The Return

July 22, 2013
The diagnosis of an inoperative brain tumor rouses New York book editor Richard Marder’s desire for revenge in this convoluted, overwrought stand-alone from bestseller Gruber (The Good Son). Feeling he has nothing to lose, Marder puts his business affairs in order and buys a palatial beachfront estate in Mexico, where he plans to spend his last days tracking down the men who murdered his late wife’s parents. Marder enlists the help of a fellow Vietnam vet, Patrick Francis Skelly, and together these old soldiers end up taking on two Mexican drug cartels that are at war with each other. The plot predictably disintegrates into a frenzy of battle scenes as Marder and Skelly, aided by the families who are squatters on the estate’s grounds, make the most of a seemingly unlimited arsenal. Fans of action films starring Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone may be entertained, but readers should be prepared for one-dimensional characters and preposterous twists toward the finale. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House.

Starred review from May 1, 2013
After being diagnosed with a fatal brain condition, a seemingly mild-mannered New York book editor heads to Mexico for a violent confrontation with his past. Richard Marder never fully realized how much taking his young wife, Chole, to New York City from her home in Michoacan, and her subsequent estrangement from her family, would affect her mental state. Then one night, years later, while Marder was with another woman, Chole took too many pills and plunged to her death from the roof of their apartment building. When a doctor diagnoses Marder with an inoperable aneurysm three years after her death, he decides to head back to Michoacan for reasons that don't seem entirely clear, even to him. But a peaceful end is clearly not on his mind, as he loads his new RV with several guns as well as Patrick Skelly, his friend and fellow Vietnam vet who works on the dangerous fringes of the "security consultant" business. Once in Mexico, they find themselves caught in the middle of a vicious war between two narcogangs, both of which are interested in turning Marder's newly purchased property into a money-laundering casino, but which Marder has almost accidentally turned into an artists' colony, peopled by refugees from the surrounding drug violence. Beset on all sides by hostile forces, and dogged by his past, Marder must use all of his wiles, as well as a bunch of guns and a huge pile of ammo, to protect his new home. Gruber (The Good Son, 2010, etc.) has a gift for seamlessly combining the visceral with the cerebral, without any degradation of quality on either side of the coin. He will have readers ruminating on ideas of identity, history, mortality, family, fate, and the complex and destructive relationship between Mexico and its neighbor El Norte, all while simultaneously thrilling their pants off, which is a rare and wonderful thing. Like Gruber's other books, this novel puts the work of other thriller writers to shame and raises the quality bar for the genre to a precipitously high level. Thrilling and compulsively readable.

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August 1, 2013
When New York editor Richard Marder receives a ticking-time-bomb diagnosis from his doctor, he settles his affairs (he's secretly rich), packs his guns (he's a crack shot), and drives to Mexico to bury his wife's ashes in her native land. Before she died, Chole went insane after a drug lord murdered her parentsMarder, we suspect, intends revenge. He's joined by Skelly, a comrade-in-arms in Vietnam and now a mysterious security consultant. But events take a surprising turn. Marder buys a huge estate and, finding it occupied by squatters, helps them create a livable village with help from his recently arrived daughter, Carmel. And when narcotraficantes claim the land, Marder and Skelly arm the campesinos for a dramatic defense. All rich and fascinating stuff, but the emotional center feels off; Marder faces death with aplomb, but his jaunty tone is jarring. And, in both his Vietnam flashbacks and the action in Mexico, salt-of-the-earth locals are mere vehicles for a rich, white guy's personal journey. Gruber can be great (as in The Good Son, 2010), but this one can be frustrating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)