With its passing references to hedge funds and insider stock trading, Mark T. Sullivan’s TRIPLE CROSS flirts with contemporary relevance. But this, as well as most of its attempts at suspense, is completely offset off by a cast of unimaginably inane and broad-stroke characters.
The Jefferson Club is private resort built in Southwestern Montana. And with an average membership fee of $5 million, it’s not surprising that the members are the richest, most successful business leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians and celebrities in the world. A bunch of them have arrived to enjoy the club’s New Year’s Eve party. But also among the present residents are Mickey Hennessey, head of the Jefferson Club security, and his teenaged triplets.
Meanwhile, a heavily armed paramilitary group has landed in blizzard-covered mountains just outside of the club, and prepares to dismantle the club’s security system and invade the premises. Soon after the opulent party begins, the armed invaders make their way into the ballroom and announce that the club has been captured by the “Third Position Army.” Hennessey, however, is outside of the ballroom when the invasion began, and manages to escape from the area just as local police and other law enforcements arrive.
Before long, the leader of the invading army declares its demands. After forcing the club members to donate several million dollars each to the army members’ bank accounts, the wives and families of the club members are released. But the army intends to hold the chief businessmen, politicians and other club members inside and conduct a trial for their “crimes against the world,” and broadcast the proceedings over the internet. Hennessey, of course, is hell-bent on making his way back into the club, not so much to free the club members, but to rescue his three kids.
It’s difficult enough to work up sympathy for a group of individuals who spend more in a typical day than most of us earn in a year, and Sullivan makes matters worse with his thinner-than-paper characterizations. We expect such ultra-rich to act a bit spoiled, but this bunch is unbelievably stupid. The wife of one captured businessman manages to sneak a call on her cell phone as the invasion begins. But rather than calling 911, she calls her publicist (who in turn sees the invasion as a major scoop and alerts the national media). Scenes periodically shift to the Hennessey triplets, who seem more preoccupied with trading insults than with figuring out how to survive or escape.
You almost find yourself rooting for the villains, but they fare little better. Their actions and dialogue are shallow and robotic; their motivating politics are cliché-ridden and dull. And how are we supposed to take seriously a leader who insists on being referred to as Gen. Anarchy?
Sullivan strains for depth by making Hennessey a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and with his less-pained past relationship with the lead FBI officer assigned to the invasion. But it all feels forced and adds little to any of the characters’ motivations or actions.
Sadly, the most impressive moments are the descriptions of the various hardware employed in the novel: the various security devices, computer programs and, of course, the weapons used by both good and bad guys. By the middle of TRIPLE CROSS, we can pretty well bet that all will be resolved, but it’s almost impossible to give a damn about how or by whom. —Alan Cranis
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