Book Talk: Two thrillers by Steve Martini

“Guardian of Lies” by Steve Martini (2009, 438 pages in hardback edition from William Morris)

During the early 1960s, it’s probable that every U.S. citizen understood that Russians had installed missiles in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. But in Steve Martini’s fictional novel, we’re told that aside from the standard missiles of that era there were also secret weapons. In some way, U.S. multimillionaire Emerson Pike’s business is connected to events in Havana. He’s also involved sexually with Katia Solaz, a beautiful young woman whose only dream is to return to her native Costa Rica.

One night, a hired assassin known as “The Mexicutioner” or, alternately as “Muerte Liquida” (Liquid Death), sneaks into the Pike estate and kills Emerson, unbeknownst to Katia, who is planning a get-away with some bills from Emerson’s wallet and a handful from his collection of rare gold coins. Liquida takes the rest of the coins, decides to melt them down into gold ingots, and plans to sell them. But that’s just a little bonus, tacked on to his usual fee.

Through his client Katia, criminal lawyer Paul Madriani, soon realizes that he has walked into something that is far more sinister than a heist that’s gone wrong. As he and his partner Harry Hinds try to find a way to clear Katia, they stumble into an international conspiracy that takes them from Mexico, to their home base in San Diego, and thence to the beautiful rain forest in Costa Rica. They hope their quest will lead them to the man who is the brains of an operation to smuggle a nuclear device into the U.S.