Format-wise, INSIDE OUT is a “stand-alone sequel” to Barry Eisler’s FAULT LINE. It’s a sequel in that it features Ben Treven, the Black Ops solider whom we met in the earlier novel when he was called to help his lawyer brother. But it’s a stand-alone too, because while having read FAULT LINE puts you at a certain advantage, it is not essential for the understanding of this latest work.
Content-wise, however, INSIDE OUT tackles one of the most sinister and controversial topics Eisler has ever attempted: torture of political prisoners and why the government has kept such activity secret. It’s the kind of topic that demonstrates both Eisler’s formidable strengths as well as some of his weaknesses as a novelist.
In a bar in Manila, Ben Treven, full of gin and rage over his failed marriage, gets into a fight that lands him in jail. Things seem hopeless at first, until he gets a surprise visit from Horton, his training officer and mentor in the military special services — or Black Ops, as it is more commonly known. Horton offers Treven his freedom for the price of a mission.
Videotapes of suspected terrorist prisoners being brutally tortured have disappeared from government vaults. Then a rogue Black Ops member named Larison comes forward with the tapes and uses them to blackmail the U.S. government. Treven’s mission is to find Larison, report his location, and stand by for further instructions.
Not surprisingly, other agencies are also after the tapes. The FBI, for one, in the person of Paula Lanier, a sassy field agent who becomes involved with Treven and ends up accompanying him as he closes in on Larison and the videos.
Treven eventually learns that there are reasons beyond the obvious why Horton and other political figures want the videos returned. To his altogether disorienting frustration, he finds that he has not only been completely and thoroughly manipulated, but is now so deep within the black hole of covert political machinations that there is no way to redeem himself — and no turning back.
The labyrinthine ways of governmental conspiracies — and how the dirty work is often carried out by those fueled by nothing more complicated than duty and patriotism — are areas where Eisler shines. He expertly knows how to implement suspense into such dark complications and allows us to experience the disorientation they create through the actions of such well-trained and single-minded characters like Treven and Larison. This is no more evident than when someone like Treven learns that political reality is far removed from the black-and-white emphasis of his training.
But when Horton finally explains this reality to Treven, in the course of over two entire chapters, Eisler comes dangerously close to mounting a soapbox and transforming his novel into an op-ed essay. The fact that this reality sounds familiar to us already (reminiscent of the “corporate cosmology” the late Paddy Chayefsky presented in his screenplay for NETWORK) doesn’t help, either. It’s obviously something Eisler is passionate about and urgently wants us to know (as evident by the many sources he includes at the back of the book), but these moments give us the impression that it might also be too difficult to express through telling a story.
Sadly, the author has not much improved in depicting relationships between his characters, a weakness that marred his last few novels. Much of the dialogue between Treven and Paula is predictable and forced. It’s a forgone conclusion that they will end up in bed. And try as he does to make their intimate moments unexpected and even a bit kinky, they end up adding nothing more than a momentary distraction to the narrative that is quickly covered over.
The ending to INSIDE OUT is left wide-open. No doubt we will see more of Treven. But Eisler drops hints throughout the novel that we might additionally see figures from his earlier works reappearing soon; even the central character from the series that first made a name for Eisler.
Now that ought to be something worth waiting for. —Alan Cranis
Buy it at Amazon.
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• FAULT LINE by Barry Eisler
Related posts:
- Fault Line
- Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion
- Deep Inside: Extreme Erotic Fantasies
- The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives
- Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon
