Ambush
Paul Carson
Arrow, 2003http://www.paulcarson.net
Denim Bastards!
When racing though an airport terminal as the final boarding call is being announced, blokes with long, cramped journeys ahead may be tempted to grab Paul Carson's 2003 bestseller, Ambush.
Set in the slightly futuristic Dublin of 2006, American-born anti-drug crusader Dr. Scott Nolan survives an assassination attempt that pops the clogs of his beautiful young wife Laura. As the only force in place to stop murderous thugs are Ireland's unarmed Gardai, the villains who pulled off the dastardly ambush escape. They watch in glee as Nolan's pal, the Justice Minister, unleashes a retaliatory crackdown against the city's out-of-control pushers. The Gardai, even restricted by legal bounds, soon wipe out Dublin's existing gangs. With competition thus cleared, the baddies arrange to land the biggest shipment of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines in Irish history.
Little do they suspect that Nolan has pulled himself together and traded his scalpel in for… a scalpel. Same implement, I guess, but one that can be used for a different purpose.
The "Men's Adventure" requisite for exotic locales is satisfied as the plot progresses from Dublin to the red light district of Amsterdam and on to the brothels of Bangkok and the short skirt paradise of the south of Spain. But of course the action is all brought back home for one big showdown in Dublin. The doctor who has spent his years saving lives must confront Laura's killer and find out if he's got what it takes to gun a human down.
"Paul Carson is the master of the medical thriller," according to the Irish Times. For a medical thriller, Ambush contains very little medicine. Enraged vigilante Scott Nolan is a paediatric specialist who makes the odd passing mention of liver enzymes and spends a scene or two inside a hospital. And the descriptions of the truth serums used to extract information from the prisoners did sound convincing. That's about it.
OK, so scratch "medical." How thrilling is this thriller? Laura Nolan, Scott's perfect wife, seemed far too flawless to be plausible. Likewise the big baddie, Sean Kennedy, was too extreme to be interesting. He disfigures helpless children, kills without conscience, smuggles drugs, tortures small animals, gets freebies off the Amsterdam prostitutes for whom he serves as muscle… a real one-song jukebox, and not a good song at that. He never kept me guessing.
Another failure to surprise came in the form of Laura Nolan's hardman brother, an Irish undercover copper named Mark Higgins. He and Scott initially hate one another. Of course, through overcoming progressively bigger foes together they are supposed to wind up the best of buddies. I didn't buy it. The partners argue over music once. Few other scenes show them open up to one another or reach any common ground. The plot was bland as the characters. No surprises injected life into Ambush.
Still, a weak storyline can be compensated for by style. Unfortunately that's not the case here. There were more cliché phrases on the streets of Carson's Dublin than there were deals of heroin. "Hard as steel" doesn't hold much weight after decades of overuse, nor do the countless similar word choices.
Speaking of repetition, a few descriptive phrases appeared on page after page. "Bastards" for example. Australia's Kevin Bloody Wilson can come up with whole songs of shocking synonyms for genitalia. It's in poor taste, but fuck it! He's Kevin Bloody Wilson! Kev has taught me that cursing is as varied as the menu at Denny's. Why eat the same turkey club sandwich meal after meal? Sorry, but I've got to Lumberjack Slam customers like that. I really do.
Between Denny's and Kevin Bloody Wilson, this unruly review of Ambush has been bushwhacked and dragged into The Realm of the Bizarre. That's OK, though, because Paul Carson was there before me. One unmissable word choice baffles me. "Denim" is repeated on every other page, it seems. "Bastard" I can see coming up in tough-guy conversation every few minutes, but how often do normal people say "denim" or consider the fabric noteworthy enough to mention? It's bizarre.
Though Sean Kennedy is without silver lining, this review is not. Some encounters were entertaining. Scott Nolan uses a weapon more interesting than the figurative scalpel mentioned above. And Paul Carson has written a book that is completely accessible to readers unfamiliar with Dublin. This is no Christine Falls where advanced knowledge of major themes in modern Irish culture is a prerequisite. Ambush puts on no airs, and aims to amuse. It's exactly what it looks like from its cover.
Rather than getting trapped in economy class with a book no more savory than airline food, Critical Mick says pick up Gene Kerrigan's The Midnight Choir, Hugo Hamilton's Headbanger, maybe Alex Barclay's Darkhouse. Or Paul Carson's Cold Steel- all more filling and tasty than Ambush.
Sorry Dr. Carson, no lies this time.
Another groovy review: http://isadub.com/blog/tags/review
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