when Simon’s stay is brief.

Corleone’s first three novels centered on disgraced New York lawyer Kevin Corvelli, who retreated to Hawaii. "Good as Gone" opens a new world for Corleone’s strong storytelling skills.